The iPhone 3G - UK Edition
by Tarek Abu-Esber
Today we witnessed the announcement of the Jesus-phone 2.0 - the Apple iPhone 3G. So pencil in July 11th as the date of the second coming of the iPhone, only this time with 3G (HSDPA baby), GPS (assisted) and a sexier body.
Darla and Ewan have already covered the American numbers between them and Imran has covered the lust-factor, but what does the iPhone 3G mean to UK users?
First and foremost the new iPhone will be Free from O2 on an 18 month contract. This finally brings the iPhone in line with every other Smartphone on the market in the UK and is no doubt down to Apples re-vamped revenue model for the iPhone. You know, the one that’s replacing the “revolutionary” revenue share model that AT&T and so few other networks agreed to?
Current O2 customers aren’t left out and can pay £100 for the privilege of upgrading to the iPhone 3G. When you compare that to the price point that the iPhone started at in 2007, we’ve come a long way.
As O2 haven’t released details of the subscription packages that will be available for the new iPhone in the UK it isn’t clear if we’ll see large rises in the cost of data packages and call bundles like we’ve seen in the US. Assuming they’re the same as the current iPhone packaged, then it looks like Apple may have hit a home-run when it comes to the price point of the iPhone in the UK.
However price isn’t everything and the UK market is, in some ways, more tech-conscious than the USA. Apple have done the obvious and added 3G and GPS to the device, two major flaws in the original design but they seem to have ignored far more basic improvements like MMS, video recording, instant messaging and an improved camera. My money says those features are as important, if not more so, than 3G and GPS to an average user in the UK.
But perhaps I’ve been too optimistic here. As soon as I heard the $199 price point my immediate reaction was “They’re going for the mass market.” but I don’t think that’s true just yet. The iPhone 3G has been updated specifically to take full advantage of the high-end Smartphone market with its top-end features and software updates aimed at the enterprise market. I’ll leave it to you to decide if that is Apple being short-sighted or a stroke of genius.
