Orange's unlocked iPhone to cost "well below" 1,000 euros

While Orange seems to be holding out until the last minute to announce exactly how much its unlocked iPhone will cost, France Telecom CEO Didier Lombard has apparently dropped a few less-than-specific details on the matter in a recent interview, saying that it'll cost "over 500 euros, but well below 1,000 euros." Or, in US dollars, roughly somewhere between $740 and $1,500, but apparently closer to the former. A bit pricey to be sure, but it would certainly be cheaper than the €999 unlocked iPhone that T-Mobile is selling in Germany. As previously announced, a locked iPhone on Orange (complete with a two-year contract) will set you back €399. Look for things to get fleshed out further when Orange gets official with its iPhone offerings on Thursday.

[Thanks, Holger]

[w @ Nov 27th 2007 12:56PM]

like €999?

[w @ Nov 27th 2007 1:01PM]

ok, i realized my mistake.

but still... dont believe these french dudes.

[Mademoiselle Y @ Nov 28th 2007 4:07AM]

No,no. It costs 649 Euro

[4honor @ Nov 27th 2007 12:58PM]

So, when are we (United States) gonna offer unlocked (any) phones? Seriously...

[Bootes @ Nov 27th 2007 1:05PM]

No. In Europe, the governments actually have laws to try and protect consumers. The US government doesn't care about anyone that isn't a multi million dollar corporation that can give them campaign funds.

[I.E @ Nov 27th 2007 12:58PM]

the damn thing really shouldn't cost more than €250.

[Tom Myers @ Nov 27th 2007 4:00PM]

what i don;t get is, if it were as graphically powerful as it is, but 4 inches bigger, it'd be a tablet and people would happily pay $1500 flat for it. because it has the word 'phone' in the title people expect it to be $250. i would wager it probably is worth somewhere in the region of about $1200.

[Matthew Hilario @ Nov 27th 2007 1:09PM]

news flash, iphone service is wack in the uk, more after the break.

[Wil Deynes @ Nov 27th 2007 1:19PM]

Hey u think that someone who gets a unlocked iphone will be able to port the os to US iphones so we can have unlocked hassel free goodness all around!

[Alex Padilla @ Nov 27th 2007 1:24PM]

This whole iPhone thing is getting to be a joke. The European cellular companies are fighting like cats and dogs over this device that-last time I checked-no one in Europe really even cares about (in relation to other phones and the US market, of course).

Steve Jobs must be loving this revenue sharing thing, especially with e1000 (sorry, don't know the ALT-code for the Euro symbol) iPhones being sold.

[phenom @ Nov 27th 2007 1:41PM]

So... I wonder how long Digg and engadget and sites like these are going to shove Apple headlines up our asses...

[Darnell @ Nov 27th 2007 1:55PM]

The FCC is a joke

[BigDaddyM @ Nov 27th 2007 1:59PM]

I would buy an iPhone since I have AT&T but I do not because I want all the cool aps that my friends have who are not on AT&T. So Apple is losing more with me than with the unlockers! Also, I must have 3G since I use my windows phone all the time for buisness and I do not want to go back to edge which is so slow that I cry everytime I have to go into an edge network...
M

[iUpSet @ Nov 27th 2007 2:02PM]

Let me off the topic a little, I have seen people complained about too many Apple/iPhone news on Engadget.
But, I want to complain that I didn't get enough of it.

Why there is no news about the new iPhone bootloader 4.6 that makes the iPhone unlockable (at least at this time)?

The iPhone that has firmware 1.1.2 out of the box is likely to have the bootloader version 4.6 is now unlocakble.

You can jailbreak the 1.1.2 firmware. It will work as an iPod touch. You can downgrade the 1.1.2 to 1.1.1, but you can't do anything with the bootloader which does not allow you to do sim unlocking. So, you can't use it as a phone.

[Sandro @ Nov 27th 2007 2:06PM]

I don't really understand all the fuss about the i-phone's price end specially in the us.
Here i would be very very happy to pay anything below 650$ for an unlocked one!
So for me anything below 1000$ is not bad knowing that it will be legally unlocked and update proof!
Will it be in french? And will we be able to send pictures through bluetooth?

[Jakob H @ Nov 27th 2007 2:07PM]

€998? :D I think these laws are in the whole EU.

But why can't you "just" grab the firmware from the unlocked iPhones and flash/transfer it to your locked phone?

[enkaedu @ Nov 27th 2007 2:09PM]

Well, I have to say that as an American working in Europe, my iPhone purchase even on the AT&T plan was worth it. European telecom is such an unbelieveable mess - and I thought US telecom was bad! Get this - there is no way I could find (and I looked hard) to get a plan in Germany for less than 2 year contract, and unlike in the US where I have often been let out of the 2 year thing when being transferred to other countries, the Germans expect you to pay that baby off. So right there I'm screwed, because I can't say that I'll be in Germany more than six months!

