Cingular-only iPhone At Launch?

[Abstract]

That artists rendition posted on the front page is pointless. It's not as though that is the actual design. It looks too Nano-ish, and even the Nano look has changed.

Anyway, I'm not excited about an iPhone. It would need to give me at least one neat feature for this to be worth drooling over.

It has a camera? So what.
Mp3 player? Don't they all?
Games? What....like the iPod ones? Meh.

Something new would be nice.

 

[bigandy]

I hope it isn't O2, that would be a shame. To be honest, any network lockins would be bad.
My vote would be Orange if I had the choice.

I've found that through expansys.com and mphone.co.uk i can get anything sim free, sometimes even before it's launched on the network.

that's how i got my current smartphone.

i REALLLLLLLYYYYYYYYY hope its orange...

as the choice of mobile phones they have at the moment is the poorest i have ever seen in the UK.

ive been waiting on a p990i since march.....still dont have it on orange, was told yesterday it could be end of october now.

i am gauranteed a free upgrade on any handset, so come one apple!!

I got fed up waiting for the P990, and ended up getting a free upgrade to the SPV M600. I wasn't a fan (read "I loathed") Windows Mobile until I got this phone. It's fantastic.

The only thing the P990 does that the SPV doesn't is video calling. And, to be honest, I've got a lot of friends with 3G phones, and not a single one has ever used the videophone feature.

 

[bigandy]

I hope you will be able to by it 'sim free' in the uk, im not buying it if it an O2 exclusive and this will make me sad

you will, just keep an eye on expansys.com and mphone.co.uk when (if) it's announced...

 

[erikh]

did you read the article above?

"Apple is still in talks with providers in other parts of the world on other exclusive deals"

Well, the cell phone markets work in different ways in different parts of the world. While the standard in the US, and other parts of the Americas, is that phone and network follows each other closely (which is why you have a lot of provider-specific phone models, even for the supposedly provider-independent GSM phones), most of Europe has a very weak connection between individual phones and networks.

Here, the most provider-specific you can go is to get a discounted (yet otherwise ordinary) phone if you sign up for a one-year subscription. Oh, and you may get your provider's GPRS/WAP/MMS settings pre-installed.

So, it would really be a first if Apple would get "provider-exclusive" distribution deals throughout Europe. And that's not considering the fact that there is no single provider that covers all of Europe, so they would have to go through the troubles of signing different deals in each country. In my thinking, that leads to Apple either dropping the European market, postponing the release in Europe until they have saturated the US market, or just release it on the general market. After all, I believe most of the European cell phones that are available on the US market as provider exclusive are sold "openly" (under slightly different names and color schemes) back here in Europe.

 

[fixyourthinking]

Mvno

I still think Apple will go MVNO [Mobile Virtual Network Operator] and sell it exclusively though Apple Stores and "Stores Within A Store" (CompUSA, Circuit City, Best Buy, Fry's, Microcenter) - it will most likely be LEASED time from Cingular.

For those wanting it on another service like TMobile or SunCom in the US ... it's almost a certainty that someone will come up with a way to unlock it within a few weeks of release. (maybe even a few days)

 

[MattyMac]

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!

 

[yoak]

I hope and think that Europe is to big a market to ignore.
The cellphone market is huge here, there are now sold more cell phones than there are people in Norway

 

[prady16]

I am glad my Verizon contract is over!
Now i am ready to shift to Cingular once the iPhone is out and enjoy their Roll-over minutes!

 

[ImNoSuperMan]

What about India? I want me an iPhone!!

And why the exclusive deal? Wouldn't that mean that Apple would sell LESS iPhone's? I can't see how an exclusive deal with Cingular/O2 benefits anyone other than Cingular/O2...

i`d once bought an unlocked T-Mobile Sony T610 in India and it worked absolutely fine with all the GSM providers I tried. So in case even if this iPhone is exclusive to Cingular we`d still be able to get it to work here(fingers crossed).

 

[prady16]

Any idea what kind of "top-secret" features Leopard could support for iPhone?
Let your imaginiations run wild!

 

[spicyapple]

Any idea what kind of "top-secret" features Leopard could support for iPhone?
Let your imaginiations run wild!

Automatic calendar and address book syncing.

 

[Leoff]

who the hell are cingular? what about orange t-mobile, vodaphone or o2? I guess it's US only again...

You've gotta love it. You're getting mad at not getting a phone that 1) Doesn't exist yet, 2) May not exist at all, and 3) the US doesn't even have yet.

 

[ijimk]

dunno if i will buy i just bought a slvr a few months ago and love it.

 

[0098386]

looking forward to an Australian deal. Hopefully it will be someone cheap like Virgin - they are "hip and trendy" (at least I think they are...)

hah, they portrayed as that over in Australia too? I love Virgin Mobile for their brochures and other literature covered with cheeky comments.

Yea Sim Free is the only way I'd get an iPhone. No way in hell am I giving up my 7 year old phone number. Sim free, stick in my ancient Virgin Mobile sim card and BAM. We have a winner.

Any idea what kind of "top-secret" features Leopard could support for iPhone?
Let your imaginiations run wild!

I can imagine the iPhone playing these new iPod games. makes total sense. but that's the limit of my imagination for now

 

[p0intblank]

Six months isn't a long time, so I guess I could wait until then. It'd be better if it supported Verizon from the start, though.

