[Ben]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/6241786/Vodafone-will-sell-the-iPhone-in-the-UK.html


Vodafone will this morning announce it has become the latest British mobile phone operator to secure the rights to sell Apple’s hugely popular iPhone, the Daily Telegraph has learned.
And that's about it at the mo!

[Ben]

Bye byeeee O2!! =D http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/mobile-phone/iphone-3gs

[3GScottishUser]

So that's 02, Vodafone (which will be one in the same network to al intents) both got it and Orange too.

So left out in the cold are T-Mobile, who won't care because their new partner comany (Orange) has it and Hutchison 3G UK.

Good to see this news as it will now create some real competition for iPhone customers and who knows even mighty Vodafone might create a 360 app for it, now that would be interesting!!

[Hands0n]

Hmmm, thinks.... Start a new contract on Vodafone, port number across, get a brand new iPhone 3GS, eBay the older (mint) one for several hundred quid, job done!

Sounds like a plan to me :D

[Ben]

Hmmm, thinks.... Start a new contract on Vodafone, port number across, get a brand new iPhone 3GS, eBay the older (mint) one for several hundred quid, job done!

Sounds like a plan to me :D
Yeah this sounds likely - though I'm yet to eBay anything... but I think I'd need to try and get some money for my old one somehow! Hmm.

I hope there's still a reasonable deal and subsidy for upgraders, I'll just go back to my old Vodafone number that's still ticking along in the N95 8GB! :S

We need tariff details! Argh!! Don't you just know they're going to keep them close to their chest?

[3GScottishUser]

The only problem with that plan is there will be 1000s thinking the same thing and as the networks increase the number of iPhones in circulation the price of 2nd hand units will plummet.

I doubt if the deals Vodafone and Orange have negotiated with Apple will be more generous than 02's and I doubt if either will offer an iPhone for less than £35 a month on an 18 month contract. Vodafone might offer unlimited landline calls, on-net calls, 250 SMS and 300 minutes X/Net plus 500MB - 1GB fair use Internet but I think that'll be about as good as it gets.

What 02 have shown is that customers have to pay a premium for this handset and that is either by way of price or a substantial reduction in the inclusive minutes and texts they get for the monthly fee. It makes good sense for networks to keep the inclusive allowances low on the iPhone as they have to share call and SMS revenues as well as data revenues with Apple and that factor is unique in the mobile phone industry. Unless of course the new entrants have managed to do a different deal but I doubt it.

Apple's straegy with the iPhone has been to exploit the loyalty of their core users, mainly well educated and wealthy individuals prepared to pay premium prices for an enhanced user experience. They have managed to get share of Mob Ops revenues for supplying the device... BUT... this can only continue to work for them if the user experience is significantly better than the competition and I reckon they are catching up fast!

I can see how Vodafone and Orange might not actually be a big coup for Apple. The extra distribution might generate sales to keep them selling at current levels but as similar alternatives arrive, canny networks might simply use iPhone availabilty to compare and switch-sell to devices that make the Mob Op more revenues. Best of both worlds, they can offer the iPhone to Apple die-hards and switch-sell to others open to suggestions. Either way the networks have a lot more control over the sales process and won't loose out as whatever is chosen the buyer will be hooked into enhanced 3G services.

It's a new ball game for Apple moving into the mainstream market and I suspect their unique revenue sharing strategy might be their undoing as 02 and the others look to switching customers to devices that return control of wireless revenue to them, hense the ultra shrewd move by 02 to capture the Palm Pre as an exclusive now.

[Ben]

Apple already deal with several networks in the same territory elsewhere, so I'm thinking they wouldn't have broken UK exclusivity if the wider distribution was likely to hurt them. But yes, O2 having the Pre as an exclusive is quite shrewd.

Apple may well have enough sway with Orange and Vodafone to ensure things like really-unlimited Internet are included. As for minutes and texts, though, that's probably a lot more in the operators lap.

[getti]

Well now the network i WANT to get the iPhone IS getting it.... So will I!.

Put in my pre-order today and after canceling my modem line i have 1 more line i can take so instead of getting a Samsung H1 I will get a iPhone 3GS instead :D

[Hands0n]

Is the notion that the iPhone is only for "...mainly well educated and wealthy individuals..." a north of the border thing? ;) I only ask because 'darn 'ere" I see the iPhone wherever I look. It is in the hands of the obviously better off, equally so in the hands of raggamuffins and every measure of humanity in between. It is not, by any means, exclusive!

Regarding O2's "premium" price for this handset - I cannot see that at all. The £35pcm contract has become much the norm for the bundled voice minutes, generally unlimited SMS and maybe some miserly data (Vodafone). It is not at all unusual to see £35 being charged for completely uninspiring handsets with that tariff bundle. In fact, it seems that £35 has become the new £25 of a year or so ago. And people are willing to pay that amount, even for non-iPhone handsets, not even Android or WinMo!! :eek:

Mention of the "user experience" always lights my particular fire. The Apple experience with the iPhone remains unique. It has that certain quality, feel, ease of use to it that the others just do not measure up to, at least yet. Android comes close, very close in my opinion. The rest have yet to prove themselves. Maybe Vodafone's new cross-platform approach will work, maybe it won't. It is unlikely to match the Apple iPhone experience - especially when coupled with the desktop and cloud, no one yet does it quite so well.

The Palm Pre, in my opinion, is irrelevant. It is an aberration that history will take care of soon enough. Sure, there will be sales via the hype. But as the reality bites there will be tears, and lots of them. Particularly anyone foolish enough to step on to the Pre from the iPhone. They will be sorely disappointed.

This is embarrassing - I just wish that there were a device to take on the iPhone. But, as of yet, there isn't. Which is exactly why every single mobile operator in the globe wants to carry it, even though it is now over two years old!