On top of this, I often move between countries in Europe. And here is where an Amercican, Australian, or Canadian really gets freaked out. All these tiny countries expecting old-school ITU tarrifs for roaming - which is absurd with mobile emission ranges actually larger than some of the bloody countries! So when I'm in Germany on the Swiss border, suddenly I'm frikking data roaming! The best German data roaming plan I could find was 3mb (yes just 3mb!) for 60 Euros. Arrrrghh!!

And then the most amazing thing - with an AT&T phone in Germany, if I call anywhere in the US, Canada, or Europe, the total cost of the call is .99 USD. With a German phone, if I just call Denmark, that call costs me 1.09 Euros!!! And that was on a good plan. (If someone has a better plan, please post.)

The whole European system is based on the assumption that Europeans stay in one tiny place and never call outside their own country. Ridiculous...even though I notice many Europeans are much more local-place-oriented than a typical American. The only time it is cheaper to have a German phone for me is if I'm calling someone else locally.

Ahh.. Feels good to get that frustration off my chest.

I'm sure the forces of competition will eventually overcome the protectionist nature of telecom in Europe and prices will drop, but right now...wow. For telecom, US customers have it pretty good.

-btw: From what I have heard, the locked iPhone's $399 cost in the US does not allow a real profit alone. Without the lock-in plan, the phones would have had to cost a lot more, and I'm guessing that Jobs would not have been able to get AT&T (or anyone else) to go for the required network changes. I hate locking, too, but there are economic reasons for it, and without these compromises, it is a good bet we would not have iPhone at all. (Not dissimilar to the issues in iTunes.)

[Jah @ Nov 27th 2007 3:35PM]

We have lots of 12 month plans here in the tiny UK.

[Scooter @ Nov 27th 2007 3:40PM]

buddy, web real estate is expensive. Be brief!

[raulr @ Nov 27th 2007 2:13PM]

Another company in France selling unlocked iPhones with competitor's service for only 299 Euros, giving the finger to both Apple and Orange. Gotta love it.

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200711271326DOWJONESDJONLINE000579_FORTUNE5.htm

[Jakob H @ Nov 27th 2007 2:21PM]

That sounds crazy. In Scandinavia the prices are something like this:

SMS: $0,01/sms
Call: $0,08/minute
Free SMS: about $12/month
Broadband unlimited 512kbit HSPDA: $19/month
Broadband unlimited 1,5mbit HSPDA: $50/month
"3" TV services, about 24 channels: $14/month

This is Denmark, think Sweden is even cheaper (broadband)

[Derry Quinn @ Nov 27th 2007 3:50PM]

In Ireland, my network (Pay as You go) is 3 Ireland

Texts: 5c any network
Calls: 19c own network&landlines, 35c other networks
Free SMS: Available on all pay monthly (bill) options(starting from 19€ a month)
Broadband: 3.6mb/s, 100megabytes usage=free, 250mb=5.99€, Unlimited=20€ a month
"3"TV (currently 12 channels, 3 is a new network here: 1 euro a channel a week.

[Jakob H @ Nov 28th 2007 1:28AM]

Derry:

OK that doesen't seems crazy. Here do we only pay a fee between $0,08 and $0,12/minute and that is on every network in Denmark, you doesn't pay extra, quite the contrary, if it's on the same network calls are often free. Your broadband prices sounds nice, but "3" in Denmark, only offer unlimitied.

So in Scandinavia AND Ireland, sorry. But the prices in Germany and UK sucks? It's sick to pay $0,4 for ONE sms.

[enkaedu @ Nov 27th 2007 2:47PM]

what does it cost to call from Denmark to Germany or Spain...or the US...from your mobile? It costs me .67 cents Euro flat total per minute.

The rates you show look like local in-country calls, which was not my point. It is when you want to call ten kilometers down the road to the guy across the border that it appears Europe still has problems.

[Jakob H @ Nov 27th 2007 3:09PM]

That is different, but from Denmark to UK, Germany, USA etc -
it's about 0,09 to 0,4$/minute, actually it's cheaper to call USA than UK.

But please tell me what the average prices for sms, calls, broadband,
television etc in your local contry are?

[tealfixie @ Nov 27th 2007 4:34PM]

If apple keeps up all this capitalist crap, its gonna turn into m$ and sooner than later theres gonna be millions of viruses that will take them down.... please dont continue on this track apple. I switched to avoid all that and I wanna keep it behind me...

[Aurelien @ Nov 27th 2007 4:46PM]

And when you know that you have to pay 50€ each month to get the 399€ IPhone by Orange, it sounds like a theft.

[toppgun @ Nov 27th 2007 5:28PM]

did anyone else get the windows mobile ad underneath the engadget article?

[j.d.ripper @ Nov 28th 2007 4:04AM]

It will in fact cost 749EUR when sold unlocked in France.
(article in French)
http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2007/11/28/01011-20071128FILWWW00324-l-iphone-nu-et-debloque-vendu-.php

The same through google translate :
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lefigaro.fr%2Fflash-actu%2F2007%2F11%2F28%2F01011-20071128FILWWW00324-l-iphone-nu-et-debloque-vendu-.php&langpair=fr%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF8