The iphone & the UK

 

 

It’s impossible to avoid, every blog, every news site, every second video has something about the iphone on it. So if I’m to believe the hype, then the iphone is going to be a revolution in my pocket. I’ve sat back and read tens and tens of posts about how good the iphone is. However all of these comments stem from the USA, where mobile phones, sorry ”cells phones” are pretty much stuck 2 years in the past. Scrolling through t-mobile.com you will see phones that you had two cycles ago. Just go and compare for yourself the handsets available on www.t-mobile.co.uk with the ones on www.t-mobile.com.

So that leads me to my first and my main question will the iphone be successful away from home?

Well if rumors are to believed, then the iphone will drop in around the £300 mark in the UK before Christmas. yeah I have read the stories about O2 doesn’t support EDGE so its either going to be GPRS or 3G, lets pray for the latter. However I’ve not heard anyone talk about contract lengths, monthly cost etc.

The UK and the US mobile phone carriers are very different, for example the typical contract length in America is 2 years compared to the UK which is only a year. The handsets differ in the UK the competition is much stiffer, there are many phones 2 years more advanced that their state side counterparts. This competition also means handsets are much cheaper. Most handsets in the UK are free on a 12 month contract, even the N95 the closest thing to the iphone according to apple is available here for free. Also what are these One off activation fees? I have never heard of any fee in the UK for joining a mobile provider. Obviously not everything is cheaper, month cost do tend to be higher in the UK, but with that said the total cost you will pay over the life of a handset is is much less.

I jump on too a few web sites to show the differences:

I first looked at the Motorola KRZR K1 on t-mobile.com and t-mobile.co.uk

In the UK the KRZR is available for FREE, with a year contract for $70.38, However in the USA on a similar contract 600 mins/pm this handset is $149.99 and costs $49.99 after a $35 activation charge. After a few sums the cost of owning the handset in America is $540 more that in the UK.

Secondly I thought id look at the iphones respective networks, at&t and O2, I trawled the web looking for one phone available on both networks and after about half an hour I stumbled upon the BlackBerry 8300 (curve).

The results of this one really surprised me, the carphone warehouse had the handset on O2 on a 12 month contract for $84 costing $60 a month which is $804 in total. The same phone on at&t on a very similar contract was $1568 more expensive, that was on a 2 year contract.

So the differences are clearly huge, in terms of cost, but how about service, well 3G has been around in the UK since 2003 compared to the USA where it is just breaking through. I guess one reason for this is geographical, since the UK is a little small than the USA in case you hadn’t notice. The UK mobile phone market is very fierce and handsets are ever increasing in functionality, take the x-series for example not only does it have mobile TV, it has slingbox support, Orb for browsing your PC, Skype and many other rich application. Getting these features doesn’t cost anything compared to the cost of an iphone. An Nokia E65 on x-series silver costs £40 a month and the handset is free, it is worth noting this is an 18 month contract, but still.

So can the iphone compete in this market, a handset for £300, and no doubt O2 will come up with an apple data plan just like at&t did, but lets say its £50 a month and it is a 2 year contract thats a total of £1500 compared to the blackberry curve which costs £400 (handset+monthly costs) can anyone truly justify the iphone being worth an extra £1100, thats a macbook and a few beers.

In conclusion much of this is guess work, the iphone might be only an 12 month contract in UK, However the chances seem to be slim, as I dont see apple give the brittish people a better deal than the american public.

So will i buy an iphone? I’m not sure,but it’s dam sexy tho!