Here's one for Martin Porcheron, Mambo and Mrrix32:

<< iPhone is scheduled to go on sale on November 9th and will be sold exclusively in the UK through Apple’s retail and online stores, O2 and The Carphone Warehouse’s retail and online stores. iPhone will be available in an 8GB model for £269 (inc VAT) and will work with either a PC or Mac. Three new great value iPhone tariffs will be available from O2 starting at £35, which all include unlimited anytime, anywhere mobile data usage and, in a market first, free unlimited use of the UK’s largest single public Wi-Fi network, covering over 7,500 cafes, restaurants, airport lounges, pubs and other locations across the UK. >>

From: http://www.apple.com/uk/pr/2007/09/180907_iphone.html

So, basically, it'll cost £70 for the phone functionality (iPod touch 8GB is £199) and then at least £35 per month, which presumably doesn't include many (if any) free calls / text messages, which makes it pretty pricey if all you want to use if for is data.

FR iPhone will be launched in November too

The 'unlimited' data plan has a 1Gb limit. Like the US iPhone there's still no 3G support, and only 30% of the UK has EDGE, so it's GPRS for most data. Woot!

<< Like the US iPhone there's still no 3G support >>

I think they can forget all about it then. I can't see many people will be willing to pay this price for old slow technology even if it is a shiny new gadget. You might as well buy an iPod touch and get a free 3G mobile.

My thoughts exactly Tony. I can get a Nokia N95 (with 3G) for £0 upfront with a £35/month plan. Sure the iPhone is shiny, shiny, goodness – but for £900 all up?! Not. Going. To. Happen.

The costs are completely mad

1. Buy iPhone £270
2. 18 month contract (min) £35 – 200 min, 200 texts, unlimited data

assuming you are paying full whack for the phone – a sim-only deal with O2 is £15 for 200 min, 200 texts – you are effectively paying £20 for the data and 'Cloud' access.

Does anyone else think this is 'over the top'? I think this is for the 'fanboys'.

Alternatively, keep your phone – buy a an itouch £200 and get a subscription with the Cloud £7 per month.

I agree, jdbradford.

By the sounds of it, Steve Jobs was justifying not putting 3G in the iPhone because it would have access to Wi-Fi. Since the iPod touch has Wi-Fi too, it would make sense to just get that and sign up for the £7 per month subscription with The Cloud:

http://www.thecloud.net/For-you/Cloud-Unlimited

More from the announcement here:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/18/live-from-apples-mum-is-no-longer-the-word-event-in-london/

! EDGE! XD!!! How dumb! I payed 3Ireland €200 for a HSDPA phone which does everything the iPhone does bar the touchscreen.

jdbradford
Yeah no way I'm paying that much.... iPod touch and current phone or just keep my phone and no iWhatever?

Tony
If I take my DS I can use "The Cloud"/"BT OpenZone" HotSpots for free! Go Nintendo!!!

For some reason, I doubt the iPhone will do that well in the UK at that cost without the features.

Mrrix32: How do you get The Cloud for free on your DS?

When I got my Nokia N800, I got a coupon for 30 days free use of The Cloud but after that it would be £10 per month.

Nintendo did a deal with them, I can't find the press release but I've found a "Partner HotSpot Finder". The Logos at the side show who Ninty have partnered with the list has grown since I last saw it :D

http://www.nintendowifi.co.uk/hotspots/searchHotSpot.do

Philipp, you can now get an iPhone in Germany.

http://www.apple.com/de/iphone/

But why would you want one?

I think the iPhone rocks with displaying the Internet and using wifi. I've tried using a Motorola Q and a Blackberry Curve and neither of them display webpages very well. Most of the sites I visit look great on the iPhone. Thats a huge reason to buy one.

Yes but it lacks;

-Picture Messageing
-Video Messageing
-Video Calling
-"Proper" Bluetooth
-Network Variety
-3G/HSDPA
-Video Recording
-Voice Recording
-Games
-Removeable Battery
-3rd Party Apps (properly)
-IM
-Expandable Memory

My €200 phone has all of these

take away Video Calling and 3G and my £50 phone does all of that :D (PAYG no contract)

After a couple of days, I still can't get over how overpriced the iPhone is.

There you go Tony all three of us agree that it's too expensive :-)

>> I still can't get over how overpriced the iPhone is.

That's because of VAT and the magic Euro-tax (supposedly, the cost of making the iPhone comply with EU regulations, which is BS. My iPod has an FCC badge on it and it has never been near the US and the same probably goes for the UK iPhone)

Of all those things James Xuan rightly mentions, it's 3G that's the killer. Why would anyone want a device that only works on a slow and outdated network, when all decent, modern, free phones are 3G-connected? (Or on extremely patchily available and expensive wifi.) It's insane.

The iPhone is a fashion accessory. Since I can't live without my phone I bought an iPod Touch to be my fashion accessory and kept my phone

> on a slow and outdated network which will have only 30% UK coverage at time of release,

Fixed :D

Interesting, not the main topics of this forum and more than 20 comments...;-) Is the subject includes iSomething...

Also now fyou can get one Philipp http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/apple/iphone-hits-germany-november-9-317676.php
Though, you probably don't want one...

I will play with this in the store sometime after they released it on (scheduled) November 9. One thing that needs to checked (other than the price) is if Apple allowed T-Mobile to mess up the usability of the phone by being allowed to brand it. Hard to believe, but that's exactly what happened with the Windows Mobile OS phone they got hold off... they replaced crucial navigation buttons with silly stuff like "take me to the T-Mobile homepage" (and Windows Mobile is already hard to use to begin with, and quite buggy and slow, along with a somewhat broken IE browser). But I have some hope Apple won't let that happen to their tools, as they're quite usability aware...

Pfff Nov 29th over here in late-retarded France... I guess i'll get one... well nothing's gonna compare when it comes to Mac synchronization...