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Apple to Partner with O2 for iPhone UK? Orange in France?

02 iPhone rumour is only speculation

New Media Age report that O2 and Carphone Warehouse have both dismissed speculation that either has completed a deal to receive the iPhone on an exclusive basis.

Rumours surrounding Apple's new device which combines a phone and iPod have heightened following its launch in the US on 29 June.

Operator Cingular was chosen as the exclusive partner in the US and Apple is believed to be keen to adopt a similar strategy for its UK deployment. However, no launch date has yet been announced.

While Vodafone and T-Mobile have each been linked to Apple this week, recent reports suggest that O2 and Carphone Warehouse have emerged as the frontrunners in the race to win the highly prized phone.

However, both companies moved to dismiss the reports.

"There is no deal, it's all rumours," said a spokesman for O2.

His comments were echoed by a Carphone Warehouse representative who said he expected Apple to opt for a joint release with both an operator and network agnostic retailer.

"As the largest retailer we are in with a shout but it's all complete speculation," he said.
 
I don't think what O2/Voda/whatever have done to previous phones in terms of branding or locking is in any way relevant to iPhone. Apple will have much more control. It's a whole new ball game really.
 
02 iPhone doesn't exisit

redwin11 said:
Here's the confirmation you all were waiting for:

www.o2.co.uk/iphone
Click to expand...

Exactly!

Here's the 02 iPhone page

"02 - Sorry, we don't seem to be able to find the page you are after...

Unfortunately the server couldn't find the page you requested, either because it is temporarily unavailable, has had its name changed or no longer exists.

This might be because:
You may have typed the web address incorrectly. Please check the address and spelling ensuring that it does not contain capital letters or spaces;
It is possible that the page you were looking for may have been moved, updated or deleted.
Please try the following options instead:
Go back to the previous page
Go to the O2 Homepage
Go to the O2 Sitemap"
 
iPhone with no 3G or MMS messaging in Europe will be like M$ trying to break the japanese market with the XBox......
 
Ben Kei said:
(Not saying NI is rural here! My sister lives out in Suffolk and everyone there is on o2 or Vodaphone cos they have good coverage)
Click to expand...

The advantage that o2 and Voda have is that they use 900Mhz, whereas T-mobile and Orange use 1800Mhz.

The lower frequencies require more power at the base stations, but they penetrate buildings easier.

In my town (not rural by any means), Orange claimed they had excellent coverage, but I couldn't get a signal in my house. However it worked outside.
 
don't take it personally

In reply to some posts... First of all I don't want to bankrupt apple and my temptation to go for a Samsung is not an attempt to bankrupt them. I have every piece of Apple equipment and gadget at home and I'm very satisfied. But I hate their IPhone selling practices.

A good company should try to encourage the market to give more choice to consumers. What Apple is doing with the Iphone sounds more like Microsoft practice. It's probably true that power corrupts.

Of course I like the Iphone better than many other phones, but I won't let a hardware maker decide on service providers for me. This is my freedom and my choice. I want to get the service provider that I feel is best for me. Not for Apple's profits. If I get a company that costs 30% more than one of my choice, parts of it will go to Apple. But didn't I pay the full price for the hardware when I purchased the phone?

As for 3G and what I need to do with it, it's quite simple. First of all video. I want to be able to download quality video. Then I want the phone to act as a modem for my MacBook Pro. Then I want to download mail attachments with large pictures. And I want to surf the net very fast.

I'm not asking for too much because the technology has been out there and the fact that the 3G chip would be too large or drain batteries sounds like complete bull to me. How does competition come out with smaller phones that have 3G, good battery life, and even GPS in some cases?

It looks like Apple's choice is dictated by one element: the $30 or so in savings they get by using old technology leftovers. If that was the only sacrifice I had to make for their profit I would probably give in. But I feel they ask too much for.

