Unsubsidized iPhone 3G priced at ?499/?569 in Europe

This morning we're getting a first look at unsubsidized prices for the iPhone 3G in Europe. Vodafone Italy has set an out-of-contract price for the iPhone 3G at 499/€569 ($773/$881) for the 8GB/16GB models, respectively. Subscription rates have not yet been announced. While steep, those prices are actually smartphone-reasonable in Italy (and around Europe) where an HTC Touch Cruise with its WiFi, tri-band HSDPA data, GPS, and touchscreen sells for €549. Capisce?

[Thanks, Andrea]

[Jayden @ Jun 12th 2008 1:34AM]

So much for $199

[Thanh @ Jun 12th 2008 2:08AM]

That $199 is for subsidized iphones, this 499 is for unsubsidized. Jeez, people dont want contract but complain about the high price. People want low price but complain about contract. Plus that $30/mo data plan is the same as all smart phone plans. Make up your minds!

[why not the LS2LS7? @ Jun 12th 2008 2:21AM]

by $499 you apparently mean $773.

$499 would actually be reasonable, a good non-smarthphone can be $350+ unlocked/unsubsidized.

[Thanh @ Jun 12th 2008 2:23AM]

@why not:
I actually meant $499 euro

[Timmy L @ Jun 12th 2008 2:34AM]

WOW, Europeans had a strong Euro but I guess it won't matter. Funny thing is the clones of both phones are like half that price with same functionality and who the heck needs GPS on their phone? - HTC-clone - http://www.chinagrabber.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1580&HS=1 or W99i WiPhone - http://www.chinagrabber.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1614&HS=1 - i wish engadget would do any article on how much TOTAL an iPhone will cost after activation and minimum monthly plans compared to a blackberry service plan....

[kccboy2004 @ Jun 12th 2008 2:35AM]

Haaaaaa Haaaaaa Haaaaaa

You blithering idiots. All of you that beleived that Apple were going to "give" you this phone for $199.

Let me tell you straight... What he said was not a lie, it is called a "BUSH-ism".

This is a phrase coined for certain/all statements made by George W. Bush.

A Bushism: "A statement made which deliberately excludes the necessary facts in order to make a decision based upon that information. The statement itself is not materially incorrect, however the intention is to delude and deceive".

This should be distniguished from a "Factoid"

A factoid is a spurious (unverified, incorrect, or invented) "fact" intended to create or prolong public exposure or to manipulate public opinion. It appears in the Oxford English Dictionary[1] as "something which becomes accepted as fact, although it may not be true", namely a speculation or an assumption.

LMAO.

[David @ Jun 12th 2008 3:09AM]

@Thanh

What's $499 euro?

[Po @ Jun 12th 2008 4:43AM]

Much of the phones are sold unlocked in Europe(many times depending about countrie) so of course they got right to complain about the high price because compared to many others it is high.
You can get most of the high end smartphones cheaper than this and not to even talk about 2 years contract where you can get pretty much everything for free.

[giuliop @ Jun 12th 2008 4:38AM]

He means $499 Euro pounds.

[foreign noise @ Jun 12th 2008 4:59AM]

Or €499 dollar?

[weg @ Jun 12th 2008 5:35AM]

Apple never cared so much about the $/EUR ratio, their products were always a little bit more expensive in Europe (even if you deduct the tax). If the $ keeps going downhill at the current rate, there's little incentive to make the products cheaper in Europe..

[Richard Lai @ Jun 12th 2008 8:17AM]

How about this one guys:

http://www.iphoneunlockaustralia.com/news-for-aussies/exclusive-optus-to-sell-iphone-for-350.html

[why not the LS2LS7? @ Jun 12th 2008 9:52AM]

Weg, the dollar has been rising for over a week now. So if it keeps "falling" at the current rate it'll be on parity with the Euro some day.

As mentioned elsewhere, this phone isn't unlocked, just unsubsidized it turns out. $773 for a locked phone is an awful price.

