3G iPhone confirmed in Italy without revenue sharing?
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Apr 21st 2008 5:51AM
posted Apr 21st 2008 5:51AM
We've been avoiding the 3G iPhone rumor mongering as much as possible recently. After all, we know it's coming as both AT&T and Apple have confirmed. Now this: one of Italy's most respected newspapers, La Repubblica (like the WSJ with red sauce), is claiming in no uncertain terms that the 3G iPhone is coming shortly to Telecom Italia without a revenue sharing deal and without long-term exclusivity. If true, this change in strategy opens the doors for a true, global, 3G iPhone launch on UMTS networks around the world come summer time.We contacted Telecom Italia who refuse to comment on the matter.
[Thanks, jimbojambo and Claudio]
UTMS... Bleh... Where is the HSDPA lovin I am so used to on my HTC Tytn II?
There are tradeoffs to everything. You got HSDPA. iPhone got video drivers. Everyone is happy.
Ouch. Low blow
Hello.. the N95 has had HSDPA AND decent Video Playback for well over a year now.
What makes you think it wont have HSPA? HSPA sits on top of UMTS. You might very well have HSDPA and/or HSUPA, depending on how exactly they have implemented UMTS. Or may have UMTS in general, and be compatible with certain HSPA on certain networks.
HSUPA without HSDPA is a bit silly, you'd be uploading faster than you'd be downloading, who wants that?
It's looks like Apple might finally be waking up the reality that if they want their phone to be a worldwide, huge hit they can't lock it down to one carrier per country.
no no no! they did try to comment, people talking in italian isnt doesnt mean 'go away' anymore
Cosa hai detto? Nessuno ti capisco.
What'd you say? No one understands you.
We all know that its coming, the real question is WHEN ? and HOW MUCH ?
And: If a HSDPA version will also be delivered alongside a UMTS version. Perhaps the HSDPA version will come later/sooner ???
This sounds consistent with the rumours about the Australian iPhone being 3G and not having a revenue deal.
If both rumours are true it certainly sounds like the next iPhone will be a 3G version released globally without a carrier lock in.
Huzzah!
'Huzzah?!"
Do you live in Southern Connecticut?
I quit my mobile contract in germany with vodafone cause I wanted to switch to T-Mobile for getting an upcomming 3G iPhone.
A Service lady from vodafone called back and said that the iPhone will also available via vodafone this year. Don't know if she told the truth or was hoping that I stay with vodafone.
You were getting played.
Those Vodafone call centre ladies are such teases.
Italy has the largest cell phone penetration per population in the world. 4 major carriers with lots of competition, TIM has 100 per 100 territory EDGE coverage and almost total 3G UMTS and HSPDA up to 7.2 mbits connection. It's the only country in europe to offer DVB-H content.
It was a big marketing failure for Apple to not introduce the EDGE iphone in Italy before last christmas, no surprise this new deal has something special.
FALSE ! Ever heard of Finland? Look it up.
3G,UMTS,DVB-H we have had those for a long time now.
In 2002 we had 80 Mobile phone contracts to 100 citizens.
@SPR000X
Sorry mate, but in Italy there's 122 Mobile phone contracts per 100 citizens.. so Italy 1, Finland 0.. :)
we're crazy for mobiles, that's sure
"3G iPhone confirmed in Italy without revenue sharing?"
You're asking us?
Well I'd say that based on the fact that the sentence ended with a "?" that it's NOT confirmed.
Ever heard of rumours?
"Ever heard of rumours?"
Is this a rumour?
I seriously hope this does NOT just launch on GSM (2G) networks - otherwise all the 3G would be for nothing :)
ok, ok. Post updated to be more clear.
Thomas
to the people asking why theres no HSDPA:
you do realize that UMTS is just referring to the 3G network right? the network that uses HSPA for data. just like saying the original iphone is GSM but asking why no edge.
It would be great if it is equipped with GPS
In all seriousness, as much as I want GPS in the iPhone v2.0, we all know that the most likely scenario would be that GPS would not be available until v3.0. What other draw card could Apple add otherwise in order to force you into upgrade you iPhone again?
You're right; Apple is going to save GPS and better Camera for the future versions of iPhone... Preferably 3.0 o even 4.0...
I live in Europe and my guess is it's true because the problem in some European countries is it's not possible to sell a phone and a mobile contract together. It's illegal to do so in some European countries.
Apple waited for the 3G in those countries but the customers aren't waiting for it, I know quite a few people who buy up to 10 phones in the US, unlock them, charge 30 euros extra for them and sell them over here.
And Bell Company now sells those unlocked phones in their stores!
Some people don't buy them because everytime you update those phones you need to unlock them again, not only that, and perhaps it's a coincidence but they are having some problems with those unlocked phones.