The Iphone is a great telephone and I'm sure it's fine to many. But I feel that its price plus the expensive voice and data plans that Apple forces you to take will end up making a hefty difference in one year. A difference that could buy me a Macbook. And most importantly, I don't think that this way of selling should be encouraged at all.

If all phone makers learned from Apple we would no longer have a choice of service. Then why not have a large monopoly in the first place?
 
So if I live in Barcelona... I have to wait 'till 2008? :( I don't understand why not launching iPhone in Italy... they are the most important mobile phone market in the EU. France, UK and Germany are the countries where Apple has best sales, though. I hope Spanish and Italians will see iPhone 2.0 when Apple decides to come to our countries.
And I still think that paying 500€ for a phone without 3G is too much! Maybe I don't use Video-calling or TV but if I'm paying that amount, I want the latest technology.
 
Carniphage said:
As a European (brit) who's played with the iPhone, I have a couple of observations.

People were not buying this device blind. The Applestores are full of iPhones to play with. The SF store had maybe 20-30 units on display. These were not dummies, but actual phones. They are live too. You could make calls on them. Try them out. They had only blocked international dialling.

Now that is some enlightened thinking. I have never been in a Carphone Warehouse and had a chance to actually touch a real phone until I'd signed the 'effin contract. That's why phone interfaces are so crap. We don't get to see how bad they are until after we have paid up.
Click to expand...

Good observation. The cell phone dummies being showed in the shops have always annoyed me. Especially since they, despite being worthless dummies, are commonly chained to a wall in order not to be stolen, making it impossible to get a realistic feel of the phone's weight etc. Would anyone seriously consider stealing a dummy? Even if Apple's entry to the mobile phone industry would only lead to the extinction of the cell phone dummy, all customers would be better off.

/Galex
 
BCNMacLovr said:
So if I live in Barcelona... I have to wait 'till 2008? :( I don't understand why not launching iPhone in Italy... they are the most important mobile phone market in the EU. France, UK and Germany are the countries where Apple has best sales, though. I hope Spanish and Italians will see iPhone 2.0 when Apple decides to come to our countries.
And I still think that paying 500€ for a phone without 3G is too much! Maybe I don't use Video-calling or TV but if I'm paying that amount, I want the latest technology.
Click to expand...

Indeed - how embarassing will it be if by Feb 2008 when the Mobile World Congress meets in Barcelona that you won't be able to buy what is being heralded as the biggest change to the mobile market!
 
princigalli said:
In reply to some posts... First of all I don't want to bankrupt apple and my temptation to go for a Samsung is not an attempt to bankrupt them. I have every piece of Apple equipment and gadget at home and I'm very satisfied. But I hate their IPhone selling practices.

A good company should try to encourage the market to give more choice to consumers. What Apple is doing with the Iphone sounds more like Microsoft practice. It's probably true that power corrupts.

Of course I like the Iphone better than many other phones, but I won't let a hardware maker decide on service providers for me. This is my freedom and my choice. I want to get the service provider that I feel is best for me. Not for Apple's profits. If I get a company that costs 30% more than one of my choice, parts of it will go to Apple. But didn't I pay the full price for the hardware when I purchased the phone?

As for 3G and what I need to do with it, it's quite simple. First of all video. I want to be able to download quality video. Then I want the phone to act as a modem for my MacBook Pro. Then I want to download mail attachments with large pictures. And I want to surf the net very fast.

I'm not asking for too much because the technology has been out there and the fact that the 3G chip would be too large or drain batteries sounds like complete bull to me. How does competition come out with smaller phones that have 3G, good battery life, and even GPS in some cases?

It looks like Apple's choice is dictated by one element: the $30 or so in savings they get by using old technology leftovers. If that was the only sacrifice I had to make for their profit I would probably give in. But I feel they ask too much for.

The Iphone is a great telephone and I'm sure it's fine to many. But I feel that its price plus the expensive voice and data plans that Apple forces you to take will end up making a hefty difference in one year. A difference that could buy me a Macbook. And most importantly, I don't think that this way of selling should be encouraged at all.

