Maybe 'because they can', and they're in the business of making money! Without any true competition, for the iPhone, O2 have the monopoly and can do what they want, and their contracts allow.
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iPhone No Longer Available in UK
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Maybe 'because they can', and they're in the business of making money! Without any true competition, for the iPhone, O2 have the monopoly and can do what they want, and their contracts allow.
I think even if it goes to multiple carriers, which is very likely, neither O2 or Apple would end their relationship as its beneficial to both. And I guess if there's more competition, that's good for consumers.
Seeing it on other networks would boost sales no end, I know at least 30 people who were interested in the iPhone but have Orange/Vodafone contracts.
But that would mean Apple giving UK consumers choice so don't hold your breath.
I wouldn't expect O2 or Apple to sever any relationship, but more carriers does mean more sales opportunities for Apple. With 2.5G & 3 G still nowhere near 100% for any one UK carrier, some mobile users have a choice of only one or two carriers. If O2 isn't one of those then Apple lose a sale and Apple lose their revenue share.
it's already nearly been a couple of weeks of unavailability of the 8GB in o2/cpw shops. i've been trying to buy one since 28 april and have been unable to source one at any o2 or cpw shop in london.
the price promotion was advertised to run until 1 june, so it seems that it was more popular than anticipated and they either can't and won't get in any more phones for the promotion period. so it looks like there will be at least 5 five weeks of o2 and cpw turning away customers willing to enter into 18 month contracts. unless their promotion was due to run until after the introduction of the new model.
They should have just offered the phone for sale with a huge £75 or £100 discount just to clear the old stock. Some people don't care if they get a 2.5G phone, or 3G.
I don't think you put a lot of thought into anything you said.
I don't think you put a lot of thought into anything you said.
Hmm. I suspect that the 'because they can' argument will go away as soon as someone figures out how to use their existing iPhone SIM in a new iPhone, and the 'being in the business of making money' argument will tend to be incompatible with pissing off their loyal customers, who were prepared to stump up the best part of three hundred quid to buy the first phone, and who will probably be prepared to spend the same or more to get the new one, but who won't be impressed at having to extend their contracts for the privilege of doing so.
New iPhone Release - Imminent
Apple has one of the BEST Global Supply Chain and Distribution networks in ANY industry. Therefore I feel the release of the new iPhone is imminent. They will use WWDC to highlight iPhone 2.0 and SDK Apps......
OR.... they totally &^%$#@# blew it.
Apple has one of the BEST Global Supply Chain and Distribution networks in ANY industry. Therefore I feel the release of the new iPhone is imminent. They will use WWDC to highlight iPhone 2.0 and SDK Apps......
OR.... they totally &^%$#@# blew it.
or o2 and cpw blew it because they do not have the best supply chain and distribution network.
I strangely get the feeling this was planned. Plus, adverts cannot be updated this fast, it usually takes 48+ hours.
Sounds like a pretty bizarre practice to me. Even if they didn't sell many iPhones online, each one sold is money in the pocket.
What might be more possible: Apple makes a certain amount of money for every iPhone bought at an Apple store or online, and a certain smaller amount of money for every iPhone bought at O2. Apple knows they cannot handle the complete UK phone market, they need partners, that's why O2 is selling them even though it is less profit than Apple selling the phones. When O2 dumped the iPhones at bargain prices, that changed the balance. Obviously this reduced Apple's own sales and therefore reduced the total profit. The O2 partnership was based on a calculation what Apple's average profit would be, and that didn't take into account a partner dumping the phones. As a result, Apple might be a bit slow shipping more products to O2.
Toys out of the pram?
Ok here's a totally random suggestion.
What if O2 have decided not to offer the 3G version based on the smaller-than-expected sales despite their advertising efforts (mainly in store recently)? Maybe the subsidy costs would be high for them again?
What if Apple have decided that O2 didn't do enough to push the iPhone in the UK and gone to another carrier?
If either of these scenarios was true, maybe with a pending 3G release and a desire to not bother playing the game anymore, O2 have pulled the iPhone early as a dig at Apple going with another network?
It just feels VERY odd to leave the UK without any official supply of the iPhone from the very network you're relying on. Unless we see a new iPhone by close of play tomorrow, I'm suspicious of this move because it doesn't feel like its Apple-led.
If this 3G iPhone is going to be offered on multiple carriers then surely O2 would've wanted to continue the momentum that they are THE source for iPhone, and not just pull it.
iPhone on Orange please. Come on, only have to do a bit of work to get visual voicemail working.
