[DBMandrake]

In a "duh, well of course they should have" move, Apple has announced on their website that all iPhone 4's (and the cheaper legacy 8GB 3GS model) sold through the Apple UK online store will be sold SIM free and unlocked:

http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone

It's about time, makes sense, but was in no way a sure bet until this announcement. They don't specifically say whether the same applies to iPhone's sold in physical Apple UK stores, but one can only assume this is the case.

We don't know yet, but it's a reasonable bet that iPhone's sold via the networks WILL still be locked, although some may continue to offer unlocking. (None have announced their intentions yet though)

I've always been in favour of paying full price for an unlocked phone and either using it on Pay&Go, or a rolling 30 day contract, and it seems to me that now this has been announced unless you want a subsidised phone on a 18/24 month contract, it makes so much more sense to simply buy directly from Apple.

Now that the 5 main networks support the iPhone it will also be very easy to switch an unlocked iPhone from one network to another - no mucking around with installing IPCC's or entering manual settings, they will all just work.

Happy days... :)

[Ben]

Yeah, I think I'm going to order to the SIM-Free once the Apple Store comes back online. I like my tariff, and it'd be nice to keep my iPhone unlocked.

The only problem is that I called Vodafone and, if the one person I spoke to has any clue, they're not sending out micro SIMs. Not yet, anyway. So it looks like cutting may be the answer :(

[DBMandrake]

Hmm, I wonder if the networks will (initially) refuse to provide SIM-only plan Micro-SIM's in an attempt to force the early adopters to buy the phone from them (possible locked) instead of Apple ? Doesn't seem likely, as it would make all the iPhone's Apple directly sells unusable, and that wouldn't make Apple happy ;)

From the looks of O2's new SIM's, it seems likely that all SIM's manufactured from now on will have double cut-out lines which can be snapped out to either SIM or Micro-SIM:

http://shop.o2.co.uk/new-iphone/micro-sims.html

They even show a SIM adaptor to temporarily convert a Micro-SIM back to the regular size. Three's Micro SIM's look much the same, and it makes sense to just adapt the cut-out lines of existing SIM production rather than produce two lines of SIM's.

If you're nervous about cutting your existing SIM, maybe something like the following is worth checking out ? (Although maybe a bit expensive)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MICRO-SIM-CARD-CUTTER-FOR-iPHONE-4-iPAD---UK-SELLER_W0QQitemZ380242127860QQcmdZViewItem?rvr_id=&rvr_id=&cguid=cf64518b1240a0aad3503750feff89d9

[Ben]

Easily modifiable SIMs are definitely the way to go - I'm sure that this will be a transition that eventually sees all manufacturers using micro SIMs.

I guess I'll be trying my luck with a stanley knife :o Hopefully Vodafone will be more malleable closer to iPhone release day.

[blush]

I ordered a black 32gb at about 9.15 this morning from the Apple Store. Now the wait......

[DBMandrake]

If you're nervous about cutting your existing SIM, maybe something like the following is worth checking out ? (Although maybe a bit expensive)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MICRO-SIM-CARD-CUTTER-FOR-iPHONE-4-iPAD---UK-SELLER_W0QQitemZ380242127860QQcmdZViewItem?rvr_id=&rvr_id=&cguid=cf64518b1240a0aad3503750feff89d9
This appears to be the website of that SIM cutter:

http://www.cutmysim.com/

[Ben]

They've gone and given me an estimated delivery date of 5th-6th July?!

*On the phone*

Holding 22 minutes so far. Heh.

[blush]

They've gone and given me an estimated delivery date of 5th-6th July?!

*On the phone*

Holding 22 minutes so far. Heh.

Did you find out Ben? Mine says delivers on 24th June on the email at one point then later on says 25th till 28th June. Hope it arrives before the 26th as I'm off to America for two weeks and I will be distressed knowing the phone is sitting at home :confused:

[hecatae]

ben ordered a dock, and they were not going to send iphone out til dock was in stock, as mentioned on twitter

[chagle]

Ordered mine - Very pleased it's a SIM free/unlocked. Means I can pick and choose my network if I wish - Although I'm happy with my T-Mobile SIM only deal.

Mine says delivered 24th.

I like the idea of the Apple iPhone 4 Bumper - But far tooooo expensive!

[Ben]

Indeed, apparently the dock and bumpers push the delivery date well into July. Avoid!

I rang Apple to get it sorted to be on the safe side, but apparently you can also cancel the accessories in the online order status and your delivery date should also revert to the 24th.

It's bloomin' brilliant that Apple have gone and released this SIM-Free. About time, but brilliant. Apple has clearly lost patience with the mobile operators, who will be shocked to see so many people buying directly from Apple when normally SIM-Free is such a niche.

I can't sit still. Why the hell am I so excited? It's going to be a long week and a bit.

