Apple Announces The iPhone

[emotion]

What will the internet/text/pic/email service cost?

What the mobile phone companies seem to forget when moaning on about 3G take up (I talk from a UK angle but I suspect the rest of Europe is the same) is that people would want 3G for it's data handling abilities if only they would implement some sane costing data plans that people could understand.

T-Mobile is the only one to offer unlimited data plans in the UK (£7.50 for just the phone, 12.50 if you want to use the phone as a modem too).

The rest charge per MB which is a concept that should have been dropped 5 years ago. Like dialup has been.

 

[whooleytoo]

What the mobile phone companies seem to forget when moaning on about 3G take up (I talk from a UK angle but I suspect the rest of Europe is the same) is that people would want 3G for it's data handling abilities if only they would implement some sane costing data plans that people could understand.

T-Mobile is the only one to offer unlimited data plans in the UK (£7.50 for just the phone, 12.50 if you want to use the phone as a modem too).

The rest charge per MB which is a concept that should have been dropped 5 years ago. Like dialup has been.

I mentioned here (in one of the many, many iPhone threads) how I tried Mobile TV on my 3G phone to see how it'd look. "Supposedly", the data charges should have been included, but my last month's bill was 300 euros (normally, it's about 50). Apart from the fact it's completely against the terms I agreed to, I only spent around 20 minutes using it!

3G here is insanely expensive (plus, still too slow, and far too unreliable).

 

[emotion]

3G here is insanely expensive (plus, still too slow, and far too unreliable).

Yeah. I think that maybe Three are a bad example of the whole thing too.

The state of play with next gen technologies on mobile phone networks needs looking into.

The mobile phone networks are too used to raking in cash from text messaging. Which costs them virtually nothing to implement and run.

 

[braesl]

Asian version?

what can i say... i'm excited.
i live in china where they never sell locked phones.
but i'm assuming it will take forever for a version of iPhone to be released in mainland. Having stated how excited i am, i however would only buy this phone if it allowed for the same easy of language switching that Mac Os X allows, ie; between english, simplified chinese and korean that i do so easily on my mb. at the moment i can't use the 3 on my phone. texting in those three in addition to 3rd party dictionary or what have you, would put me over the line.
here hoping that the os will allow for it...

 

[ChipperVW]

that's my question

Hopefully they still keep the free cingular to cingular calls once the iPhone is released. What will the internet/text/pic/email service cost?

my question exactly. I LOVE the iPhone and would LOVE to get one, but what will be required for the service from Cingular? Will it be a minimum $40/month voice service + $40-$60/month data service?

 

[Speedracer04]

my question exactly. I LOVE the iPhone and would LOVE to get one, but what will be required for the service from Cingular? Will it be a minimum $40/month voice service + $40-$60/month data service?

same concern here...I wouldnt be able to afford another $40-$60/month charge. However looking at it...I dont really see how you would absolutly need a data plan....You can still get the internet through the WiFi capabilities and I assume email also. And with a WiFi blanket coming to my area very soon, I could care less if I had EDGE because I would never use it.

 

[fastdrive]

Having talked to a friend who's job duties include working on pricing plans at Cingular he has advised that they are planning a special bundled Iphone voice+data plan, but nothing has been finalized yet. It's still in the early stages.

The idea bascially is that everyone pays one price for the phone, and pick's either just 1 or maybe a choice of 2 plans and that's it. Keeping it really simple and integrated, the Apple way.

 

[Ugg]

Having talked to a friend who's job duties include working on pricing plans at Cingular he has advised that they are planning a special bundled Iphone voice+data plan, but nothing has been finalized yet. It's still in the early stages.

The idea bascially is that everyone pays one price for the phone, and pick's either just 1 or maybe a choice of 2 plans and that's it. Keeping it really simple and integrated, the Apple way.

Hmmmm, I don't want to buy a phone if I'm locked into a two year, $50-100 a month contract. I make less than 2 hours of calls a month on my cel phone and since I despise contracts, pay as you go plans work best for me. I really could care less about the data plan, I'm only interested in the wifi. If Apple/Cingular don't offer a pay as you go plan, I won't be buying an iPhone even though I really want one.

 

[fastdrive]

I have no idea what current customers with existing plans would pay or how they would handle them. I had just talked to him in regards to me signing up with cingular as a new customer and purchasing the Iphone.

There maybe pay as you go plans, but that was really not discussed. Our conversation revolved around how many different data and voice plans they have and how this did not revolve around the way Apple usually does stuff. This is when he told me about the special package(s).