[Jayden @ Jun 12th 2008 1:35AM]

So much for $199

[Shinigami @ Jun 12th 2008 5:59AM]

Just a reminder:
For $199 you have to sign a 2-year contract and your phone will be locked to the carrier. USA.
For €499 ($773) you get an unlocked phone. You can keep your current plan, current carrier, go to another county, buy their carrier's sim and use it in your phone with no problems or limitations. Europe.

[OneLove @ Jun 12th 2008 12:27PM]

Yes, for $773. (Are you F$%*ing crazy)

[waiownsyou @ Jun 12th 2008 1:36AM]

The main people who'll actually jump at the phone early would be the people who already own an iPhone. It'd be nice if they spill the beans now on if there's a price reduction for current iPhone 1.0-owners.

I'd really like to sell this on eBay before it's worth as much as a bag of Doritos.

[Arvid @ Jun 12th 2008 1:39AM]

sorry for bringing you the news my friend; it's alrealdy doritos... it has always been...

[waiownsyou @ Jun 12th 2008 2:36AM]

@ Vince

Yeah, but carriers offer discounts on phones after your contract is close to the end of its life.

[cantcount @ Jun 12th 2008 4:44AM]

I'd hold on to your iphone 1.0.

The fact that they simply aren't being sold anymore will increase demand over time. Especially for people who want to hack them (i.e. if someone miraculously finds some really cool things you could hack and iphone 1.0 to do, that wouldn't work on a 2.0 version) Oh, and it still gives you internet, ipod, video, wifi, bluetooth. That may not seem like much to some, but to a CSE student like me, I can think of some stuff I'd like to try on it now that I won't be using it as a phone come July 11.

[Ethan @ Jun 12th 2008 7:03AM]

Plus it's a teeensy bit smaller.

[Khattab @ Jun 12th 2008 1:36AM]

Wow. That's expensive. Even for Apple.

[Ace b @ Jun 12th 2008 1:36AM]

Ok,so can't att unlock them after a certain amount of time like they do with the normal cell phones?

[Tony @ Jun 12th 2008 3:26AM]

Probably, but two generations of iPhones would have come and gone by then.

[waiownsyou @ Jun 12th 2008 1:36AM]

Die in a fire plz

[Ace b @ Jun 12th 2008 1:37AM]

Dude

No.

Third.Whoo.

[Ace b @ Jun 12th 2008 1:38AM]

Dude,no.

Third.Whoo.

[Ace b @ Jun 12th 2008 1:38AM]

I hate this commenting system.

[Reality Check @ Jun 12th 2008 1:39AM]

Man, I would never pay $881 for a phone. Many people in the world don't make that much in a year.

Plus I don't know how the Europeans can afford it, with all that socialism taking up 70% of their paycheck.

[henri @ Jun 12th 2008 1:46AM]

because they're still paying that number 499 and not 881. Salary and level of life doesnt change depending of currency. in 2 years the dollar might be more powerful and its not a reason why the salary in europe would and product costs would change.
and for your comment about 70% of their paycheck. its less than that and at least they have universal health care and affordable education.
what i say is we should just have one currency for the whole world and lots of problems would be resolved.

[harispilton @ Jun 12th 2008 1:55AM]

sigh, another ignorant american, its not 70% its 56% get your facts straight before you make dumb comments.

[Za @ Jun 12th 2008 2:02AM]

Guess you've never been to Europe then. Their cars cost a hell of a lot more than ours do as well, and so does their gas...but their quality of life is higher than the US one. I was going to say "higher than the American" one, but Canada has consistently been several paces ahead of the US in Human Development Index - they are healthier, happier, better educated with less gender-related biases. It boggles my mind as a US student double majoring in a couple of social sciences.

[Macfly @ Jun 12th 2008 2:25AM]

plus, that 56% includes health care.
I have a dozen friends who moved to Italy and there's no way of convincing them back!
Europeans (except maybe for brits) live longer, healthier and enjoy life more than most north Americans.