If all phone makers learned from Apple we would no longer have a choice of service. Then why not have a large monopoly in the first place?
Click to expand...

IMO you drive home some excellent points..

I hope that a lot of others who want the iphone also feel the same way, and that Apple realises all of this in time!!
 
Yeah, VNUNet are carrying the same story now.

Would seem at least O2 are either not in the frame, or denying it until an official announcement.

Would be nice though that the jump-the-gun journos spoilt a deal with O2....I don't rate them at all as a carrier here in the UK

I'm starting to wonder whether i'd just be better off with something like a Sony Ericsson W960i :

http://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?...=pp1&pid=10908

8gb
Touchscreen
3.2 mp cam
Video recording
Opera browser
Wifi
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's a nice phone, always like the SE phones over Nokia
 
I agree with princigelli, this 'exclusive operator' arrangement is a rip-off. We can only hope that the iPhone might spur some even better devices from the likes of Sony Ericsson, Nokia, etc. The iPhone is certainly over-priced. Last weekend I went to my local store and bought a SE K800i for just €211. In Belgium, locked handsets are illegal, so I can use it on any network (I also (legally) debranded it for €7 online). It has expandable memory up to 4gb (for about €50 for the cost of an M2 card), a usable music player, a better camera than the iPhone and last, but not least, 3G and MMS, both lacking on the iPhone. The only major functional omission vis a vis the iPhone is the lack of wifi. But it looks like I would be asked to fork out at least twice that for the iPhone, as well as in all likelihood a more expensive rate plan. That looks very steep to me. OK, so the SE doesn't have quite as good an interface as the iPhone, but still... Don't get me wrong, I adore the iPod but I think Apple have really gone too far in gouging its customers this time. Anyway, this is all to show that us consumers should be allowed to choose which handset and which network we want to use - locked handsets and exclusive handset/operator arrangements make everything less transparent and increase the risk of us getting ripped off.
 
If Apple wade in with Doc Martens across Europe they'll potentially alienate a very lucrative market. Not giving 3G or MMS functionality from day 1 will be damaging (especially MMS unless they tweak the OS).

Such a strategy would only allow the likes of SE, Nokia and Motorola (who already have the touchscreen ROKR E6 and a Linux slider) to develop something close if not better than the iPhone and steal back the market share.

With the amount of iPhone-style phones emerging at a fast pace, it will only be a matter of time before Apple will be caught on the hop, still resting on their original iPhone launch laurels.

I love Apple products, I've recently switched from XP to OSX, even the wife finds them easier to use. But this kind of jack-boot strategy won't go down well here.

I only hope they treat Europe and the UK as a market to be listened to, and not just an outlet for products.
 
...has decided instead to sign separate deals with the largest operator in each European market for the initial launch of the handset in the UK, France and Germany in time for the Christmas sales rush.
Click to expand...

How does affect roaming then ???

Or has Apple not even considered this at all ?! :mad:
 
With England's own Jonathon Ive so high up in the food chain (OK, nothing to do with the business side, but still) I would have thought that the UK wouldn't be a last-thought for Apple...

Higher pricing, later releases, and generally worse support (very few people here seem to get replacement machines)...we're not being treated well...
 
So many rumors from so many sources... I think the only carrier not mentioned so far is Three!

I cant believe the accuracy of rumors lately - its become like the sports pages in the newspapers!
 
russellelly said:
I don't think what O2/Voda/whatever have done to previous phones in terms of branding or locking is in any way relevant to iPhone. Apple will have much more control. It's a whole new ball game really.
Click to expand...

i agree, its a totally different style of phone with new ways of activation etc, i too don't see how other methods of unlocking or similar are relevant.

Also surely because the iphone is sooo different, (all the wifi features and maps and edge or 3g, this would not work if you transferred network?)

Would seem an odd thing to transfer network and lose lots of the functionality of the iphone.
 
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