Ireland and Austria get iPhones, and the shaft

As we expected, Apple just loosed the iPhone into Ireland and Austria. €399 nabs the 8GB model while €499 takes the 16GB unit home. T-Mobile has the honors for Austria as it does in Germany while O2 carries the flag in Ireland as it does in the UK. Interestingly, Irish subscribers are not entitled to Visual Voicemail or free WiFi even though you get both on O2 UK -- neither country offers an unlimited data plan. Tsk tsk. Regardless, early adopters from those countries already had their unlocked iPhones months ago which makes the launch just a formality at this point.

[Via MacRumors]

Read -- Austria
Read -- Ireland

[rokerovakero @ Mar 14th 2008 2:58AM]

no free Wifi??? are they serious???

[Mauricio @ Mar 14th 2008 4:31AM]

No free WiFi means that the carrier won't allow their users to use their hotspots for free. But if you can found a free hostspot or are willing to pay, you have Wifi. But this does not mean that Irish iPhones won't have a wireless antenna and chip.

[www.fantasysportsmatrix.com @ Mar 14th 2008 3:08AM]

Sucks for Ireland and Austria.

[Jeran @ Mar 14th 2008 3:17AM]

About the rates in Austria:
For 39 Euro you get: 1000 minutes to any carrier, 3GB of Data transfer and usage of Hot Spots of T-Mobile within these 3GB, 25 cent per SMS

For 55 Euro you get: 1000 minutes to t-mobile, 1000 minutes to other mobile carriers, 1000 minutes to landline and 1000 SMS as well as 3GB of data and usage of Hot Spots of T-Mobile within these 3GB

Although, I must admit, the Hot Spot stuff is fairly useless, as there are hardly any Hot Spots in Austria...

[Makin @ Mar 14th 2008 3:20AM]

I thought WiFi was always free..?

[Phoenix @ Mar 14th 2008 5:29AM]

It's free to use WiFi hotspots you find (i.e. your own or one in a cafe), but you don't get unlimited access to your carriers hotspots like you do with o2 in the UK.

In the UK o2 has it's "cloud" hotspots, with an iPhone you get unlimited access to these as well as unlimited EDGE/GPRS data. You don't in Ireland

[thef1re @ Mar 14th 2008 3:39AM]

for a millisecond i thought it said Australia.
But the time we get the iphone, its going to be all old and outdated :(

[Taylor @ Mar 14th 2008 3:46AM]

www.priceusa.com.au

Do it this way.

[ThePengwin @ Mar 14th 2008 3:56AM]

Could you want an iphone in Australia?

[Randomness @ Mar 14th 2008 4:00AM]

The iPhone tech is already old and outdated, but they put it in a pretty package.

[thef1re @ Mar 14th 2008 4:46AM]

hence i think why Australia isnt getting the iphone any time soon. we only have one telephone company that uses EDGE........ we need the 3g iphone. haha.

[shamrock593 @ Mar 14th 2008 7:30AM]

"we only have one telephone company that uses EDGE"

You can connect to Telstras EDGE network through their 3G service.

[sully @ Mar 14th 2008 10:16AM]

They're working on figuring out how to make it work just as well when it's turned upside down.

[Zak @ Mar 14th 2008 11:29AM]

What exactly is old and outdated about it? The UI that nobody has even been able to successfully rip off yet? A real web browser as opposed to "mobile browsers" in other phones? Hardware H.264 acceleration? I dunno, maybe when some other phones start getting stuff like that you can start calling it outdated.

[Phoenix @ Mar 14th 2008 12:58PM]

Yeah... it has a "real internet" browser. this is why sites have to make iPhone optimized sites, and then they go "WOW, OMG, WE HAVE AN IPHONE OPTIMIZED SITE BECAUSE IT HAS THE REAL INTERNET ON IT"

And I'd say the real internet would need, you know, SOME kind of flash...

[Phoenix @ Mar 14th 2008 12:59PM]

Oh, and EDGE? No A2DP? No video recording? no MMS? Yeah.... the cutting edge all right

Pun not intended.