I'm not sure whether that's because they're unlocked but my guess is this does hurt the Apple brand somewhat.
Anyway, in those countries where it's illegal, why fight it or try to restrict people from buying those phones?
Nokia is moving in fast with its N series.
Apple's feeling the heat, let's not fight, let's embrace the demand.
The customers want the iphone so let's give it to them as fast as possible.
That's what this is all about.
Ever heard of Pwnage and BootNeuter (ing)!!! No matter what firmware the phone stays unlocked...
How on earth does any of this rumour, speculation, and a mish-mash of unverified reports count as confirmation?
Just wanting this thing doesn't make it exist you know!
The "?" is a way of getting round that for a good headline
I think when they report that the CEO of TIM has flown to Cupertino to sign the deal, and no one denies it, that's pretty much confirmed.
But sure enough this must annoy Steve who normally likes to keep things hush hush...
Hey guys, i know its second or third hand info but a friend of mine who is going to be working at the up and coming George Street Apple Store, in Sydney, Australia (he will be working at the genius bar) happened to mention to me that it has been confirmed that it IS coming and it should be by the end of june/early july.
Hope this is useful!
Well, I'm convinced.
Thank you so much for providing such an important public service. So many morons on the web would just make up crap like this, but we ALL know that friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of yours is a source we can trust.
Please people! The semen is all over the place here!
...
This sounds consistent with the rumours about the Australian iPhone being 3G and not having a revenue deal, plus the rumours about the Greek 3G iPhone (http://www.iphonehellas.gr/537/iphone-cosmote-iphone-hellas). Iphone is coming to ALL major European countries!!!
My guess is that Apple learned from their mistake (Over 1 million iPhones sold via the Black Market!) and they are going to cut loose the revenue deal with exclusive Carriers (At least at some countires where the law forbids it)
Greece is almost out of money. Not quite sure they can afford it ;) Seriously, I think it's just going to be an easier strategy in the long-term to sell the unlocked version as opposed to getting all these exclusive contracts, having so many different variations of the phone ... Perhaps they're realizing that the sheer number of unlocked phones they can sell without a 2 years commitment may far outweigh the potential profit that can be had by forcing people to lock into a contract.
On another note, do you think Apple was REALLY upset that people figured out how to unlock the phone? They love the fact they can sell more phones now!
http://www.3GiPhoneInfo.com
Interesting...
why need to lock the iphone, let it free n steve will be more rich gosh!
So after the relative failure of the iPhone in Europe (selling at half the rate of the iPhone in USA), and with European carriers taking a hit in their expensive inventory, it seems Apple has lost the negotiating power to force a revenue sharing deal on the carriers.
Or maybe they relaized if they want to sell their expensive product they need to have the phone subsidized, just like many other phones in some parts of Europe.
Having lost the upper hand thus, one wonders what else will be left out of the iPhone in Italy- maybe no visual voice mail and unlimited data plan like in Ireland on O2?
I still can't believe that peeps would be willing to part with so much cash for a phone, there is definitely a problem here.
God bless free UK phones with contracts, so many more features on the current phones available for an 18 month contract but sadly no access to the wonderful apple *"community" .
If one more person says "it just works" to me, I will loose it.
(*see suckers).
"If one more person says "it just works" to me, I will loose it."
Does anyone study English in school anymore?
When did Apple confirm the 3G phone?
Well it wasn't exactly Apple. Just Walt Mossberg at the Finnish Embassy. So this does mean uncle Walty was right!
"Ever heard of rumours?"
Yes, but the LG Rumor is not considered a "power user" phone.
It's for the texting noob masses.
Hmm.. I hope they're gonna put both european AND american 3G bands in the phone instead of making two versions, i need to buy it in the states, it's a helluva lot cheaper over there!
give me 2100mhz!
I just gotta say this...
"3G iPhone confirmed in Italy without revenue sharing?"
This sentence is such a paradox. "Confirmed" yet having a question mark.
What I want to know:
When will the iPhone support more Bluetooth profiles? DUN, PAN, FTP (as both a client and a server), HDI and SPP (for keyboards)
And the same goes for the iPod Touch (HDI, SPP, FTP definitely, but also DUN/PAN as a client to your phone, iPhone or not).
And, while I'm ranting about Apple Bluetooth support, lets see Bluetooth with FTP on the iPod Classic (so you can use it as a wireless music/storage repository for your iPhone or iPod Touch).
i wanna know why the hell Canada doesn't have the iphone yet. sure we can go for a short drive to the usa (90% of canadians live within 100km of the usa border) buy one, jail break, give it a rogers sim card....but wtf. its been over a year, no?
