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Apple Unable to Find iPhone Partner in Europe?
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Perhaps this should read differently?
Hmmmmm.....the same part of the world (where the politicians think) it deserves a special Itunes without DRM when the music companies won't let Apple do it.
... I don't see much of a connection between the DRM demands of certain governments and the iPhone demands of certain cell phone companies....
Most of the people in Europe already buy phones from independent retailers, not from operators. And mantra of contract is not that strong in Europe.
So, whatever the reason is in the end, I would definitely love to see unlocked iPhones available somewhere. Wonder what would Apple and AT&T do to prevent import of those phones back to North America?
So, whatever the reason is in the end, I would definitely love to see unlocked iPhones available somewhere. Wonder what would Apple and AT&T do to prevent import of those phones back to North America?
Most countries that I have lived in (Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand), voice mail costs money to the subscriber. It's not a free service and your usually charged "x" amount of cents per minute you listen to your messages. And everyone know you have to hear them all before you get to the important one at the end, thus spending more money per minute...
Apple's system is that you choose which one you want to listen to as you see them on screen, this means there is a (small) loss of revenue, as now you don't have to wait for every other message to play. And it's not just an iPhone problem, soon everyphone will have visual voice mail, and the carriers will be upset over this.
Plus I don't see how they are able to charge for your time spent listening to message anymore, if they are all downloaded anyway ? Perhaps a monthly fee, perhaps Apple doesn't want any monthly included fees for that to spoil the feature... and perhapswith Apple's other demands of revenue sharing, that'll cost the carrier a lot of money...
...Sure, I love many of the features that Apple has implemented into the iPhone, but I doubt the two companies were arguing over visual voicemail, for example.
Many of the unprecedented demands Apple is making don't benefit you in the least - they go straight into Apple's pocket.
And you need to understand that the cell phone market Europe is very different from the US. For example, all phones are GSM, and locked phones are virtually unheard of (in some EU countries, they're also illegal). ...The cell phone market is much more consumer-friendly in Europe already. It's highly probably that some of Apple's demands (such as locking the iPhone) were not in the best interests of the people.
Mainly, when I suggested that Apple compromising could lead to benefits for the consumer, I was thinking of choices, and mainly, the fact that you don't have any choice with the iPhone at the moment.
What are you talking about? Locked phones are all over the place here and I've never heard that simlock is illegal anywhere outside the USA.
There are a lot of good European cell phone companies, so the cell phone carriers have their suppliers in their backyard. While the iPhone might be by far and away the best cell phone in the United States, in Europe and Asia their cell phones are much more advanced.
You made me wonder what I was missing too! So, let's think about your points:
1. This is a given.
2./3. Would the scripts be a dial-pad simulator? Would the script slowly wait for the different dial-pad prompts and then iPhone would load each voice mail and parse from the audio voice mail that the carrier provides all of the caller ID info?
4.Same as AT&T/iPhone feature.
So, with 2&3, we hit on the problem, I guess. While you could script the standard dial-pad interface for other networks' voice mail, it would be slow and would basically "time-out" the phone while you waited on the non-skippable voicemail menus to complete. Anything more involved or streamlined than this would require active participation from the carriers.
Apple's agreement with AT&T gives them what appears to be a voicemail system that loads all waiting voicemail metadata to the iPhone at one time, not waiting for the AT&T network to serve up individual voicemail audio but instead grabbing everything else all at once with all caller ID info.
Scripting the voicemail system seems like it would either be very slow or require carrier help in the implementation.
Locked phones are illegal in Finland for sure.
Operators don't even sell phones in many countries, you just go to any retailer to buy phone and SIM for operator you like.
Come ON people - stop that BS. While there are independent retailers who sell unbranded / unlocked phones, just like in the US, a huge number of phones are sold directly by the phone companies, just like in the US. All major carriers have their own retail stores where they sell their branded and oftentimes locked phones. Also, over 90% of all the phones sold in Europe are sold with a contract of 12 or more months. Without contracts, phones are insanely expensive. Also, why would anyone sign a 12 or 24 month contract when he or she doesn't get a phone?