[Joonas @ Jun 12th 2008 3:17AM]

Unsubsidized N95 8GB costs €549 - €610 in Finland (ie. Nokia Land). No info yet on the iPhone price (Finnish service providers don't usually charge for the handheld itself but wrap the costs inside the monthly service charges of a fixed-term contract, if one chooses to select one of those).

[Gorjan @ Jun 12th 2008 3:06AM]

Yeah, poor us Europeans. We pay 45-50% tax of our pay, and what do we get back?

Free health care and education (university included). I'm becoming a MD for free here, but if I lived in the US I would have had to be a millionaire to afford the same education. No thanks, you can have you cheap gas and hamburgers.

[Jakob Henner @ Jun 12th 2008 5:24AM]

€499 is actually pretty nice, if it is completely unlocked.

@Joonas, poor us in Scandinavia, TeliaSonera hasn't announced anything about prices in the other Scandi countries, except we get free data. I hope: Unlimited data (probably with 10 GB cap), unlimited sms (yeah unlimited) and 100-200 min, for $60. It should be possible.

[Nick @ Jun 13th 2008 2:12PM]

@Gorjan: Should we keep the iphone too? ts ts

[dagamer34 @ Jun 12th 2008 11:08AM]

@Gorjan:

Of course, you will be getting paid less than an MD over here.

[Jeebus @ Jun 12th 2008 12:27PM]

I just love the ignoramuses who thinks that their high taxes are justified by "free" health care. Take a look at how little of your total tax bill is actually for health care. The rest is for subsidizing all the lazy unemployed and for the massive unproductive government bureaucrat jobs.

[Hellios @ Jun 12th 2008 1:42AM]

Wow, it costs more than the SonyEricsson Cybershot C905. Like I ever needed another reason.

[YOYO @ Jun 12th 2008 4:21AM]

is this a tech blog or an anti American rally

i know it cool to hate America right now it the newest and greatest trend but what the fuck that got to do with iphone

great we get it u all hate the U.S we are not smart enough for we are not happy enough for u every country better then us

i really don't see what this has to do with the iphone

[paul @ Jun 12th 2008 1:46AM]

What's the Nokia N95 8GB sell for over there?

[Ayle @ Jun 12th 2008 2:21AM]

It's free on contract.

[Hackius @ Jun 12th 2008 3:19AM]

It's free with a contract,
500€ without a contract

[Shiver @ Jun 12th 2008 3:24AM]

'We' pay around € 500,- for the N95. This is already a rather low internet-price. The device is listed for around € 549,- which is already 100 euro cheaper then when it launched. This includes 19% VAT.

This is the a carrier and simlock free version. With a carrier-specific and simlocked version you save around 75 euro. And with a 2 year € 50 per month contract the phone is free.

So actually the price of the iPhone is pretty competitive. (This is all based on dutch prices and experience. )

[sua @ Jun 12th 2008 3:37AM]

I can get the N95 8GB for 31,50 euro's a month, including unlimited 3.5G.

Phone free too.

[rav97 @ Jun 12th 2008 9:19AM]

You can look it up using www.kelkoo.it. However, to spoil the surprise: a N95 8GB, TIM-branded (i.e. unlocked, but with custom firmware), sells for about €400; unbranded, €450.

[Ricky Ashe @ Jun 12th 2008 2:01AM]

So what did happen to starting at $199.99 steve never made a comment about subs by wireless providers..... Just new low price....

I am so going drop off the apple band wagon....... like they care any way they will just find some other iphone suckers out there...
ok off my rant

Justice my be blind but it can see in the dark stevie.....

[Za @ Jun 12th 2008 2:03AM]

You have to sign up in store, yah - it's a pain compared to the old system though in practice, it's not much different at all. The other thing to bitch about is that over the long term, it winds up being more expensive now since the data plan is $10 more a month, eventually offsetting the savings on the actual phone.

[craziplaya21 @ Jun 12th 2008 2:06AM]

that $199 is for subsidized iphones, this 499 is for unsubsidized. Jeez, people dont want contract but complain about the high price. People want low price but complain about contract. Make up your minds!