 

[cmcconkey]

I personally think that this sux. The Cingular store here is a huge joke. You could walk in there and no one would even notice that you were there. They will sit there in their cell phones and talk, laugh and carry on with there personal life and not worry about making a new customer. Also there customer service, every time I dealt with them, was just horrid. I was a BellSouth/Cingular customer for almost 10 years and had billing problems at least 2 months out of the year. I would call in and explain to them the problem, the supervisor would look over it and tell me I will have a credit on my next bill. Well sometimes the next bill was 3 months down the road, is that how you deal with your customers? I think not.

I call up Verizon and tell them I have a problem, on last thursday, I talk to a supervisor and we get the issue worked out. She asked me when I would like my credit applied, as soon as possible or on my next billing cycle. I told her as soon as possible, I had my credit applied to my account saturday.

I know this got a off topic, but switching back to a crap company like Cingular is not in my future, no matter if they call me up and offer me a free iPhone to come back to them.

Christopher

 

[Warbrain]

I call up Verizon and tell them I have a problem, on last thursday, I talk to a supervisor and we get the issue worked out. She asked me when I would like my credit applied, as soon as possible or on my next billing cycle. I told her as soon as possible, I had my credit applied to my account saturday.

I know this got a off topic, but switching back to a crap company like Cingular is not in my future, no matter if they call me up and offer me a free iPhone to come back to them.

Christopher

You got customer service from Verizon? Is this before or after they tacked on the taxes that aren't being collected anymore? Or crippled the Bluetooth on their phones? Or put a terrible GUI on their phones? Or any other number of things that they've done that are anti-consumer?

 

[Bubbasteve]

I wonder when it will be released? I really hope Apple sells them in there stores and I don't have to go through cingular and get it...but whatever I must do what I must do

 

[Stewie]

Yeah, this is pretty exciting news. I had already planned to call Verizon this morning to see when my contract is up.

EDIT: $175 termination fee per phone and a good while to go on the contract. Yeouch! I may just have to keep my fingers crossed that Verizon Wireless gets the iPhone late next year.

Yeah I don't think that is going to happen. I can't see Apple making a CDMA phone just for Verizon/Sprint. Making a GSM phone, especially if it is quad-band, would allow them to only make 1 phone for the world market.

 

[Warbrain]

i`d once bought an unlocked T-Mobile Sony T610 in India and it worked absolutely fine with all the GSM providers I tried. So in case even if this iPhone is exclusive to Cingular we`d still be able to get it to work here(fingers crossed).

I'm willing to bet that Apple won't use the same techniques as other cell phone manufacturers use to lock their devices as the OS will be developed by Apple. It'll be much like the Sidekick, which is locked to T-Mobile in such a manner that it's a pain in the ass to unlock it and even then a lot of the features are crippled since they won't work on any other network.

 

[ctachme]

Agrhhh... why does Apple have to be so stupid? Do they not know that there are vast areas here in the US where Cingular doesn't support?

Why the hell can't they just sell an unlocked phone and just let us choose providers that actually have service where we live? I really hope someone finds a way to hack these phones and make them carrier-independant!

 

[Xenious]

What a joy killer. Launch the iphone as network independant then let carriers subsidize it if they want. Even if I was a cingular customer I sure do not want a phone locked to any one carrier. All of this because we (americans in general) only want cheap cheap subsidized phones.

The good news here is that it will likelye be GSM based (hello world).

 

[Warbrain]

Agrhhh... why does Apple have to be so stupid? Do they not know that there are vast areas here in the US where Cingular doesn't support?

Why the hell can't they just sell an unlocked phone and just let us choose providers that actually have service where we live? I really hope someone finds a way to hack these phones and make them carrier-independant!

There are vast areas that Verizon and Sprint don't cover in the US, too. It's that way with every single cell phone company in the US.

Apple would have to make at least 2 different phones for that to work. There are two primary cellular networks in the US: GSM and CDMA. If Apple makes just a GSM phone, they're also making a phone that can be used in almost every other country in the world. Europe and Asia are the real cell phone markets, not the US.

 

[Thataboy]

Lame.

The only way the iPhone market even makes sense is via an Apple MVNO.

Since when does Apple NOT want to "control the whole widget"? I don't want Apple controlled by the nutjob mobile providers.

As much of an Apple fanboy as I am, I would never use Cingular. But beyond that, it signals that the Apple iPhone will be incredibly lame -- just another music phone (basically an Apple ROKR/SLVR), because that is pretty much all that Cingular trades in.

 

[Warbrain]

Lame.

The only way the iPhone market even makes sense is via an Apple MVNO.

Since when does Apple NOT want to "control the whole widget"? I don't want Apple controlled by the nutjob mobile providers.

As much of an Apple fanboy as I am, I would never use Cingular. But beyond that, it signals that the Apple iPhone will be incredibly lame -- just another music phone (basically an Apple ROKR/SLVR), because that is pretty much all that Cingular trades in.

MVNOs are expensive to lease from other networks and the whole mess of plans makes it a pain the ass. Apple would be better off making something like a smartphone, which is what the iPhone most likely is.

And just because Motorola made ****** phones that ran iTunes on them doesn't mean that Cingular is the one that wants them. Moto was the one that ****ed it all up, not Cingular. If Cingular knew that the Apple phone was going to be great and not be totally crippled like the ROKR was - which was Apple's fault - then they would sell it regardless. Don't have such bias against Cingular. Verizon and Sprint aren't much better, either.