Four letters, Apple: CDMA
How about EV-DO? Which requires CDMA, of course, but that's just coincidence.
AT&T's 3G coverage in the suburbs and smaller cities is borderline pathetic compared to Verizon's EV-DO. Sure 3G is theoretically faster, but in practice, for high speed data, Verizon is the one with "more bars in more places". Even though they're evil.
Some other news out today about the 3G iPhone. It claims that Apple will release it in May then release a new device at WWDC
3G iPhone in May, new mobile device at WWDC 2008?
http://switchtoamac.com/site/3g-iphone-in-may-new-mobile-device-at-wwdc-2008.html
I wonder how this relates (if at all) to this Italy news.
In the US the only national carriers that would support the iPhone in its most likely configuration would be T-Mobile and AT&T right? That is of course assuming that it would be non-exclusive.
I'm italian and I live in Italy. I read the article but I don't believe what the author wrote. If you read it you will find some ridicolous considerations.
That article is only a sum of rumours and author's fantasy. In Italy there were rumours in January about an imminent 3G iPhone with Vodafone (false), in march there were rumours about an imminent arrive of the present iPhone with Telecom Italia (false) and now more science-fiction rumours.
The article was written on "Repubblica", an italian newspaper not very reliable and usually those type of italian journalists know very little about tecnology.
If it were true an unlocked iPhone will cost about the one already sold in France: 749€ for the 8GB!!! Italians spend a lot for mobile phones but we are not completely crazy. Almost no-one would buy one, we would take a low-cost flight to London and with the super euro we can buy a 8GB iPhone for 340 € and unlock with Ziphone as we already do.
As far as revenue sharing and backpacking onto a carrier is concerned, I've seen the 16GB iPhone for sale in Kuwait's Algahnim stores for several weeks now. That also includes the AirBook and iTouch for that matter... Seems like Jobs is making deals or a bonafide retailer is selling jailbroke iPhone’s now...
The particular iPhone in question goes for 311 Kuwaiti Dinar (KD) or $1145... What a steal!
But is it possible the 3G iPhone will be released BEFORE WWDC in June?????
No.
Hi everyone. If you are interested I tranlsated the original article from italian to (a sort of) english. Enjoy:
The cellphone right now in the UMTS version.
There will be no ‘revenue sharing’, neither the exclusive: an advantage of at least 6 months for Bernabè’s group.
The iPhone arrives in Italy Telecom already signed
They convinced Jobs to change the strategy that brought the cellphone to success.
No exclusive agreements and no shares on the traffic generated by users.
Franco Bernabè himself arrived for the signature: in these days he was in the USA for the presentation of his ‘new’ Telecom Italia. On the 31st of march he was in NY, right after he flew towards the west coast. Official destination: Los Angeles, with a brief stop in Cupertino, Apple’s headquarter. Steve Jobs was really strict about this: accords are signed in the head offices and at the highest level. Anyway it has been quick, because everything was ready for the signature that will bring the iPhone to Italy in a few weeks. The accord is the result of a work of months done by Luca Luciani, Tim’s number one: it’s him that convinced Steve Jobs to change strategy.
The accord is revolutionary because it marks a sudden and important breakthrough in the strategies of the Apple group. That’s why it has been kept secret, so much that even now we are talking about rumors and unofficial news. Revolutionary because it is with Telecom Italia, to enter the italian market, that Steve Jobs would abandon the formula upon which he built the success of his super-phone: exclusive accords, a single carrier for each market, and the ‘revenue sharing’, thanks to which Jobs earns a percentage , that is quite high because it is about 30%, on all the traffic generated by the iPhone users.
The main points of the accord should be the following:
1) No old 2G iPhones on the italian market, but directly the new third generation ones: UMTS iPhones that will exploit at best the great potentials of the italian wide band networks.
2) No ‘revenue sharing’: no percentages on the traffic, but a higher price for the device. Quite a lot higher.
3) Finally, no exclusive with Telecom Italia but only an advantage of some months granted to Franco Bernabè’s group. An advantage that already exists in facts: Telecom’s technologic and commercial networks are right now ready for the iPhone. When it will be official that the italian iPhones will not be a Tim’s exclusive, a second operator would take some time to get ready to support the device. To be more specific: H3G or Vodafone, probably the first operators to take advantage of the lack of exclusive, will need to work a lot and fast if they want to bring their iPhones on the market in time for Christmas 2008. On summer 2008 only Tim will be there.
On a first impression it could seem a strange accord. Telecom Italia has lots of advantages: it is the first to get the iPhone, and at a cost that is way lower than the one paid by all the other carriers that already have the device. So: why did Jobs accept all this?