 

[ki-goi]

Did anyone notice during the keynote, just before introducing the Cingular CEO, Steve said "visual voice mail is the first fruit of this collaboration, and you will see more."

i did, and the main thing i could think to be done would be data sharing and synchronization like idisk allows, except across the cingular network, between phones. shared calendars, shared contacts, etc. it'd be a little complicated.

standardized push email is another possibility.

being able to tell if someone's phone is on before you call them.

routing calls based on caller ID. send this to me, send that to her, send the other to voice mail. can this already be done?

some kind of fax proxy service coupled with fax sender and viewer in phone.

sending out voice mails to event guests, with ical.

photo caller ID.

basically anything that can be done assuming that the user has (a) a computer to help out, (b) online storage space, (c) good mobile data bandwidth, and (d) this particular phone.

 

[Georgie]

Sent this to Apple, and Cingular, earlier today. Curious what will be their response.

I want to express my disappointment that the iPhone is tied to Cingular service. I was wowed by Mr. Jobs demonstration of the phone. It really is revolutionary in the market. It's fantastic. I want one. I would break my Verizon contract tomorrow and pay the $200 fine on top of the cost of the iPhone, knowing that it's a GSM-only device. I would buy one immediately but for one thing. It's tied to Cingular. I will not switch to Cingular, locked into an expensive two year plan. Especially given that I would be purchasing the iPhone at practically full price, without any discount from Cingular, I will not agree to a two-year contract with unknown data rates on top of that. I understand the desire to sell the iPhone unsubsidized, but there must be some advantage to that for the consumer as well. Premium costs should purchase premium quality (it appears to with the iPhone) and premium service (it does not with Cingular) With any other phone and any other company, anywhere else in the world, purchasing a phone full price gives the purchaser freedom to enter into non-binding contracts with cellular service providers. Unfortunately Apple's tie-in with Cingular is just the worst of both worlds, full price hardware, locked to Cingular's network, and a long-term contract.

I'm curious about the phone being locked to Cingular's service and what that means for international travel. Does this mean that when I travel overseas I can not use use a foreign sim card for lower local rates? Instead I'll be forced to pay Cingular's egregiously high overseas roaming rates. I hope this isn't the case; it's not acceptable.

The iPhone hardware is awe inspiring. Unfortunately the contractual obligations are a deal breaker. I hope Apple takes these sentiments into consideration as they consider future contracts. I do understand that certain features of the phone, like the visual voicemail, probably require some consolation from the service provider. Maybe the simple conference calling feature as well. But the consumer deserves some freedom, and those features aren't worth giving up freedom of choice. I want to think different, be free; instead by purchasing an iPhone I'll be tied to Cingular's onerous demands. They are consistently ranked the worst cellular provider in the United States by independent organizations like JD Power (Cingular's own unreleased "studies" aside). I might consider switching to Cingular, but I won't be told that I must pay full price for device and contract, sign a two year contract, and agree to as-yet-unknown billing structure (currently their data rates are expensive relative to their competitors).

I am wowed by the iPhone. I desparately want one. I've been waiting a long time for a beautiful device that syncs well with my MBP. I thought the iPhone was it, but apparently it is not. Not with such stipulations.

 

[Mike Teezie]

As it is right now, I pay about $90 a month to use my Blackberry. $50 plan, plus $40 unlimited data service. It's ridiculous, but I unfortunately have to be able to receive/send email anywhere, on the go.

If I could get this phone, and have the basic voice plan, then just use WiFi for email/internet, I would happily switch over. It would be worth the cost of the phone actually, because my monthly bills would be so much lower.

Service providers, like cable tv providers, have had it so good for so long. Raping us on every single little thing they can, like SMS texting, as the poster above stated. Not to mention I absolutely loathe the contract model, like I'm sure most everybody does.

Charge me an extra $100 for the phone, I don't care.

This is the one Apple product that no matter how great the user experience is, it will always be tainted with all the garbage that comes with dealing with a service provider. Maybe Apple can change the way it is, but I doubt it.

 

[peharri]

routing calls based on caller ID. send this to me, send that to her, send the other to voice mail. can this already be done?

Yes. GSM spec allows any incoming call to be forwarded to an arbitrary number. Few phones actually implement the recommended interface, but it's there.

some kind of fax proxy service coupled with fax sender and viewer in phone.

GSM already natively supports fax. I had a Nokia 9000 in the late nineties and was able to send and receive faxes on it. Orange gave me a separate "fax number", so incoming fax calls were just handled by the phone transparently. It, if you'll pardon the phrase, "just worked".

sending out voice mails to event guests, with ical.

