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Mmmmm....

aaaaargh

As in Germany, the sales of the iPhone have been lackluster to say the least.
Plus Apple has to get rid of inventory for the arrival of the new 3G iphone in June/July.

You're an idiot.

iPhone has been the most successful phone in its 3 main markets in Europe, as stated by each operator. You are a dumbass parrot repeating what other dumbass journalist parrots have been writing.

this is still not a good deal, most contract phones in the uk are free initially as they are subsidised by the network operator, seems odd that they havent reduced the price of the 16gb model, make of that what you will

I am eagerly waiting for the new phone... plan to give Mom the original...

Apr 15, 08 - 11:37 am Comment from: Cubert

@uk guy,
Historically this kind of move by Apple indicates that they will be discontinuing the 8 GB iPhone in the next few months and are trying to clear inventory.

its true to say that the hype regarding the iphone has increased visitors to the 02 website, stores and carphone warehouse stores in the uk but i know no one that owns an iphone and im in my mid twenties, everyone is put off by the poor value for money on the special iphone contracts, the length of the contract (most people change phones here every 12 months) the fact you have to pay for an iphone when most phones are free and the lack of 3g

the apple business model is suited to the US but definitely not here

@cubert

thanks, i had already gathered that but it would appear that 16gb iphone version 1, either is already low in inventory here or is planned to be kept when version 2 arrives

well thats my thinking but id welcome any other suggestions

Apr 15, 08 - 11:51 am Comment from: Cubert

@uk guy,
Ahhhh. I see what you are saying. Maybe this means a bump to 16GB and 32GB models without new features? That would fit their pattern. Maybe the low inventories for the 16GB model is temporary.

Apr 15, 08 - 11:52 am Comment from: Ray

So if I fly to England I will save 100 pound sterling. Let's see I live in Miami.....Yeah just as I thought this news is completely useless.

Slow news day, eh?

Just my $0.02

@actually

You must have a lot of poor friends.... And most contracts out are 24 months unless you can finagle some deal for only 12 months which wont be for every phone. I'm in my early twenties and I know a lot of people with an iphone but maybe I get out of my house more often.... Who knows, I have a couple friends out in europe who also have an iphone...

Apr 15, 08 - 12:03 pm Comment from: Mike Caine

@ Ray

Not everyone lives in the USA. Some MDN readers live in the UK so it's useful news to us

Just my 2p

Apr 15, 08 - 12:22 pm Comment from: HotinPlaya

@Cubert
Historically this kind of move by Apple indicates that they will be discontinuing the 8 GB iPhone in the next few months and are trying to clear inventory

keep the 8 GB, just drop the price on it

I would love to see a business iPhone, 4 GB, no camera for around $199.00

On my 4 GB, I have around 2.5 GB free,

What is it with English speakers that they feel obliged to be rude. And not just rude, but rude in a manner that is brute, blunt and lacking in elegance. It really is a vulgarité américaine.

de Villiers

> You must have a lot of poor friends.... And most contracts out are 24 months unless you can finagle some deal for only 12 months which wont be for every phone. I'm in my early twenties and I know a lot of people with an iphone but maybe I get out of my house more often.... Who knows, I have a couple friends out in europe who also have an iphone...

"So if I fly to England I will save 100 pound sterling. Let's see I live in Miami.....Yeah just as I thought this news is completely useless."

Did you think this forum was just for you?

Apr 15, 08 - 12:44 pm Comment from: MacSheikh

@ Ray

"So if I fly to England I will save 100 pound sterling. Let's see I live in Miami.....Yeah just as I thought this news is completely useless."

Typical idiot thinking the world consists only of the US. Go read some books or something.

@ Ray

Oh, and for the record, MDN picked up this news from a BRITISH magazine. So if it's of no interest to you, why did you bother reading it (let alone taking the time to post a comment)?

Slow day in the office, eh?

Just my £0.02

@ray

surely as this is an apple news site and apple sell their products in the UK this is a valid story, its a very arrogant view to think the world revolves round the US, luckily i know 99.99 percent of the US population are not as narrow minded.

@jtc

odd to make personal insults about someone you know nothing about, i was merely giving my experience on the amount of iphones sold in this country and the reason why, im lucky in that I have a lot of friends of all ages particularly the 18-30 range and not one has an iphone.

I would strongly disagree with you argument that most contracts in the UK are 24 months, i just recently got a free sony ericsson k850i on the Three network, with 500 free minutes, 1000 free texts, 50 video call minutes, 50 mms messages and internet for £30 a month for 12 months. So to buy an iphone even for £169 and then pay £35 a month for a worse deal and to be locked in for 18 months rather than 12 just doesnt make sense to me.