Thoughts?
Ok here's a totally random suggestion.
What if O2 have decided not to offer the 3G version based on the smaller-than-expected sales despite their advertising efforts (mainly in store recently)? Maybe the subsidy costs would be high for them again?
What if Apple have decided that O2 didn't do enough to push the iPhone in the UK and gone to another carrier?
If either of these scenarios was true, maybe with a pending 3G release and a desire to not bother playing the game anymore, O2 have pulled the iPhone early as a dig at Apple going with another network?
It just feels VERY odd to leave the UK without any official supply of the iPhone from the very network you're relying on. Unless we see a new iPhone by close of play tomorrow, I'm suspicious of this move because it doesn't feel like its Apple-led.
If this 3G iPhone is going to be offered on multiple carriers then surely O2 would've wanted to continue the momentum that they are THE source for iPhone, and not just pull it.
iPhone on Orange please. Come on, only have to do a bit of work to get visual voicemail working.
Thoughts?
I suspect that you have hit the nail on the head, there. Their £100-off sale was to clear stocks of the original iPhone, and was very successful. With an announcement of the new iPhone imminent, they don't want to be left with lots of 'old' phones that nobody's interested in buying.
That said, if their iPhone sales are as good as they suggest, having no stock for a few weeks is going to mean a lot of lost sales. If their sales are that good.
Do you really think a large company like O2 would stop selling a product because of rumours? We aren't talking about a local computer shop who can't afford to have outdated stock, we are talking about a national company. There is no way they operate their product offering based on rumours, if a 3G iPhone is coming soon O2 know about it.
Doubt it. O2 have been fairly proactive in pushing the iPhone. I've never seen them push one single phone like they did with it.
I think the problem is that none of the carriers is interested that much in the iPhone if all the other carriers have it as well. What they are really, really, really interested in is a phone that they have exclusively and that makes people switch carriers. If you buy an iPhone from O2 instead of another phone, that's peanuts for them. But if you leave another carrier and join O2 to get an iPhone, now _that_ is real money.
It is probably difficult for Apple to get this right. Basically you know 30 people who learned from O2 about the iPhone and were reasonably close to buying it. If O2 and Orange/Vodafone would both be selling it, they would probably both try much less hard to sell it, so half of these 30 people might never have known it.
At O2, everyone will tell a customer: "You should buy the iPhone, it is the best, and you can get it only here. Don't buy that other phone that Orange is also selling, it is no good to you", because they know you can't go somewhere else and get it £10 cheaper. If everyone else sells it, that advantage will be gone.
why don't they try controlling their stock better? all the phones i saw sold during the promotion appear to have been running 1.1.2 meaning they were pre- january 2008 stock. so it seems likely they bought a huge amount in november and no more since. unless there is some contrary stipulation in their agreement with apple, they could buy in stock now slowly and in low numbers to satisfy the demand of this promotion. they may lose money on the 8GBs but they would make money on the 18 month contracts.
perhaps though they are unable to get any more iphones.
Interesting idea. However, if Vodafone had the iPhone I wouldn't be leaving them (after 10 years) for O2. If several other people leave their carriers for the iPhone then that's real money lost.
I don't think that's necessarily a random suggestion. I would not be at all surprised to learn that O2's sales of the iPhone weren't the massive success that they hoped they would be. It could well be that the iPhone sold reasonably well, but not well enough to offset the costs of investing in Visual Voicemail upgrades and Edge downgrades, not to mention the money that Apple creams off each contract.
If that's the case, O2 could well be happy to offload whatever iPhone stocks they have, and to wait and see which way Apple jumps with the next generation phone. If Apple are insisting upon the same terms for selling the new iPhone, or even considering having multiple providers, O2 might be content to just wait and see how it pans out before they commit to pushing the new iPhone. I wouldn't be too surprised to learn that O2 are pushing Apple to allow them to sell the iPhone in the same way as any other mobile phone: by having a range of tariffs that determine the level of subsidy on the price of the phone itself. That's the business model that they're used to, and they probably want to be able to sell the iPhone that way, too. Apple wouldn't get a cut of the contract revenue, but they would be able to charge more for the handset. That would make the longer/more expensive contracts, with the higher rates of subsidy, more attractive, and O2 would make its money in the usual way.
You wanted thoughts. Them's mine.
Surely the bottom line which is there aren't any iPhones for sale via these store, is a bad situation to be in as some people will just buy something else? I don't see how it benefits anyone, especially given the recent sales boost the platform has had.