...Though is expected to launch on Mobistar first as early as May. The decision may have been forced upon Apple, however, as Belgium specifically prohibits the sale of "locked" mobile phones.
Article Link
It's MOVISTAR not MOBISTAR
...Though is expected to launch on Mobistar first as early as May. The decision may have been forced upon Apple, however, as Belgium specifically prohibits the sale of "locked" mobile phones.
Article Link
chappy87 said:I take it this would mean no more free new apps for such iPhones, if the reason for them being free is that they are part of the subscription model?
eh? why would that be the case?
In all honesty - if they are releasing the 3G iPhone unlocked in other countries then logic prevails that it has to happen worldwide - otherwise the import of those Unlocked iPhones into countries like the UK will be vast! I know about 6 or 7 people with iPhones and only one of them is officially with O2. The rest are jailbroken...
Plus... if they do sell unlocked in only a few countries and not in others - the latter will feel shortchanged and will be up in arms! Apple will not come out smelling of roses.
So therefore if these rumours are true - the locked iPhone is a thing of the past! And just as an aside - if the SDK will allow developers to put whatever program they can develop on there... won't that negate the use for programs such as Jailbreak and therefore Apple will start to regain control over these iPhones that are being lost to the wild?
Can't wait for the "hopeful" June release of the 3G iPhone...
Still don't understand what a "jailbraked" iphone is...![]()
A jailbreak is the act or tool used to perform the act of breaking out of a chroot or jail in UNIX-like operating systems or bypassing digital rights management (DRM). In the former case it allows the user to see files outside of the filesystem that the administrator intends to make available to the application or user in question. In the context of DRM, this allows the user to run arbitrarily defined code on DRM-encumbered devices as well as break out of chroot-like restrictions. DRM-encumbered devices such as the iPhone have repeatedly been subject to jailbreaks, allowing the execution of arbitrary code, but have had those jailbreaks disabled by vendor updates.[1][2] It was only in the wake of the popularity of the iPhone and iPod Touch that the term jailbreaking became well known in popular culture worldwide.
And anyone with any knowledge of aapl would know that this was the plan all along!
It's to do with Apple's accounting system.
When Apple has added things to the iPhone it has been "free" because Apple is getting revenue from the subscriptions.
But, when the same feature is added to the Touch, Apple has had to bill for it. An example being the January Touch update that added Mail, Maps, Weather, Notes, and Stocks.
If the iPhone is sold without a subscription Apple will most likely bill for significant updates to it to meet their accounting requirements.... hence no more free apps.
Any chance of a CDMA iPhone somewhere in the world one could import into the US?
It's MOVISTAR not MOBISTAR
off topic, I know - but is the apple site down for anyone else?
apple. said:Http/1.1 Service Unavailable
Another report from Belgium makes identical claims that a 3G iPhone will be arriving by the end of June. Again, the iPhone is expected to be compatible with all Belgian operators, though is expected to launch on Mobistar first as early as May. The decision may have been forced upon Apple, however, as Belgium specifically prohibits the sale of "locked" mobile phones.
Can anyone answer this question.... Would apple make more money unlocking the phone and selling more... than keeping it locked and selling not nearly as much?????? The question seems pretty easy to answer but I was wondering if I am missing something???
There's just a handful of countries in the world where the iPhone is officially available now and although we're "up in arms" that we can't have them unless they're jail broken, Apple is still getting the revenue from the initial phone sales, further to that, when Apple briefly offered unlocked phones for sale they were markedly more expensive than the ones tethered to a contract.
Apple will still be able to have a dual sales model, with tethered units in some countries, and unlocked in others, which in some countries it is a legal requirement. I'd expect the price of the handsets to include the missing Apple revenue sharing from contracted customers coming to Apple as an upfront charge, in other words more expensive unlocked phones and less expensive ones if you commit to a carrier - which is more or less the existing model for hardware producers - a subsidized handset with a contract.
How far reaching is this accounting requirement? If iPhone is sold on a contractual/revenue stream model in the US, and unlocked in other countries, do the same rules apply to non-US phones?
1. Ebay offloads Skype to Apple at a bargain price of $1 billion (plus a symbolic number of shares to somewhat obscure the terrible, terrible mistake they made in buying it for $2.6 billion).
2. Skype's app, fully integrated into the iPhone's core phoning functionality, becomes the central plank of June's spectacular 3G + apps launch.
3. No longer able to justify charging it's telco partners outrageous amounts for exclusivity (because Skype will destroy any juicy long-distance profits the they might have hoped for), Apple embraces the open market at no price increase.
4. Instead, they will make more money from a $22 per month Unlimited International calling + an All-You-Can-Eat iTunes music subscription, decimating AmazonMP3 and all the other music download stores, solidifying iTunes' dominance.
5. Apple gives no other VOIP apps licenses to appear on the iPhone. Apple becomes a major provider of phone and video calls, while the telcos become big dumb pipes, competing tooth and nail to sell simple bandwidth at commodity prices.
Think it won't happen? Just watch
Donnacha
In all honesty I think the accounting requirement is a bit of non-sense. had they sold you and iPod touch and then developed an application specifically for it, then i guess they could justify charging for that application, but this really isn't the case here, they just got a handful of application that they had already made for another purpose and made them available on another product and it not like the inclusion of the application really significantly raises the value of the product enough seeing as they new programs are included at no extra cost on the current iPod touch models.
They honestly should make the App store freely available for iPod Touch owners as only they will be loosing revenue from lost application sales. Also them restricting peoples access to the App store will make their platform less attractive to developers, who as it stands will already be developing for a relatively small market.
Actually that's not a bad idea in terms of offering a service. However, I think Apple really wants the mega bucks and has been a bit greedy with the iPhone. Revenue subscription could be millions.
However such a service as a tie in with .Mac could be most welcome. I would like something, at least in terms of syncing by wifi etc.
God, if only that would happen. I'm especially in favour of the part where the Telco's become nothing more than pipes. Then we'd see some REAL competition here in North America.