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iPhone France Launch and Unlocked iPhones (100 Euro?)

Over Achiever said:
How much is the cancellation fee with Orange? Add that to the 100 euro, it shouldn't be too bad, right?
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Wonder what happens when you pay extra for the unlock and then activate/unlock with iTunes (assuming it's like German unlocks) and then cancel the contract within the 14 day cooling off period? just a thought...
 
Exactly

freediverdude said:
A 600 euro voucher?? So this Debitel is saying "We'll give you 600 euros of free service (probably a year's worth), if you'll pay 600 euros to unlock your phone and switch to us"? I don't see how they could make much money- they're not selling the phone, and giving away service. Unless they restrict how much of the voucher you can use at a time or something.
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Actually you can't compare the prices, cause Debitel hasn't named their tariffs yet. Anyway they can make a ton of money on data transfers (which may not be bundled). So selling you no unlimited Data but charging 1-2 € per MB of data...well, that kan make an enourmous amount of money. Especially when you start using Mail on your iPhone.
 
Interesting, if it is true that Debitel will give you a 600 Euro voucher. Apple wanted to avoid, it seems, to have the iPhone available on every network and being "heavily" discounted by phone companies. But that would basically happen if more companies follow Debitel. You buy the iPhone from T-Mobile for $999, get a voucher from the carrier of your choice over $600 and sign their contract or prepaid plan. So, the iPhone in the market costs $399 and is available on any network.
 
Note that if it's true that you will have the option to unlock your iPhone for a 100€ fee if you have purchased it with a contract, Orange will also offer the iPhone without any contract for a premium - Didier Lombard (Orange's CEO) said this morning that the price of an unlocked iPhone without a contract will be between significantly lower than 999 euros (reacting to the price T-Mobile is selling an unlocked iphone in Germany following court decision). Final details will be published tomorrow morning (Paris time) before the D-Day.
 
us unlock fee?

Man - It would be awesome if Apple would offer the unlocking for $99 to us in the USA. You could buy the phone, sign up for the required AT&T contract, then pay $99 to unlock it. I'd be much happier, as I could use the phone while traveling in europe.

Instead - its going to make americans buy their phones unlocked from france, and then use them on AT&T's network.

Guess you could still do that, but most of us already own our iphones.
 
swagi said:
Actually you can't compare the prices, cause Debitel hasn't named their tariffs yet. Anyway they can make a ton of money on data transfers (which may not be bundled). So selling you no unlimited Data but charging 1-2 € per MB of data...well, that kan make an enourmous amount of money.
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According to this German link:
http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/mobil/0,1518,520006,00.html
40 Euros includes unlimited data.

This Reuters story is less detailed:
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUKL27177020071127?rpc=44
 
brucku said:
Man - It would be awesome if Apple would offer the unlocking for $99 to us in the USA. You could buy the phone, sign up for the required AT&T contract, then pay $99 to unlock it. I'd be much happier, as I could use the phone while traveling in europe.

Instead - its going to make americans buy their phones unlocked from france, and then use them on AT&T's network.

Guess you could still do that, but most of us already own our iphones.
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Though you would then have to pay both your original contract and your new contract...
 
twoodcc said:
my thoughts also. it will be interesting to see what the real plan is when it's released
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As many have said before, the terms "unlocked" and "contract" have nothing to do with one another.

A phone can be locked to a carrier and not be on any contract. It can be unlocked from a carrier and be on a long term contract. It's the phone that's locked or not, not the contract.
 
Unspeaked said:
The real question here is how much does it cost to A) buy the French iPhone B) get it unlocked and C) terminate your contract.

If that's less than the German price, it's a deal. If not, there's no difference (or it could be worse!)...
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All of which were already answered before you asked.
 
Unlocked iPhone in France for 749€

According to the well known German news site
golem.de iPhone will start in France on November 29th.

A locked device with a contract (Orange) will cost 399 € as usual.
You can get a locked device without contract for 649 €, of course
this makes most sense if you already have an Orange contract.

It will cost you another 100€ to have it unlocked (or free after 6 months). So an unlocked / contract free iPhone will cost you 749 €.

Original News (in German):
http://www.golem.de/0711/56247.html

Edit: If you want an iPhone with a new contract from Orange and don't want to have any of the special iPhone contracts but an other Orange tarif, you can get a (locked) device for 549 from them.

I think it won't be easy for Deutsche Telekom to justify 999 € at the court. Thanks to the EU it will be easy for German customers to get a device from France.

Christian
 
I'm still trying to get my head around the price points.

399 -> contract
549 -> no contract, but tied to orange?
649 -> no contract, not tied to orange?

+ 100 -> unlocked?

How is it tied to orange for 549? There are conflicting reports out there.

arn
 
Unspeaked said:
Unfortunately, that's the one I'm most interested in.

Termination fees can be so high that it would totally dwarf the other two figures combined...
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I can't see anything on the website, but if I were Orange I'd be tempted to recoup the total price of the contract as a 'termination fee' and I wouldn't feel it unreasonable.

Anyway from the other thread on this subject it looks like you can buy an official unlocked phone, sans contract for €749 or £533. That price puts it way up there with the Nokia e90, a fully featured smartphone and way above the SE P1i, again fully featured. It also puts it way above a lot of other similar less-smartphones. Just how much effort and cost are people going to go to for the Apple name and the iPod ease of use?
 
JFreak said:
That's what unlocked smartphones have always cost, like it or not. That's why subscriptions look like a good deal like the first 6 months or so.
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I have to disagree.
Median price range is around 650€: SonyErikson,FSC (while they still made them),HTC,Moto etc..

Only few models actually are close to the 999€ range,like nokias communicator E90,thank god..
 
Macrumors said:


Retuers reports on Orange's expectations for iPhone sales in France. Orange expects to sell nearly 100,000 iPhones by the end of 2007 after its launch later this Wednesday.

MacScoop reported on the leaked rate plans for the French iPhone last week. The rate plans were revealed on iphone.orange.fr. Pricing points include 49 euro/mo, 59 euro/mo, 79 euro/mo, and 119 euro/mo.

Orange will also be offering an unlocked iPhone. The Reuters article provides no details on the price of the unlocked iPhone but places it "significantly lower" than the unlocked German iPhone.

The MacScoop report, however, indicates that the French iPhone will be unlockable even before the typical 6 month wait-time for only 100 euro. While on the surface this seems much cheaper than the German pricing, it does not appear that this removes the 2 year contract requirement with Orange. This means that while you can buy an unlocked iPhone in France for 499 euro (399 + 100), the main advantage will be to avoid roaming charges when traveling as you are still contractually obligated to Orange. Meanwhile, the unlocked German iPhone has no contract requirement, but comes at a higher cost. These details have not been confirmed by Orange. Official announcements will be made on Wednesday.


Article Link
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This is great, now if only someone would be willing to import these unlocked iPhones from Germany or France to the US... :D
 
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