Apple Announces that Orange is Exclusive iPhone Carrier in France

This is going to be great news for my relatives in France. They'll be happy to get the phone.

It will be interesting to see what is going to happen about the 6 month unlocking requirement.

P-Worm

P-Worm said:

It will be interesting to see what is going to happen about the 6 month unlocking requirement.

P-Worm

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They will have to unlock. There is no way around it.

Maybe apple is planning to unlock all iPhones in 6 months.

fastbite said:

They will have to unlock. There is no way around it.

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Agreed! The law is nonnegotiable!

le sigh

le jealous

fastbite said:

They will have to unlock. There is no way around it.

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Maybe it will be unlocked, but will only have french text in the OS ... ?? that would discourage me from getting it...

I wonder if you get a an orange sim card that it will work for the american iphone. or an O2 sim card????

Yep, it will be very interesting to see what happens about the unlocking thing. Does this mean that after 6 months on sale Apple have to offer an unlocked iPhone for sale in France? Or does it mean that after each individual customer has been connected for 6 months, Apple have to unlock their phone for them if they wish?

Drumjim85 said:

Maybe it will be unlocked, but will only have french text in the OS ... ?? that would discourage me from getting it...

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That is very likely. However, there are people living in France that do not speak French. Just as there are people living in the U.S. that do not speak English. So they would likely file a law suit if their phone changed languages after 6 months.

It is my understanding that the iPhone in France will also be sold with out contract for the rumored price of 999 euros.

Source NouvelObs

Sorry it's in french.

machou said:

It is my understanding that the iPhone in France will also be sold with out contract for the rumored price of 999 euros.

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how did you arrive at this understanding?

XIII said:

Yep, it will be very interesting to see what happens about the unlocking thing. Does this mean that after 6 months on sale Apple have to offer an unlocked iPhone for sale in France? Or does it mean that after each individual customer has been connected for 6 months, Apple have to unlock their phone for them if they wish?

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Mark my words: instead of unlocking a phone after 6 months, Apple will give every French customer a NEW phone... every six months.

Probably not. This is great, though. The first Apple will HAVE to unlock a phone. Maybe the dev team will learn something there!

Kwill said:

That is very likely. However, there are people living in France that do not speak French. Just as there are people living in the U.S. that do not speak English. So they would likely file a law suit if their phone changed languages after 6 months.

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Do you think a law suit could really stand just because it only has 1 language??? That seems kinda stupid (but i guess the rest of the law suits that are out there are too.... )

quigleybc said:

le sigh

le jealous

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haha... reminds me of pepe le peu! cute

if unlocked iphones land in france (as some speculate) how long until it is that version of the phone that floods the ebay market and moves worldwide?

sananda said:

how did you arrive at this understanding?

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Well there is alot of talks here in France about the now past troubles between Apple and Orange.

The following article from a well known business magazine here in France states that an agreement was reached and that the iPhone will be sold with and with out a contract.

It's speculation so far, but could have some true in it.

i smell lawsuit coming apple way in France.
Hurray, let the french consumer revolution lead the way, sue apple arse off.
European human right law. European consumer right law. European freedom act.

Drumjim85 said:

Do you think a law suit could really stand just because it only has 1 language??? That seems kinda stupid (but i guess the rest of the law suits that are out there are too.... )

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I agree- stupid lawsuit.

I had not even thought about other languages- a lot of my CE stuff, you go to setup and choose a language. I had some friends here from Bordeaux last weekend, and that was the first time I noticed you cannot do that in an iPhone.

I doubt it would be difficult to do, and may be where a future update is headed. After all, does Apple make a French, German, Farsi and Spanish Leopard.... or just one, with language packs?

after 6 months

The French law forces Orange to accept your request to unlock your iphone after 6 months. However nothing prevent Orange from enforcing 2 years contracts for an iphone package and it is very unlikely that you will subscribe for 2 years but sell the phone after 6 months and continue to pay every month. The only way out of the contract duration is to move abroad or move to an area where Orange network is not reachable (obviously very few in France).
Buying a phone for 999Euros is another option (1400US$) but you may look for a longtime someone ready to pay more than this amount even on eBay...

Surely it will be very interesting to get information about the unlocking process. I f I was apple I would propose a service to unlock/relock to another operator for the original customer only on presentation of the new contract having the same name as the orange contrat. That could be legal as the law is here to falcilitate the competition between provider and this could be then interpreted a fair practice.

French law unlock

Clearly the iPhone is much more than a phone, which probably is what the law was originally directed to cover (remember the purpose of portability in general is to switch carriers if bad phone service). I'm sure Apple could unlock the phone part, possibly even provide voicemail if another carrier supports it, and maybe even texting, BUT may not have to unlock or support the safari web part or provide support/updates unless an arrangement is reached with Apple. Everything would be spelled out in advance.

carfac said:

I agree- stupid lawsuit.

I had not even thought about other languages- a lot of my CE stuff, you go to setup and choose a language. I had some friends here from Bordeaux last weekend, and that was the first time I noticed you cannot do that in an iPhone.

I doubt it would be difficult to do, and may be where a future update is headed. After all, does Apple make a French, German, Farsi and Spanish Leopard.... or just one, with language packs?

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I'm sure its not hard to do... but is apple going to allow it... like i said before, maybe this is how the "Lock" the iphone from France to the rest of the world...

P-Worm said:

It will be interesting to see what is going to happen about the 6 month unlocking requirement.

P-Worm

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Maybe that is why Apple was asking for 30 percent share on the data and minutes .... since unlocking in 6 months would be robbing them from profits on the remainder 18 months.

mccldwll said:

Clearly the iPhone is much more than a phone, which probably is what the law was originally directed to cover (remember the purpose of portability in general is to switch carriers if bad phone service). I'm sure Apple could unlock the phone part, possibly even provide voicemail if another carrier supports it, and maybe even texting, BUT may not have to unlock or support the safari web part or provide support/updates unless an arrangement is reached with Apple. Everything would be spelled out in advance.

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haha ... thats another good thought... but man, this would piss people off! . ha...