[chagle]

I cannot believe our luck - Sim free! I'm more than happy to pay a little more for a sim free iPhone - Even if T-Mobile could offer it for £50 less (sim locked) I wouldn't be interested. The 3GS is already on eBay :-)

[Hands0n]

The chances are that Apple will establish the SIM free market, much as they established pretty much everything else with the iPhone.

[DBMandrake]

Not wanting to gloat, but we've had SIM free phones in New Zealand for years, including the iPhone, so nice of the UK to finally catch up :)

The interesting thing is the iPhone is sold unlocked in NZ (and many other countries) due to a legal requirement for phones to be sold unlocked (even on contract) however this appears to be a voluntary action from Apple even though the law does not require it - not just in the UK but also in France and Canada.

I feel sorry for those in the US still tied into 2 year contracts with AT&T who can't even unlock after their contract is up...

[hecatae]

according to twitter apple has sold all the uk first batch as sim free, and the networks will not have any til 2nd July

[Ben]

That would be rather hilarious. Indeed, I noticed yesterday that Apple's ship date moved into July for iPhone 4 orders (no accessories).

One has to wonder just how many SIM-Free iPhone's Apple managed to sell! :o

Re: US customers, I don't feel tooooo sorry for them. AFAIK Apple's exclusive with AT&T allowed them to push the network to breaking point in order to get some value for customers. Yes, things are getting stagnant again now in the absence of real competition and it's probably time to open up the doors, but the deal did a lot of good, too. I could even go out on a limb and try and argue that O2's exclusive in the UK did a similar thing for decent inclusive data and WiFi allowances.

[DBMandrake]

It's beginning to look a bit like the launch of the iPhone 4 has been bungled - not by Apple, but by the UK networks. :rolleyes:

One day after Apple opened direct pre-orders and provided SIM-free pricing, and also a day after the networks all said they would have pricing for pre-orders, and none of the networks have yet stepped forward as promised with their pricing!

No wonder everyone has rushed to pre-order SIM only direct from Apple, and now it's sold out until early July.

If it's true the networks have no stock of the iPhone 4 due to Apple selling out through their direct sales channel (which I do find a bit hard to believe, surely networks would have had some stock allocated to them) then they brought it on themselves.

It's so obvious that all the networks are all playing chicken with each other, (in a bizarre 5 way Mexican stand-off) afraid to release their pricing first and then be undercut by someone else. Vodafone puts a deliberate leak out (accidentally found it's way onto their website? I don't think so!) to try and break the stalemate and suss out the market reaction, and then claim it was all just a mistake.

Three have delayed their pricing release (as seen on their blog comments) as they are "still working on finalizing pricing", yeah right, they were just expecting the other networks to have already released their pricing yesterday so they could swoop in and undercut them all as they did with the iPad Micro-SIM's, but how can you undercut what hasn't been announced yet ? Busted! :D

It's actually hilarious that none of the networks seem to have the balls to just release their pricing and stand behind it, and see what the others will bring to market. They want high profit margins, but don't want to be priced too high and either lose sales to those that undercut them, or have to lose face and drop their prices after seeing the competition.

The real loser in this is the networks - because by dilly-dallying and letting Apple release SIM-free pricing and pre-orders first, I think they've probably lost a LOT of potential contract customers who have decided to just pay upfront from Apple and get a SIM only phone to use on a rolling monthly contract or Pay&Go!

Very, very funny.... :)

[3GScottishUser]

Interesting to see the iPhone 4 prices in the apple store.

£499 for the 16GB model and £599 for the 32Gb version. £100 difference for 16Gb of Flash Memory!! That must be the most expensive flash memory on sale in the UK!

The 32GB iPhone at £599 is about twice the cost of a pretty decent laptop PC!!

I also had a giggle at the loony mark ups on apple accessories!

To add insult to injury they want £25 for a 13AMP UK plug /USB Charger, an unbranded version you can buy on Amazon for £2.99. A bit of rubber for your phone is £25 and a set of in-ear phones with a mic and a wired remote is a whopping £65 (I have heard these and my £16 Senheisser 300s are better by a mile!).

Im sure iPhone 4 will do well but Apple will need to be careful as the competition is now not that far behind and what they are charging seems pretty unjustifiable.

[Ben]

Most commentators think the iPhone 4 is actually competitively priced SIM-Free. Similarly spec'd phones from other manufacturers, i.e. Nokia, are similarly priced if not more expensive. The Nokia N900 is still £459!

Regarding the flash memory, I believe it has a lot to do with the size of the modules. iPhone just takes one? It's also not going to be the same thing as whacking in an expansion card, AFAIK.

They sold out of pre-orders, taking over 600,000. This is going to be the biggest iPhone launch in terms of sales ever, and all in the face of massive competition. The ride goes on...

[3GScottishUser]

The ride goes on...

But so does the rip-off pricing and that will probably be the death of iPhone in the longer term as android and other platforms offer a similar user experience without the revenue sharing strings for networks and reduced costs for consumers.

Apple have made a great pitch and have opened up a new market for apps etc but the history of consumer electronics is littered with failed companies who overpriced their innovations.