[MadCow234 @ Mar 14th 2008 3:35PM]

@ Phoenix...Get in those video recording and MMS jabs while you can. Those are both software app issues which are already in works for June. :)

But, I totally agree with your comments about no 3G and no A2DP, I bought some A2DP headphones for my AT&T 8525 about 2 weeks before my phone was stolen. After getting an iTouch for Christmas, I returned it and paid the difference for the iPhone to replace my stolen 8525, now I have a pair of $100 bluetooth headphones collecting dust in my closet, lol.

[Phoenix @ Mar 14th 2008 5:11PM]

lol. Well.

My point about the sites which have to be optimized for the iPhone's "real internet" browser still stands...

[Firen @ Mar 14th 2008 4:05AM]

Well, we hardly have any hotspots here in austria indeed :S Only UMTS/EDGE would make sense here, since we have that for quite a while now.

And if you compare the price to germany it's cheaper, still way above average...

There is one t-mobile contract where u pay 19€ for almost the same, but with the iPhone u pay 55€ :D

Oh well - Apple has it's price

[Buis @ Mar 14th 2008 4:08AM]

And still Apple manages to conveniently "forget" the exchange rates. These iPhones are about 33% overpriced (while I conveniently "forget" VAT). So how much is a return ticket to the US? How many iPhones would you have to bring back, to close that gap?

[MoonMan @ Mar 14th 2008 12:27PM]

To all the MORONS directly comparing the cost of an iPhone in dollars to the cost of an iPhone in Euros and doing a straight currency conversion, STOP IT!

You need to look at purchasing power. Have a look at the minimum wages in either country. What is the median yearly income? It's quite simple, even my 14 year old daughter understands this: if a people in a country, such as Ireland, earn more, then the cost of getting goods to market is higher because everybody in the chain costs more, thus reflecting in the retail price to the consumer. You need to look at how many hours worked are required to buy an iPhone, not a currency exchange.

[Buis @ Mar 14th 2008 4:00PM]

Hey! that must be why things are priced in hours. Oh wait, they're not, you NAMECALLER!

[luke @ Mar 14th 2008 4:13AM]

ireland getting shafted compared to o2 in the uk.

[luke @ Mar 14th 2008 4:15AM]

also just to note, ireland has one of the highest wifi hot spots in relation to population in the world. so it's available, just o2 didn't make any deal with providers, as o2 itself does not have many.

[GreezyG @ Mar 14th 2008 4:31AM]

When they mean no free wifi its at hot spots like starbucks. I forget the name of their "cloud" but if you have an iphone in the UK you can use certain hotspots for free that you would normally have to pay for.

[Firen @ Mar 14th 2008 4:51AM]

@Buis

Well - the iPhone 16 costs 499$ and 449€ here, tho it should be around 320€ (exchange rate 1 Dollar = 0,6420€ at the moment).

The cheapest flight if ound just then (didnt look properly, would probably be even cheaper) and the price was (return) 638,26€.

So at a price difference of 179€, you had to buy... 3,5 iPhones to get the money back :D

[Richy @ Mar 14th 2008 5:28AM]

Not to mention the import duty and tax you'd have to pay getting back into Ireland, if you get caught. A suitcase full of iPhones may be difficult to explain (unless you're Karl Lagerfeld).

Good luck with the business plan though!

[Firen @ Mar 14th 2008 6:25AM]

Well - 3,5 iphones are not a "suitcase full" :) People buy ipods, macbooks and whatever over there, so don't see a big problem there. Friend of mine makes his sister buy everything there, luckily she's a flight attendant tho.

And another problem with the iphones owuld be, that u kinda had to sign a contract, aight?

[Phoenix @ Mar 14th 2008 5:46PM]

Not to buy it, you do to use it though. Or just unlock it...

[iphone @ Mar 14th 2008 5:22AM]

In addition to there being no WiFi partner for O2 in Ireland, I found out yesterday that the visual voicemail feature is not present on Irish iPhones!?
I got my iPhone in the states 3 months ago and have been using unlocked on o2 Ireland since then. This terrible and half-arsed launch gives me no incentive to go legit, plus the deal we're getting on the call/text bundles is terrible. Paddy Tax as I heard it described.