The ability of the iPhone to sell a lot is proven. The numbers are impressive. For example in the USA, the first market iPhone appeared a year ago, it seems that AT&T already sold 3 millions units, 1 million only in the last 3 months. Even more impressive is that less than half of these 3 millions were activated by new users that left their old carrier and switched to AT&T only to get the iPhone.
So, which reasons convinced Jobs to abandon the old ‘revenue sharing’ strategy?
The answer is that this formula cannot last much more time.
Market is changing. Mobile telephony all around the world is rapidly moving towards Internet. This means that the rich part of the mobile phone business will not be voice, that will become less and less expensive, but data. Not a basic flow of bits, but advanced paid services. The profit system of mobile telephony will be, in a few years, divided in three parts. First, the fixed monthly fees for voice and simple data connection. This money goes directly to the carriers for the access to the network, and its amount will continue to decrease. Second, the money the users pay for premium services. Typical example: music download. But also news, video, new generation services like remote controls via cellphone, and so on. This part of the money will go to the service providers. Finally there will be a third part related to search engines, social networking, maps and informations like the yellow pages. These services will be free for the user but will produce earnings through advertisement. It is on this last kind of services that the competition is open between Telecom, the service providers, and who will be able to manage all this traffic, that is, companies like Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, Nokia and Ericsson that own the “network intelligence”.
In synthesis: the business generated by mobile telephone will grow, but it will disappear from the phone bills, that is where Jobs is now getting his shares.
So Jobs understood that the the iPhone reached its peak as a product. Also because the advantage granted by the ‘touch’ technology and Apple’s historical know-how is about to be filled by the competitors. Both Samsung and HTC already presented their smartphones without keyboard and with a ‘touch’ interface. An even if the first models won’t be able to compete with Apple’s iPhone, you can bet that in one or two versions the gap will be filled.
Maybe they will even go further. And, by the way, next fall the Nokia ironclad will present its first ‘touch screen’ right in time for Christmas 2008.
So, Steve Jobs has a nice successful product in his hands. But how to avoid to end up like Motorola, that was not able to recover in time from the worldwide success of its Razr (right now still best selling cellphone at all) and because of this passed in 12 months from the stars to nearly bankrupt. Change is needed. But how?
The iPhone is not a wideband telephone. It is still good for markets in which the wideband mobile network is still not fully developed. Like the USA. And, in Europe, actually everywhere but Italy. The percentage of UMTS users for the main carrier in each european market is clear: 20% in France, 18% in the UK, only 15% in Spain. In Italy it is 44%, almost one every two.
In markets still not fully developed from that point of view, the iPhone has brought to the carriers mainly a strong increase in internet browsing. This is even clearer in markets still dominated by the voice traffic, like the US one. Its user friendliness, both for browsing and buying online products like music and video thanks to the synergy with iTunes, made it a beautiful tool to introduce users to mobile internet. But going towards 3G things get more complicated. And competition grows.
Jobs found himself dealing with Telecom Italia and for the first time he could not sell the ability of the iPhone to generate paid data traffic: Tim without the iPhone has already registered an increase of 90% in mobile browsing. That is: the advantage generated by competition on the italian mobile market still works.
On the other hand Jobs has in his hands a still underestimated tool: a browser. The iPhone’s heart is the software that enables internet browsing called Safari. From the USA arrives another incredible number: 70% of accesses to the mobile network is registered from smartphones with the Safari browser, that is iPhone.
And browsers are the new frontier of this market. It’s not by chance that in this field is working Google itself with Android. It is suddenly clear for Jobs that the new goal is not to sell few iPhones at at the highest price (accounting also the shares) but to spread Safari as much as possible. Accindentally by selling more cellphones thanks to the new non-exclusive accords.
And Telecom Italia was in the right place at the right time.
that is actually a very insightful article, whether accurate or not. I did not imagine how much 3G had penetrated the Italian market.
So, does anyone else think that this first iPhone was basically a beta test to see if people will buy an Apple cell phone? From hearing all these rumors about the price being cut in half through AT&T with a new 2-year contract (probably because they're tired of losing so many customers to unlocking) and now this no revenue-sharing business, seems to me that Apple wanted a limited base of tech savvy customers to purchase the first "beta" iPhone in order to get worthwhile feedback. Basically everything software-related that users have been demanding in a new iPhone is going to be implimented in the new firmware update (although still no word on cut and paste *cough bs cough*), plus the rumors that hardware demands are being answered (even blogs about the battery being removable, I personally took my iPhone to the Apple store because of battery issues and they just gave me a new one, I'm sure they'd rather sell the replaceable batteries themselves to cut back on how insanely crowded Apple stores are and how long you have to wait to get a genius bar appointment, I live in Houston btw) all point to the fact that this was basically a beta release. Or I may just be overthinking this.