Even with the lauch of the iPhone 4 I predict 12 months on the market will be very different as Apple's pricing will confine them to a very niche market just like their computer activity. They will survive brilliantly on low volume and high margins of course but will loose the mainstream mobile market as prices/facilities fall.

[DBMandrake]

Interesting to see the iPhone 4 prices in the apple store.

£499 for the 16GB model and £599 for the 32Gb version. £100 difference for 16Gb of Flash Memory!! That must be the most expensive flash memory on sale in the UK!

The 32GB iPhone at £599 is about twice the cost of a pretty decent laptop PC!!

It's all very well mocking something as being expensive, but if they're selling like hot cakes and the manufacturer is struggling to meet demand, why should they drop their prices ? Simple business logic says there is no need to drop the price if you already can't meet demand.

To a certain extent, something is worth what people are willing to pay for it, and Apple has a way of making people desire their products. Whether they like the image associated with the product, or whether they just like products that are enjoyable and reliable to use and do what they want in an easy, fun way doesn't really matter. If it makes people happy, they'll pay for it. Personally I don't think image is the major reason for most people, at least not in the last two years - if it was, sales would have tapered off when the device became "too popular", (every where you look now people have them) but in fact sales have increased dramatically, suggesting that it's just more and more people discovering a device that really fills a need and gives them enjoyment.

If you compare the flash ram to cheap external flash ram it might look expensive, but you have to consider that (a) there's only room for one chip in the previous iPhone models (2 in the ipod touch) and the chip may be even smaller in the iPhone 4 which is packed to the gills inside, (higher density is more expensive) and (b) it's not just slow, cheap multi-level consumer grade flash ram that you would see for a camera SD card, it's the fast single level flash that you would find in an SSD drive, as it doesn't just store media files - it boots and runs the operating system and all the apps that you install, so they can't afford to skimp out on slow flash ram, especially as the processors get faster, and they start trying to record HD video etc...(rumour is that the reason why Apple decided not to add video recording in the 3.0 software update to the 3G model was that the flash ram was not actually fast enough to stream the raw data to disk - the 3GS has faster flash ram)

I also take issue with your suggestion that a "pretty decent laptop PC" could be had for half the price of a £599 iPhone. I'm typing this message on a 1.5 year old Dell inspirion which cost around £599 new, and quite frankly it's a piece of crap. Unfortunately my Macbook Pro met an untimely demise last year and as I'm out of work I can't afford to replace it, and I sure am missing it. I wouldn't even consider a £599 PC laptop, let alone one half that price - you're welcome to it ;)

[Hands0n]

Well the finances strongly suggest that Apple are doing something right, even if it is pissing off all the anti-Apple nay-sayers - and that is always worth it just for that alone in my book.

The iPhone 4 has not been as hyped up as the previous incarnations - but the pent up demand for the next Apple device has been incredible to witness. I would have imagined that by now most people would be at the stage where they could just amble along for their new fix of Appleness as and when the time came. But it does seem that everyone has been frothing at the mouth for this new iPhone 4. Extraordinary. But I suppose not terribly unexpected. The new handset certainly looks the part, even if the hardware update is , yet again, incremental rather than revolutionary.

I am biding my time until I can stroll into the Apple store at Bluewater and buy one SIM-free over the counter and without any fuss. That probably means August time.

In terms of SIM-free, I do believe that the UK market will begin to mature towards the SIM-free end. The thing is that a lot of people do not even know that they can buy a handset independently of the network, let alone one that is SIM-free. They are all quite used to the local market unlocker, not something that can be done with the iPhone. And so, in their advertising Apple are introducing a whole new bunch of people to the concept of SIM-free.

Quite where this will take us has yet to be seen. But I would expect to see Apple set the ball well and truly rolling. Even as Google tried with the Nexus One, Apple will set the seal of authority on the overall process.

I tend to agree that, in terms of pricing, the iPhone 4 is not extraordinarily priced in comparison with much more mundane handsets. For example, you might want to sample the Windows 6.5 powered HTC Touch HD2 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0030MHQXO/ref=asc_df_B0030MHQXO684730?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&tag=googlecouk06-21&linkCode=asn&creative=7974&creativeASIN=B0030MHQXO) for £549. Or perhaps the nearest competitor to the iPhone 4, that being the HTC Google Nexus One (http://www.htcdirect.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=748&zenid=v49jpklpoba90dd6of9qve2100) for £579. These two making the iPhone 4 SIM-free seem positively a bargain by comparison.

Okay, I know, these handsets can be had cheaper elsewhere, but someone is paying those kind of prices or they wouldn't be being sold for so much! Apple have pitched the iPhone 4 fairly reasonably, and not at any huge premium against other handsets of comparable specification.

Besides all that - the iPhone 4 will be available on the networks via the usual subsidy acquisition method. So no harm done really!

[Ben]

C'mon Bill, it's time to check out what all the fuss is about this time around. iPhone 4 looks fantastic and has the innards to back it up - this is the iPhone to own.