Please done mistake me for an iphone hater, i love it and have had the opportunity to play around with one, the business model in this country isnt quite right yet and thats why we have a surplus of phones and the US doesnt

Don't even start with success&iPhone;as far as Germany is concerned, let's wait for more official figures but everything points to the fact that it has been a dissapointment, sales between january-march will most likely only be something like 50-60 thousand.

Nobody talks about it in Germany, nobody seems to have it (I am yet to see one myself), no hype whatsoever.

It's not the product (iPhone is prolly the device of the decade and even that is an understatement), it's the outfrigginrageous data plans and poor marketing, T-Mobile seems to think ppl will pay any amount of money to play with the iPhone - it doesent work that way.

Whoever is in charge for Apple in Germany should be ditched ASAP. You dont introduce a new phone here without a competitive price&good;marketing and expect to succeed.

Apr 15, 08 - 01:25 pm Comment from: Madmax

The 3G iPhone is for those with on-the-go need for data browsing.
For those who want a smart phone the 2.5G @ £169 + unlock is a great deal. (If you don't need the data on the go you don't need the contract - and that is the rubbish part of the deal.)

Hmm, yeah you have to cough up a lot of dough for the iPhone in Europe, but things as changing now as stated in the article:

"The price reduction follows O2's decision to increase the minutes and texts included in its £35 a month tariffs to 600 minutes and 500 texts in, up from 200 minutes and 200 texts."

I think carriers have woken up to reality now.

Apr 15, 08 - 01:41 pm Comment from: gzero

@KarlReich,

I've been saying since the launch of the iPhone in Germany that the biggest mistake Apple has made so far is allowing the iPhone to be sold ONLY in T-Mobile shops. In Germany, you can't even buy the iPhone in Apple's own online store!!! How stupid is that?

They would sell easily twice as many phone or more, if they simply allowed it to be sold in Apple Online Stores and at Gravis, Saturn / MediaMarkt (both have Apple Mini Stores, in that they have dedicated floorspace for Apple products) Using the iPhone to bring customers into T-Punkt stores clearly isn't working, Deutsche Telekom has a horrible reputation in Germany. Apple really needs to fix the situation.

Apr 15, 08 - 02:09 pm Comment from: Madmax

The O2 move to offer more minutes only has value for high end users.

I use the phone too infrequently to want a £35 per month contract.

If it were £20 it would be closer to my requirement. But I accept that the data load on the network is too great to lower the tarriff beyond a certain point.

hi as another uk person i read your post with interest, your point that o2 improved the iphone contract 2 months ago is correct but it really just changed it from an appaling deal to a poor one, it still needs a lot of improvment. The iphone is being held back by its contract. I just found a very interesting article from the BBC.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2008/04/iphone_price_cut_weakness_or_s.html

i also noticed an interesting comment left after this article by a reader................

The iPhone is still a rubbish phone, by today's standards. Give me a Nokia N82 or Nokia N95 8GB any day, as they're 3G and have 5 megapixel cameras with, in the case of the N82, a proper Xenon flash. And both take breath-taking video recordings.

Until the iPhone has all that, I'll still think it's an overpriced gimmick.


Whilst I don't agree with this gentlemans views, he does have a point about the hardware on the iphone being out of date for the european market. Before people in america judge that comment, please accept that the market is different here for whatever reason consumers want a decent camera and 3g data speed (which is fully rolled out here)

"CCS Insight believes sales of the iPhone have slowed significantly in all the European markets where it is available," research firm CCS Insight said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7349101.stm

another good balanced bbc article

also why would anyone buy an 8gb iphone at an apple store now? unless they planned to unlock it of course

If a new model comes to the uk and you have a iphone and a contract you can buy the new one port your number over and keep the same contract use your old iphone as a ipod touch whats the problem in fact tempted to by another for just that reason give it to my son cheaper tham the 8gb ipod touch

Man, this is tempting - especially as I'm up for a contract renewal anyway before June 1st. If only O2 dropped in some lower tariffs - £35 a month is too much for stuff I just don't need. On T-Mobile I get "unlimited" data and a good dose of texts and minutes for £22 a month - and if I renew my contract after 18 months I can get that as low as a staggering £12 a month with their £10 off loyalty deal.

If I knew the unlock software would work flawlessly with the incoming App store and the 2.0 firmware I'd be off to the shops like a rocket. As it is, I just don't know. Plus the 3G iPhone might be even MORE tempting shortly...