http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/ Engadget Comments for Orange's iPhone exclusive ruled illegal in France http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/Dec 17th 2008 8:24AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/
optus,
vodafone,
telstra
...

take your pick!]]>Dec 17th 2008 8:38AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/Dec 17th 2008 9:32AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/
Now that all the networks can sell the "best phone" they lose some of their incentive to encourage manufactures to make better phones.

Oh well.]]>Dec 17th 2008 10:15AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/Another newsflash (also usable by journalists): The soviet union is gone too.
]]>Dec 17th 2008 10:41AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/Dec 17th 2008 10:59AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/
Way to judge every culture in the world by your culture's standards. How very ethnocentric of you.

The entire world is not capitalist. In fact, much of the world finds capitalism to be greedy and fundamentaly flawed.

There system dictates the government is fully within their rights to void any practice they find to be contrary to the good of the public. They are socialist and they can say that word without implying some sort of evil.

Btw.....the government isn't telling Apple who they can and cannot sell too. They are telling Apple they cannot use the French government to FORCE other carriers to NOT sell iPhones. Quite honestly, that sounds more "free" than our system in the U.S.A.

And to others that say this stifles competition....

HOW? The fact that all carriers can sell a phone means more saturation which means other phones makers should be MORE afraid of Apple and should have more incentive to hurry up and come out with better products.

Honestly people......

l2perspective
]]>Dec 17th 2008 11:22AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/
and "My product, I made it, I'll sell it (or not) to ANYONE I dang well please. "

You do realize that apple doesnt really sell their phones in the US right? The alliance with att means they are selling only to att customers, which in someways can be looked at as discrimination toward any none att user. Im just saying...]]>Dec 17th 2008 11:26AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/Why are you calling him ethnocentric? He never said that France, or French culture was bad. he simply said he didn't agree with the practice of someone else telling you how you can sell your product. I don't see him "judging" any specific country or culture.]]>Dec 17th 2008 4:17PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/
–noun

1. Sociology. the belief in the inherent superiority of one's own ethnic group or culture.
2. a tendency to view alien groups or cultures from the perspective of one's own.

- www.dictionary.com -

]]>Dec 17th 2008 4:41PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/
"I for one think this is total BS... I'm no apple fan boy, I don't even own any apple products, but I think the whole premise is just whack. If I work my butt off to create a new product that lots of people like, why in the H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks should the government be able to tell me WHO I can sell it to? My product, I made it, I'll sell it (or not) to ANYONE I dang well please."

The only reference is to "the government" and that is probably referring to governments in general, not Frances. I fail to see any ethnocentrism in this post. I will add something ethnocentric of my own though. I guess all French are shitheads who don't know how to read.]]>Dec 17th 2008 6:28PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/Dec 17th 2008 7:19PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/
The best thing for customers would be to have free choice of phone, financing, and contract. They should be able to buy the phone from a vendor at the corner, get financing from somebody else, and the contract from any operator they choose. Operators should be allowed to offer all this too, like they do now, but should be forced to separate out prices for the subsidy, and made to offer the same contract without subsidy. A contract should have a price for the service, and a price for the subsidy, transparently marked. Your $49/month contract consists of a $29/month service fee and a $20 subsidy for your iPhone. And you should have the option to get the same contract without the subsidy if you bring your own phone.

What Apple has done is go to new extremes with the bundling deals, but they didn't invent the concept.]]>Dec 17th 2008 7:06PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/Dec 18th 2008 3:16AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/"Now that all the networks can sell the "best phone" they lose some of their incentive to encourage manufactures to make better phones."
But they DO make better phones; they just don't want to sell overseas. Why else would Europe have, for example, the C902 from SE instead of the nice SO905iCS that Japan got from SE with 3x optical zoom, face detection, a DSLR-quality sensor, and all that nice stuff? SE doesn't want to sell it; any carrier would want to have the "honor" of exclusively selling a phone with specs like that!]]>Dec 18th 2008 9:27AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/Dec 17th 2008 8:29AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/Dec 17th 2008 8:40AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/Dec 17th 2008 12:39PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/Dec 17th 2008 8:31AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/Dec 17th 2008 8:43AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/
I always thought that all this exclusivity sounded totally illegal, its nice to see some action being taken against monopoly]]>Dec 17th 2008 8:45AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/
So I disagree with this particular French law.]]>Dec 17th 2008 11:25AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/Dec 17th 2008 8:24PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/
1/ for ignoring copy and paste
2/ being so 'locked in' to carriers
3/ it'd do him some good]]>Dec 17th 2008 8:32AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/Dec 17th 2008 10:05AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/17/orange-to-sell-unlocked-iphone-in-france/

Now they complain about providers... and they get things done!

It's like V (for vendetta) said...
People should not be affraid of manufacturers, manufacturers should be affraid of them. Or something like that...

And no it's not going to spread... no one else has the balls or the stamina to take the fight to Apple.]]>Dec 17th 2008 8:33AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/Dec 17th 2008 8:38AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/Dec 17th 2008 8:43AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/Right now.
That was horrid.

/Facepalm]]>Dec 17th 2008 9:11AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/Dec 17th 2008 10:07AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/Dec 17th 2008 8:36AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/Dec 17th 2008 8:42AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/
Right now, you can buy an unlocked iPhone at an Orange shop for 709 euros unlocked (16gb). Or you can get it for 129 euros with a 12 month contract. They are required by French law to unlock a contract phone at your request for 100 euros (before 6 months) or for free (after 6 months).

The only thing this ruling changes is that now all carriers can sell the phone. I expect the prices to be nearly the same, but the other providers have much better plans than Orange. Orange is like the "nextel" of french providers - expensive, strict policies, and you don't get any benefit by paying more for their service.

And I haven't seen anyone else selling it yet, which is not surprising since the ruling is a few hours old.]]>Dec 17th 2008 8:42AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/
http://iphone3g.mobistar.be/en/iphone3g.cfm#
]]>Dec 17th 2008 9:29AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/OWNED!

Still not moving to France though]]>Dec 17th 2008 8:44AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/life as you know it might end.

someone on the internet might disagree with you!!]]>Dec 17th 2008 1:39PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/
Censoring unpopular comments by making them hard to read is more of a punishment to the rest of us as than to the commenter. My eyes hurt... :(]]>Dec 17th 2008 2:09PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/They still have the right to deny sales to anyone other then their own chosen partners unless a judge declares a penalty fee for every day the phone isn't available in x% volume at other providers or stores.

]]>Dec 17th 2008 8:41AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/Dec 17th 2008 8:44AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/]]>Dec 17th 2008 10:48AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/Dec 17th 2008 8:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/Dec 17th 2008 8:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/Google - French Strike now try it with your own country !
We Could all learn a little from the french working hours / petrol / cigarettes / Health Services / Iphone's ECT . . . . ]]>Dec 17th 2008 10:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/]]>Dec 17th 2008 10:44AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/
and before that, the germans again.

and before that the english.

but go ahead, you seem to be on a roll]]>Dec 17th 2008 3:21PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/German too: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/ByteOfTheApple/blog/archives/2007/11/want_an_unlocke.html
]]>Dec 17th 2008 8:38AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/Dec 17th 2008 8:42AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/]]>Dec 17th 2008 8:55AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/Dec 17th 2008 9:06AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/17/oranges-iphone-exclusive-ruled-illegal-in-france/
Go on.....do the math.]]>Dec 17th 2008 11:27AM