[Phoenix @ Mar 14th 2008 1:01PM]

YEah, it's weird about the visual voicemail. The ONE new technology I can find in the iPhone.

And don't go "multitouch is new" Apple didn't come up with it, they don't own it. They just made the first mainstream device with it

[DrXym @ Mar 14th 2008 6:19AM]

I have to wonder what fools buy an iPhone. Not only is the cost of the phone outrageous but you're locking into an expensive 18 month contract too. I guess some people see shiny and can't help themselves.

The sad part is that you could buy an iPod Touch (wifi, browsing and most other stuff in the iPhone except phone functionality), and a normal phone on a normal tariff and have a pile of cash left over. Hell, most operators will give you the phone FOR NOTHING on cheaper and shorter contracts than the iPhone.

[T-Bone @ Mar 14th 2008 10:54AM]

I wonder about people that feel they must put down anyone that buys an iPhone.

[Zak @ Mar 14th 2008 11:36AM]

DrXym - So what you're saying is that you don't understand why somebody would want to have one device, instead of two or three. And the iPhone has real email and a browser, I wonder what fool would want that sort of thing? And the UI is by far the best on the market - that's not even close to being in question. I mean it functions so well you have to wonder how people can even enjoy other phones.

And that's pretty much it, isn't it? People don't "enjoy" using other phones like that, because their UIs make them annoying to use. But sure, I suppose only a fool would want a phone that doesn't actually annoy you as you use it. Smart people much prefer to use phones with an obnoxiously bad UI. Because they're smart.

[Phoenix @ Mar 14th 2008 1:02PM]

The iPod touch has the iPhone's browser and email client, so there goes that part of your argument...

[DrXym @ Mar 14th 2008 7:17PM]

@Zak, no what I'm saying is I wonder why anyone would be stupid enough to buy into this ripoff. It's not about whether its 1 device or 2. Fact is there are plenty of excellent phones out there which will cost you nothing on contract. Excellent phones that are easy to use and offer piles of additional functionality. Yet some fools will buy an iPhone for 400 euros (almost certainly more than it costs to manufacture) and lock themselves into a 45 euros or more per month 18 month contract. Thats 1200 or upwards for a phone.

You do have to be stupid to swallow this deal. If you must have an iPod, get an iPod Touch. Get a phone for nothing on a cheaper tariff and use the rest to treat yourself to a holiday. You could very well save yourself 500-600 euros by doing that.

People who buy an iPhone are fools.

[Marc @ Mar 14th 2008 7:12AM]

i'd fork out the 500euro for an iphone if it didnt end up ramming itself up my arse every month

[Jonathan Wilson @ Mar 14th 2008 7:30AM]

With regards to Visual Voicemail, it may simply be that they haven't gotten it up-and-running in Austria or Ireland yet and that it will appear later on.

[Evan @ Mar 14th 2008 8:10AM]

This does not bode well for Canada... If Apple lets carriers in Ireland and Austria get away crappy service, they might cave in and allow Rogers sell the iPhone in Canada without improving their service plans either.

[Bullitt @ Mar 14th 2008 9:35AM]

Still no Canada?
Zune hates us.
The iPhone hates us.
What next?

[vince @ Mar 14th 2008 12:46PM]

We wont get it in Canada until Apple opens its Flagship store in Montreal, and this should be either in the summer or early fall.

[Billabong @ Mar 14th 2008 1:29PM]

Not Montreal...

They could be waiting for the Vancouver Apple Store which opens very very soon. Most likely May.

[Bullitt @ Mar 14th 2008 4:14PM]

Maybe if THREE OUT OF THE FOUR STORES IN CANADA WEREN'T LOCATED IN TORONTO.

[y3k.nik @ Mar 14th 2008 10:30AM]

hmmm... looks like an iphone knockoff to me :P

[Mitch @ Mar 15th 2008 7:34AM]

Should read Australia, *cries*