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The Orange Network in the UK will be having this phone as an exclusive until April 2007 - they are trying to compete with the 3 network which is very sussessful with their MusicStore - having over 1 million downloads a month in the UK alone!
 
You're kidding right?

...and this is why America is so far behind. Contracts here are a year and some are at 18 months tops. A 2 year contract is unheard of in the UK. Most people into gadgets and tech in the UK (or even just bored people) buy phones SIM free. CEX and many other franchises have entire shops dedicated to phones (used/new and unlocked).

There is no way on this planet people in the UK will go for a 2 year contract. Text messaging bundles keep popping up (you know text in the US ? SMS? I know you don't use it much but here it's probably more popular than email - include the 16-25 year olds in this camp) and minutes on the contract are ever-changing to keep up with competition. 2 year contracts? No way.

You think the US isn't a fierce addict of txt messaging??? That same 16-25 year old group you talk about are totally addicted to it. I'm at the top of that range and I hold entire conversations via TXT message. O - and my TXT Message bundle - unlimited txt messages for $5 a month

Great thing about Cingular is you don't really care about the mins because they just keep rolling over - my plan is for 400 a month (free night & weekends and free calling to other Cingular customers obviously) and I'm sitting on over 1200 roll over mins right now - I don't feel any need to change my plan at all. That and I get a 25% discount via my company...
 
Neither prices are realistic. The earlier ones were too cheap and the ones now are too high. It'll be somewhere in the middle. I wouldn't worry about it anyway until we hear about the features.
 
You can in the U.S. too, for about $200 (~4 months of service) if you have GSM.

Those prices are absolutely outrageous. why not just pay as you go? Here you could get a service which has monthly subscription-fee of 0-3e/month, and calls (outgoing only, incoming calls are free) cost about 0.06e/minute. Of course those services have every option imaginable enabled by default (conference-calls, call-forwarding, datacalls, answering-machine, SMS, etc. etc. etc.)

I use my phone daily (including datacalls), and it seems that my monthly cell-phone bill is about 20-25e/month.
 
Those prizes are a madness.

I was saving for the iPhone, but I wont pay that money for a mobile phone.
 
Those prices are absolutely outrageous. why not just pay as you go? Here you could get a service which has monthly subscription-fee of 0-3e/month, and calls (outgoing only, incoming calls are free) cost about 0.06e/minute. Of course those services have every option imaginable enabled by default (conference-calls, call-forwarding, datacalls, answering-machine, SMS, etc. etc. etc.)

I use my phone daily (including datacalls), and it seems that my monthly cell-phone bill is about 20-25e/month.


the us cell phone market is a mess. dropped calls, prices of 40-80 dollar a month for average or good service. different networks with puzzling contracts. mostly you can't keep your phone when you switch networks. your phone is usually locked so you are supposed to pay for ring tones.

the us cell phone market is made to keep the users uninformed and get as much money out of them as possible. a ripoff.

in germany i get good service with most features enabled for ~20 euro a month including the calls. here in the us i'd pay for the same ~$40-50 and i have to take one of their *****ty phones.

it annoyed me to the point where i switched to prepaid t-online (in usa). now i have only minimal service but at least i pay ~$10 a month and i can use my GSM phone from Germany both in the US and Europe. I just switch cards.
 
Those prizes are a madness.

I was saving for the iPhone, but I wont pay that money for a mobile phone.


Like I've said all along. Phones are heavily subsidised by the carriers. Those k800i phones aren't cheap on their own, for example.

Apple will find it hard to compete with carrier subsidised phones if they are just selling unlocked phones.
 
2 problems

The price will alienate buyers and result in low sales numbers. And why on earth should Apple elect to work first with a company (Cingular) that consistently has inferior services to others (Verizon). I love Apple products, but will not switch to a company that gives you poorer coverage and more dropped calls.
 
why don't you stop complaining about the price and repeat what many others have said in this post?
come on, use your brain. you want a wifi-bluetooth-highendcamera-amazingUI-ipod capable phone from apple at $300. read the rest of the posts and realise that a crappy phone as an unlocked RAZR costs $500.
 
Those prices aren't too high.

A lot of smartphones ( particular, Symbian - hey, you pay for superior quality ) are just a little below that price ( no contract ).
 
