The things Apple didn't announce
By Paul Miller 
posted September 18th 2007 6:21AM
posted September 18th 2007 6:21AM
- Which carrier will be carrying the iPhone in France (we hear it's Orange).
- Which carrier will be carrying the iPhone in Germany (we hear it's T-Mobile, or maybe Vodafone).
- Is O2 seriously paying out 40% of plan revenue for exclusivity?
- Why anyone will pay for flat rate data when only 30% of the UK will be using EDGE.
- 3G iPhone.
Is there only three countries in Europe?
I think Apple's strategy is to make a launch to these three and after it creates more demand on other countries they can negotiate better deals with carriers. I love Apple products but they are too greedy.
With apple shoving iPhone down our throats I am starting to wonder... WHERE THE HELL IS LEOPARD! I know there is supposed to be a month till the release bug I haven't read the word leaopard in a blog or on a website in like 2 months! whats the deal?!!!
This is all speculation on my part, but Apple considers the iPhone "the best iPod ever made", and all iPods we know get refreshed each year, so i'm pinning my hopes on a june/jul 08 release of a 3G phone. It makes no sense at all to roll out a new phone so fast when Europe is using EDGE now to accommodate the iPhone specifically, and even less so when Europe is getting the iPhone only in Nov/Dec.
What about Canada?!?!?
The most interesting thing is the deal with The Cloud. I'm curious to know how they'll know it's an iPhone.
I would imagine that you would be given user credentials as part of your contract. When you first use the Cloud you have a web interface to sign in, I would hope that only needs to be done once
One other factor. This is aimed at high end customers. The sort of people who travel to Europe a lot. So what are the roaming charges like? Unlimited free data while connected to a GSM network in Greece? I think not. And does this mean that AT&T customers from the USA will get more sensible rates when in the UK and vice versa?
What about the rumored iPhone software update?
I've been looking at how I use and abuse my phone today and trying to think what I'd have done different if it was an iPhone. Here are my conclusions.
... I text more than phone, I recone my messages would be longer and doing them would take longer.
... I would have lost about 40 minutes messing about on the Internet when the computer could have done it faster.
... I think I might have been mugged at least once, just because it's a iPhone
... The photos I tuk of the new Apple keyboard to show my mate would have look worse and, I don't think I would be able to send them with iPhone.
... There's no way I would have thrown it into the tray in my car, so I'd be messing around carefuly placing it down.
... Come tonight I wouldn't have the same 'i'm going to use my iPod' feeling when I listen to it in bed.
... The iPod would need a good clean before I listened to it in bed.
... Still on the bed theme, I wouldn't be able to do the volume and next track thing under the sheets, I'd have to elumiate the whole room to look at the screen.
£899 and upwards TCO? No thanks.
Here's a question O2 need to answer - will the tariffs have free weekends/evenings?
My friend got an O2 phone, it was a Motorola KRZR thingy about 6 months ago, nothing special but was free, he also got a free Xbox360 with it and loves it! He pays £35 a month and gets something like 1000 minutes and 200 texts! Contract is one year!
His wife got a similar deal and ended up with a free Tom-tom one sat nav!
Make iPhone look like crap!
If I buy a US phone, can I activate it on O2 without going through a SIM unlock?
IMO the UK iPhone launch is an utter joke, at £269 it's nearly the most expensive phone available on ANY tariff. That price does NOT drop as the tariffs increase in price.
It's using EDGE WTF???? This is the UK NOT the US, the carriers have spent billions on 3G in the UK and I'll bet 50 pounds O2 don't increase their EDGE network one bit cuase Apple also announced a 3G iPhone is out next year. And O2's hotspots are few and far between, as for the rest hotspots are not very common or free or fast in the UK.
Only the gadget freaks and total Apple fanboy's will buy this one, everybody else will use their brains and common sense and buy an iTouch iPod and any other phone for a lot less money.
I would never touch an iPhone as I can't run Tom Tom on it and would NEVER pay that much for any phone on a new contract.
Yes, I do have some questions that neither Jobs, nor Engadget, nor anybody else seemed to answer. They all revolve around the international nature of the iPod Touch launch too:
- Is non-English language input support already implemented?
- Any captures of those non-English keyboards?
- Do you get to change input language on the fly?
- Do you get support for east-asian languages, namely Japanese? How does it work?
Has anybody heard any news about availability to purchase an iPhone from the Irish online store? We still don't even have ONE Apple Store here.
I am sad.