Unlocked 3G iPhone to Launch in Italy?

[MacRumors]

Repubblica reports that Telecom Italia will be launching the iPhone in Italy in the next few weeks for sale by the summer.

The new models is said to be based on 3G (UMTS) technology and will be sold originally through Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM). The phone will not be locked to any provider, though TIM will have the inital advantage with a few month lead time over other carriers.

According to MacRumors reader grigio, the main points are as follows:

1) Direct introduction of UMTS-capable 3G iPhones on the Italian market, skipping the current 2G version.
2) No revenue sharing, instead a higher selling price.
3) No permanent exclusive distribution by a single operator. Instead, TIM will be given the right to distribute the iPhone with some months of advance with respect to its UMTS competitors.

Apple has been rumored to be launching the 3G iPhone in the coming months with most expecations at a June (WWDC) U.S. launch.

Article Link

[Eärendil]

Im gonna have to buy an iPhone in Italy.

I think it might happen, 30% shure.

[notjustjay]

A HIGHER selling price? Great, that's just what we needed... back to $599 maybe?

But this is a good sign if it means we can soon get unlocked iPhones, say, in Canada... :P

[kornyboy]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

This sounds really good. When they say "by summer" does this mean that we may see it on the shelves before WWDC? That would be very interesting.

[RealMcCoy]

viva italia ;o)

[mags631]

Do you think carriers would be able to subsidize the purchase of the phone in exchange for a contract? Apple makes its money and consumers get a phone that doesn't cost as much upfront. I don't see any reason why Apple would make carriers agree to not subsidize their phones. Thoughts?

[i.maverick]

skeptical.
don' think so..
iphono.!!

[brad.c]

Ooh. Two things I'd like to buy in one place. And one of them is Italian Leather.

mmm. supple.

[Pintagrinta]

hi,

i'm italian and after this news i'm sure that i'll buy my 3G phone in the apple store in USA when it come on the market...

in Italy it will cost about 499€ i think (~700$) and it's a thief imho...

just watch the price of all the other apple (and not) products... if in USA costs 399$ in italy cost 399€ ...
i don't like this...

bye..

[Steoke]

I would expect them to do so...

There has been a huge amount of protest against the single carrier-offer (and here in Belgium it's against the law).

On top of that: iPhone-sales didn't reach their target in Europe (or so they say) so it might be reasonable to think Apple is going to change strategy... and I for one would be happy!

Maybe this means that WWDC wil get a full international launch with the saying 'iPhone 3G available in every store in 2 weeks!'! Come on Steve...
:-)

[macerroneous]

This rumor supports my previously stated arguments. The only way to handle all the international shifting of product is to charge a boatload for the phone and offer a BIG rebate for service contract. You might here this direct from Apple on April 23. Just opinion. And yes, we will BUY it.

[~Shard~]

Originally Posted by Eärendil

I think it might happen, 30% shure.

That's not a very high level of confidence..

Originally Posted by notjustjay

But this is a good sign if it means we can soon get unlocked iPhones, say, in Canada... :P

My friend has been using his iPhone here for a while now off the Rogers network and has commented that it would be nice not to have to jailbreak it as well.

[keenan wolf]

Originally Posted by notjustjay

A HIGHER selling price? Great, that's just what we needed... back to $599 maybe?

But this is a good sign if it means we can soon get unlocked iPhones, say, in Canada... :P

like i have said in numerous other post does not up their prices they only lower or stay the same. unless it has to do with a major hardware change like the 16gb in the iphone but a 3g chip does not cost much more than an edge; chip so stop talking about the price going up and start worrying about when it will happen

[shov]

a bit off topic:

"2) No revenue sharing, instead an higher selling price."

Is it a US thing to use an 'an' in front of words beginning with H? I see it quite a lot on these message boards. Much like 'could care less' it doesn't quite make sense to my arrogant British mind...

a bit on topic:
if this is true, i wonder how it'll pan out in countries where the iPhone is locked; especially with EU law?