Id rather continue to use the two cans and string method, thanks.

This is the same thing that killed ESPN mobile. The prices scared away customers.

I refuse to pay $500+ for something so easy to lose.
 
Personal Communicator

Linked to my server, and media files, I'd buy one of these babies for whatever price. This will become a carry-everywhere, link me to my data, and the world device.

An extra-somatic memory module.:D
 
And why on earth should Apple elect to work first with a company (Cingular) that consistently has inferior services to others (Verizon). I love Apple products, but will not switch to a company that gives you poorer coverage and more dropped calls.

All carriers suck. Doesnt matter who they team up with.
 
my bet is the phones would be priced less. seems too high for market. but.... if they are smart pda phones. it would make more sense, but only if apple had deals with carriers.

a 1-2 year plan would take $200 off the price. and there you go.

but to be honest, it would still be over priced.
 
This isn't a question of wether the prices are high relative to the "out of the box" features or not, it's about what consumers will think when they see the first Apple phone being sold for 650$, and they will think "that's expensive".
I mean, I don't own a PDA nor a SmartPhone and Apple would only make me think about buying the iPhone if the price was reasonable, not compared to the features, but compared to how much a phone costs. You're saying that it's the best cell phone in the world when you haven't even seen it, let's just wait, we don't even know the "features" it will bring...
I believe these prices are bogus and completely out of this world.

Remember, Apple may have a lot to win from entering the cell phone market but they also could have a lot to lose if they make this product so expensive that only firm and "money-having" Mac users will buy it.
To broaden the market target, the price has to be reasonable.
 
Yay... More iPhone rumors, I wonder if they know anything about the elusive G5 PowerBook the rumors said next tuesday and I'm still waiting :confused:
 
Iv'e never paid upfront for a phone in my life so don't see it as any differant. If its offered as part of a contract the price is irrelevant. Maybe Nokia et al are making a fortune out of their phones selling them to the carriers who then sell them onto us. If you look on the Nokia US site they are selling phones for $500 and $600


http://www.nokiausa.com/phones/comparephones/1,8392,fltr=1|ordr=3,00.html

Obviously lots of money being made out of phones as the price is hidden. Maybe this is the REAL reason Apples getting into this field...
 
No friking way I buy at that price, contract or not. Besides I don't like contracts. That's why the phone companies are so bad, they got you locked in. $400 for the top of the line smart phone well integrated with my Mac, is about as much as I would consider.
 
Too expensive. Cingular only? That's two negative leaning towards flop. I hope the prices are wrong and it's not an exclusive because I won't leaqve T-Mobile to buy an Apple phone no matter how cool or how cheap they lower the price. Cingular is teh suX0rs! (did I type that right? :) )
 
The Orange Network in the UK will be having this phone as an exclusive until April 2007 - they are trying to compete with the 3 network which is very sussessful with their MusicStore - having over 1 million downloads a month in the UK alone!


Orange may have the contract but competeing with 3 - not really as they are one and the same company (hutchison)

Must say these prices seem about right for a high end phone sold unlocked and with no contract, the service providers even on pay-as-you-go heavily subsidise the handsets, so you'll only pay these prices if you can get your hands on a totally 'unbranded' unit, which are hard to come across - and not worth the extra providing you get a carrier which doesn't turn the firmware into junk. even then, its just a reflash to fix. Over on the Limey side of the pond[sic] at least, you can buy contract phones from anywhere, not just the service providers outlets, so we could bee mac stores selling contract iphones.
 
Clarification from the research note.

Clarification

Runkle actually claimed: "full screen LCD; 3.5 inch (28x21)" and approximately 4/10ths of an inch thick. Also incorporates a Virtual Click wheel.

This would make it sound more like a full-screen button-less design that people are expected for the video iPod.

arn
 
1 of 2 things is going to happen with thiPhoen:

1. Apple will come up with something so revolutionary it will blow everyone;'s mind
2. It'll be an MVNO that will burn bright for 3 months and fizzle.

I'm hoping for number 1, but hesitant to put money on it.

Either way, I hope the thing is not so geekified that the average phone user can't understand it. even if the phone is unlocked, tri band... blah blah blah, most users want a phone that:

Makes receives and KEEPS calls
Easy to use
Long Battery life
looks cool

$649 for a phone... uh oh.
 
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