I'd just implement that over MMS. I'm surprised, to be honest, no mobile phone companies have thought of integrating voicemail with MMS. WHy do I have to make a phone call to recieve a voicemail, why can't I just receive them as MMS messages and choose to listen to them and delete them on my phone, in whatever order I want? Perhaps Apple's "visual voicemail" will spur a few Cingular competitors to do exactly that.

photo caller ID.

Already a feature on most camera phones. You do, of course, have to associate a picture with each number.

 

[bonehead]

I want to express my disappointment that the iPhone is tied to Cingular service. I was wowed by Mr. Jobs demonstration of the phone. It really is revolutionary in the market. It's fantastic. I want one. I would break my Verizon contract tomorrow and pay the $200 fine on top of the cost of the iPhone, knowing that it's a GSM-only device. I would buy one immediately but for one thing. It's tied to Cingular. I will not switch to Cingular, locked into an expensive two year plan. Especially given that I would be purchasing the iPhone at practically full price, without any discount from Cingular, I will not agree to a two-year contract with unknown data rates on top of that. I understand the desire to sell the iPhone unsubsidized, but there must be some advantage to that for the consumer as well. Premium costs should purchase premium quality (it appears to with the iPhone) and premium service (it does not with Cingular) With any other phone and any other company, anywhere else in the world, purchasing a phone full price gives the purchaser freedom to enter into non-binding contracts with cellular service providers. Unfortunately Apple's tie-in with Cingular is just the worst of both worlds, full price hardware, locked to Cingular's network, and a long-term contract.

I'm curious about the phone being locked to Cingular's service and what that means for international travel. Does this mean that when I travel overseas I can not use use a foreign sim card for lower local rates? Instead I'll be forced to pay Cingular's egregiously high overseas roaming rates. I hope this isn't the case; it's not acceptable.

The iPhone hardware is awe inspiring. Unfortunately the contractual obligations are a deal breaker. I hope Apple takes these sentiments into consideration as they consider future contracts. I do understand that certain features of the phone, like the visual voicemail, probably require some consolation from the service provider. Maybe the simple conference calling feature as well. But the consumer deserves some freedom, and those features aren't worth giving up freedom of choice. I want to think different, be free; instead by purchasing an iPhone I'll be tied to Cingular's onerous demands. They are consistently ranked the worst cellular provider in the United States by independent organizations like JD Power (Cingular's own unreleased "studies" aside). I might consider switching to Cingular, but I won't be told that I must pay full price for device and contract, sign a two year contract, and agree to as-yet-unknown billing structure (currently their data rates are expensive relative to their competitors).

I am wowed by the iPhone. I desparately want one. I've been waiting a long time for a beautiful device that syncs well with my MBP. I thought the iPhone was it, but apparently it is not. Not with such stipulations.

Good luck with that.

 

[rcm3]

This blurb from PC World which I found using news.google brings up some fairly good questions which will all need to be answered eventually.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,128511-c,cellphones/article.html

I'm looking forward to this as much as anyone! But I need some more answers before dropping the cash.

 

[mac-er]

II know more about technology & business than you could ever wish
to learn

People who say things like this rarely know anything at all. By the way, we use proper grammar, don't use net-speak, and we don't wrap our text in this forum unlike the cell phone forums you came from.

Anyways....

Some things I am curious about...

1. I have dropped my cell phone several times, and it has held up like a champ (even dropped it on concrete). I wonder how the iPhone will hold up because everyone drops their phone from time to time.

2. Apple will sell the iPhone on their website. I wonder how they will handle the plans portion. Will they simply overlay their own web interface on Cingular's so Apple controls what the site looks like or link you to the Cingular website?

3. Apple's retail employees will have to become trained in selling and pushing the various aspects of cell phone plans. I am sure Cingular will want them to push plans hard.

4. Most cell phone manufacturers have you send your phone to the cell phone company for repair. I wonder how Apple will handle this and will AppleCare be available for it?

Any thoughts?

 

[paja]

Bloggers diss iPhone

Gizmodo, run by bunch of Gates fanboys up deep in the M$ booty, is calling the iPhone the "Chickphone" ie: the Gayphone and the "JesusPhone". They feel it will be dead by the time it ships. The blog entries are brutal and so are the comments. The weak and timid should avoid it as to not get your feelings hurt.

Engadget is almost as bad. They even question Jobs honesty and don't believe it's running OS X at all. They even suggest that Apple ripped of the LG KE850 Phone.

The dogs have been set loose. It all out war to kill the iPhone before it ships.

 

[mac-er]

with unknown data rates on top of that...and agree to as-yet-unknown billing structure (currently their data rates are expensive relative to their competitors).