Nothing. They don't even have a goal.
Back to iPhone. Yep, Apple is arrogant, meaning they know what they want and they have a goal.
This reminds me of the movie studios. For both the movie studios and the phone companies I suggest Apple add a monthly penalty for refusing to get on board.
Back to iPhone. Yep, Apple is arrogant, meaning they know what they want and they have a goal.
This reminds me of the movie studios. For both the movie studios and the phone companies I suggest Apple add a monthly penalty for refusing to get on board.
Where do you live? Please don't use BS words if you don't know what are you talking about.
I personally purchased at least 10 unlocked phones in the last 5 years from a retail stores in Finland, Austria, Serbia and Greece.
And for your info, over 60% of the phones in Europe are pre-paid, not contract.
Guys, you gotta understand that Europe has had GSM phones for a while now & they arent used to being locked-in when it comes to their phones. Americans dont really care as much because a lot of people still use CDMA (Verizon, Sprint, etc) where they are locked in. So, its not a big deal here.
Its the way it should be & is the whole point of using GSM technology. I love Apple, but they are wrong here. Not everything we Americans do is right you know.
Its the way it should be & is the whole point of using GSM technology. I love Apple, but they are wrong here. Not everything we Americans do is right you know.
Well, I'd claim that the cellphone market in Finland is highly special and cannot be generalized for the whole of Europe. Simlock certainly isn't illegal in Switzerland and Germany and in both countries, most phones are sold in retail stores ran by the carriers themselves. Mostly branded, often simlocked.
Simlock is illegal in the US, too, btw. Or rather: cracking the phone lock is legal.
You can buy phones from independent retailers in the US, too, btw.
I really don't see any difference there.
I, for one, am very happy to hear this. As much as I love my macbook pro, Apple really needs a reality check with the iPhone. They have a platform now that has sooooo much potential, but they don't give anyone access to it and only allow web 2.0 apps? Based on the information out on the iPhone right now, Apple needs to play catch up. I'm surprised that 3G isn't even in the iPhone. GPS should have also made it in.
Switzerland. I'm not claiming there aren't any unlocked phones in Europe (just like in the US). I'm just saying that there certainly are locked ones in most European countries that most phones are sold with a contract and that carriers do sell their own phones (all of which was said to be untrue before by some other people, that WAS bs). I just don't like it when people generalize and talk about a homogeneous EU-wide market that doesn't exist.
"Unbelievably Arrogant"
Are the phone companies ignorant of legendary "Applearrogance"? We have the hottest product "on the planet!" Obviously, then we expect the world.
I have no idea what the business model for EU is involving cell phones, but being in Asia, most people purchase their cell-phones outside of a contract because it is cheaper, also a lot of people use pre-paid GSM/3G services instead of a contract. It'll be interesting how Apple handles the Asian market, there's a lot of money to be made, but maybe it would be better if they were more cautious b/c while many of my colleagues people love the designs of Apple (iPod/computers) they don't love them enough to justify the price. Hopefully Apple will soon find a partner and continue with the iPhone craze worldwide.
None of this is surprising. Just wait till after this phone launches here in the U.S. Apple is going to realize theyre already off the mark with this unit with all the claims they made for it. This will only hit a niche crowd, won't be a mainstream item and not an icon for the company. Just another "hobby" I guess you could say.
What would be nice is if the voicemails could be converted to AAC and stored on the phone. Of course then you wouldn't be using your minutes to call voicemail. But it would be cool if visual voicemail was "audio voicemail", and then, if they can get speech recognition working...really make it visual voicemail...convert it to text.
One thing at a time though.
One thing at a time though.
I'm not talking about prepaid here. Any for your information: in Switzerland (which is also part of Europe, last time I checked), close to all prepaid phones have simlock.
Those two statements are very different. Simlock is very legal in the U.S.
Belgium as well.