Apple Iphone and o2 WTF !

Morfik · 9 Oct 2007 at 20:57

DanH84 said:
the credit checks will be completed in store. chip and pin verification will be the only type allowed probably. you won't walk out of the door until o2 have decided to give you the contract.

Not quite sure what you mean here. Chip and Pin refers to Credit Cards, as in paying for the phone initially? Whether you can fit another £269 on your Credit / Debit Card has nothing to do with whether a company will offer you a contract you're committed to pay and could run up any phone bill with. Credit Checks are done against your Credit History and CCJs made against you etc.

When selling the iPhone in an Apple store, no contract is signed, to save time that is all done at home via iTunes which is where you could fail to be allowed a contract and get stuck with a useless phone.

mrochester said:
I think you have the wrong end of the stick.

You goto a shop and buy the iPhone for £269. You take it home and plug it into your computer. You then select one of 3 contracts - £35, £45, £55, all 18 months. There is no PAYG option. You won't be able to use any other O2 sim card in the phone without using unlocking tools.

So at the end of the day, you paid an up front £269 in the shop, and then 18 months of at least £35. Total cost of ownership is £899. This makes the iPhone one of the most expensive phones going. The cheapest you can get it overall is £900.

My point was what happens if at the picking a contract stage you're refused a contract based on your credit history. o2 won't let anyone run up a £200 first month bill then have no ability to pay it.

mrochester · 9 Oct 2007 at 21:04

My point was what happens if at the picking a contract stage you're refused a contract based on your credit history. o2 won't let anyone run up a £200 first month bill then have no ability to pay it.

No idea what will happen.

Morfik · 9 Oct 2007 at 21:16

mrochester said:
No idea what will happen.

Well, at least what happens in the US is AT&T offer a prepay option, that's why I suspect o2 will have to offer something similar over here.

Anksy · 10 Oct 2007 at 01:45

mrochester said:
I think you have the wrong end of the stick.

You goto a shop and buy the iPhone for £269. You take it home and plug it into your computer. You then select one of 3 contracts - £35, £45, £55, all 18 months. There is no PAYG option. You won't be able to use any other O2 sim card in the phone without using unlocking tools.

So at the end of the day, you paid an up front £269 in the shop, and then 18 months of at least £35. Total cost of ownership is £899. This makes the iPhone one of the most expensive phones going. The cheapest you can get it overall is £900.

No i DID have the wrong end of the stick lol, if you keep reading my last post i did was something along the lines of ''Oh i see now''.....

i allso said i see that o2 arnt admitting how much its gonna cost....

but i do get it all now

Ironic Namesake · 10 Oct 2007 at 07:23

Just wait a bit and buy one grey on eBay or so.

There is plenty of stock already being traded around the UK, trade price being between £350-£370+ VAT so retail will likely be around 10-20% over.

These will also be unlocked and work on all networks

Dolph · 10 Oct 2007 at 09:37

OoOverclockaoO said:
Just wait a bit and buy one grey on eBay or so.

There is plenty of stock already being traded around the UK, trade price being between £350-£370+ VAT so retail will likely be around 10-20% over.

These will also be unlocked and work on all networks

Well, until Apple release the next compulsory update that is

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7017660.stm

bam0 · 10 Oct 2007 at 09:53

Dolph said:
Well, until Apple release the next compulsory update that is

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7017660.stm

Be interesting to see how that plays out with the releases in europe, it's all speculation but it seems Apple might not want to make any of the iPhones unlockable as it might breach the contract with AT&T in the US. Although it's not at though the european laws are exactly new and Apple can claim they didn't know.

Dolph · 10 Oct 2007 at 10:15

bam0 said:
Be interesting to see how that plays out with the releases in europe, it's all speculation but it seems Apple might not want to make any of the iPhones unlockable as it might breach the contract with AT&T in the US. Although it's not at though the european laws are exactly new and Apple can claim they didn't know.

O2's contract with Apple is very similar to AT&T's contract. It's also worth noting that they do not have to support, in any way, unauthorised software modifications (which is what the Iphone unlock is), nor do they have to test their software to work with such modifications.

bam0 · 10 Oct 2007 at 10:31

Dolph said:
O2's contract with Apple is very similar to AT&T's contract. It's also worth noting that they do not have to support, in any way, unauthorised software modifications (which is what the Iphone unlock is), nor do they have to test their software to work with such modifications.

I totally understand that, but it seems the delay in announcing the French release might be down to not being able to show a supported method for unlocking the phone. The O2 contract probably breaks the law here, but with ofcom being the enforcer it'll take a long time for them to do anything and I doubt it would really impact O2 when they did.

Dolph · 10 Oct 2007 at 10:54

bam0 said:
I totally understand that, but it seems the delay in announcing the French release might be down to not being able to show a supported method for unlocking the phone. The O2 contract probably breaks the law here, but with ofcom being the enforcer it'll take a long time for them to do anything and I doubt it would really impact O2 when they did.

No it doesn't. Ofcom do not require handset unlocking to be made available. It's desireable and encouraged, but not required.

MoD_Callidus · 10 Oct 2007 at 11:27

G-MAN2004 said:
There has already been a clone made (which is apparently better than the iPhone) in China. They're selling it much cheaper as well I think.
Meizu MiniOne.

If you thought the only thing going for the Meizu MiniOne was the fact that it looks like an iPhone, well, you'd be wrong. The recently released specs show that it's actually got a lot of stuff going for it besides its software design.

The MiniOne will have a 533Mhz Samsung processor, 128MB of DDR SDRAM, TFT touchscreen, 720x480 resolution, 3-megapixel back camera, 0.3-megapixel front camera, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, DMB TV Tuner, GPS, video output, AVI/MPEG4/WMV support, and a 4GB to 16GB size

MiniOne - F.T.W

Iphone - Fail

( of course the cachet that owning an inphone brings is priceless to some m me gimme substance over style any day of the week )

Malt_Vinegar · 12 Oct 2007 at 09:53

I cant see why anyone would want this phone, there are far superior handsets out there, on far superior network packages. Its going to break and has a severe lack of features, and no one will be really able to develop apps easily for it?!

Tunney · 12 Oct 2007 at 11:15

Malt_Vinegar said:
I cant see why anyone would want this phone, there are far superior handsets out there, on far superior network packages. Its going to break and has a severe lack of features, and no one will be really able to develop apps easily for it?!

I can certainly why people would want one. It's got an instant wow factor. It's beautiful to look at and the UI candy is really well done. Some people just want to make calls, listen to music and impress their mates down the pub. It's perfect for them.

Couldn't see myself buying one in its current state though. There's some big things missing for me (3G) and also some annoyances (inability to send a text to more than one person, no copy and paste). I'm sure the iPhone v2 will be more of a contender.