Looks pretty known and competitive to me:
Sprint: Unlimited Data Pack: $39.99
Nextel: 5 MB Blackberry Plan: $39.99, Unlimited $49.99
Verizon: 1350 Voice and Unlimited Data $109.99 (does not break out data, but is around $39.99)
T-Mobile: T-Mobile Internet Unlimited with email: $39.98

AT&T Cingular: PDA Unlimited: $39.99

This was extremely easy to find. I don't know why you said AT&T Cingular's data rates are not competitive or unknown.

 

[made4mac]

Great phone but...

This looks like a great product but, I just wanted a better iPod. Why make a great portable video player then cut it off at the knees by putting a max of 8gb in it? This is one Apple product that I wouldn't buy because it just doesn't make any sense. What I mean is how stupid does Steve Job think most people are? I have met some stupid people but everyone of them knows how to use a phone easily. Did the phone really need to be "reinvented". IMHO is product is going nowhere.

 

[GregA]

Apple's retail employees will have to become trained in selling and pushing the various aspects of cell phone plans. I am sure Cingular will want them to push plans hard.

Yeah, that's not a simple thing.

One of the rumours is that Cingular is making 2 special plans for the iPhone. So, I guess, there'd be 2 iPhones (4GB/8GB) and 2 plans to choose from (high end or low end).

That makes a lot of sense for Apple employees. However, it'd be nice to have a greater range of options especially if you go to a cingular store.

(Says the Aussie who's got no Cingular experience)

 

[failsafe1]

This looks like a great product but, I just wanted a better iPod. Why make a great portable video player then cut it off at the knees by putting a max of 8gb in it? This is one Apple product that I wouldn't buy because it just doesn't make any sense. What I mean is how stupid does Steve Job think most people are? I have met some stupid people but everyone of them knows how to use a phone easily. Did the phone really need to be "reinvented". IMHO is product is going nowhere.

I think this is a better iPod. This is a portable device not a permanent storage unit so for me 8gb would be plenty. What doesn't make sense to you? Sure everyone knows how to use a phone but easier is always better. You could say the same thing with each generation of phones from rotary to the current stuff.I think this device combines what is most useful with an easy to use interface. Don't know if I will own one yet but I like what I see.

 

[fiddle245]

I think this is a better iPod. This is a portable device not a permanent storage unit so for me 8gb would be plenty. What doesn't make sense to you? Sure everyone knows how to use a phone but easier is always better. You could say the same thing with each generation of phones from rotary to the current stuff.I think this device combines what is most useful with an easy to use interface. Don't know if I will own one yet but I like what I see.

Whats the point of having video w/ 4 gb when only 1 movie takes up 2-3 GB by itself?

 

[pengu]

Whats the point of having video w/ 4 gb when only 1 movie takes up 2-3 GB by itself?

Personally im not likely to watch a full length movie on it, but a music video, or a funny clip i find, or maybe even an episode of family guy if im on a flight, would be cool.. however i do understand your disappointment at the amount of storage.. a 16gb high end, or the capacity for MS/SD/xD card (one format, i wouldnt expect them all)..

it has an ipod connector right? what about the ipod camera adapter? maybe it (or a revised/hacked model) could be used to access content on a usb flash drive?

 

[berkleeboy210]

Hey Guys,

I'm not sure if this has been asked before buy anywoo:

I was thinking about this whole FCC thing tonight.

Steve said it takes 2 months for approval, so does that mean that the phones are not in production yet, and will not go into production until they get approved?

If i remember correctly, I've been to Engadget in the past when they say phones were approved by the FCC they are released within 2 weeks.

But 2 months from now is March, and I thought why not Apple Surprise us on there birthday April 1 w/ an Early iPhone release?

If anyone has some info on the whole FCC Process, please post.

Thanks, and Let me know your thoughts on my opinions!

 

[Ugg]

I was thinking about this whole FCC thing tonight.

Steve said it takes 2 months for approval, so does that mean that the phones are not in production yet, and will not go into production until they get approved?

If i remember correctly, I've been to Engadget in the past when they say phones were approved by the FCC they are released within 2 weeks.

But 2 months from now is March, and I thought why not Apple Surprise us on there birthday April 1 w/ an Early iPhone release?

If anyone has some info on the whole FCC Process, please post.

I don't know about the whole approval process but two months sounds right as Apple is new to the phone business. Also, they need to manufacture them so that probably takes a month or so, then add on quality control, shipping etc.

I also question how ready the phone is for FCC approval. I think I read where Apple won't submit its application for a couple more weeks. The phones that various journalists have played with seem to be fully functional so....

1 April would be a pretty cool release date. Something tells me that something will be released to commemorate their 30th. Maybe the 50" monitor and complete home video/computing package?