[ajbrehm]

Originally Posted by kornyboy

When they say "by summer" does this mean that we may see it on the shelves before WWDC?

When his Steveness says "by summer" he means the last day of summer.

The last day of summer is September 21st.

[~Shard~]

Originally Posted by binky2033

Ooh. Two things I'd like to buy in one place. And one of them is Italian Leather.

Don't forget some gelato and nice red wine while you're there.

[alcibiade]

iPhone in Italy, at last!
A recent survey said that Italy has more mobile phones than people and on ebay.it every day are sold dozen of jailbroken iPhones.

In addition there's no 2G mobiles phones in the stores, anymore. UMTS network is very very wide and efficient. An *old* GSM/EDGE iPhone in Italy would be craziness.

I only hope that Repubblica.it sources are well-founded.

PS: "higher selling price"....higher than what? US dollars or Euro selling price? Because, you know, 400 USD = 260 Euros...

[bbplayer5]

the US would get the first 3G iphones. Total BS.

[gloss]

Originally Posted by shov

a bit off topic:

"2) No revenue sharing, instead an higher selling price."

Is it a US thing to use an 'an' in front of words beginning with H? I see it quite a lot on these message boards. Much like 'could care less' it doesn't quite make sense to my arrogant British mind...

a bit on topic:
if this is true, i wonder how it'll pan out in countries where the iPhone is locked; especially with EU law?

It's not an entirely American thing, but I'm pretty sure it's considered proper English when dealing with typically silent 'H's, such as "an historical". The above example, though, not so much.

[em500]

I wonder what's in it for Apple? If they don't get carrier revenue and the phones are unlocked, why would TIM get to sell it exclusively for a few months? Why wouldn't Apple just sell it unlocked to everyone? Maybe they get a lump sum payment from TIM?

[miketcool]

Originally Posted by shov

a bit off topic:

"2) No revenue sharing, instead an higher selling price."

Is it a US thing to use an 'an' in front of words beginning with H? I see it quite a lot on these message boards. Much like 'could care less' it doesn't quite make sense to my arrogant British mind...

No, in the States we work full 40 hour work weeks and do plenty of overtime. The "an" is surely a typo when this poor sap was multitasking and hit the "n" key and space bar at the same time.
However, when our "h"s go silent at the beginning of a word, we tack on the "n" to our "a"s.
Give it an hour, and you'll understand. That, at least, is an honest opinion.

[Kolind]

Originally Posted by gloss

It's not an entirely American thing, but I'm pretty sure it's considered proper English when dealing with typically silent 'H's, such as "an historical". The above example, though, not so much.

This is getting very off topic, but surely, historical is not with a silent h? (I'm Danish, so if I'm wrong that's my excuse :P)

[princigalli]

Italy has the most competitive mobile phone market in Europe and the most modern infrastructure. It was unlikely that a locked contraxt version with older technologz could make it in the market. Apple identified a few large and uncompetitive markets where the could experiment: USA, France, UK and Germany. Those are countries where mobile services are overpriced and carriers can get away doing anything they want with their customers. In Germany they still force two year contracts upon customers! Anyway I am one of the German Telecom victims. So we now know that Apple has been using us as beta testers, making us finance their program with huge monthly fees fow two years. The lucky Italian customers will certainly benefit from our efforts. Nice to know that our suffering will at least bring happyness to someone else. And Telecom Italia is probably the best mobile company in Europe with uncomparable serrvice.

[BongoBanger]

Originally Posted by mags631

Do you think carriers would be able to subsidize the purchase of the phone in exchange for a contract? Apple makes its money and consumers get a phone that doesn't cost as much upfront. I don't see any reason why Apple would make carriers agree to not subsidize their phones. Thoughts?

Aside from completrely killing the iPod market you mean?

[gifford]

Originally Posted by bbplayer5

the US would get the first 3G iphones. Total BS.

to run them on that extensive 3g network they have...