Soldato
when will the iphone 3gs be coming out in the uk?
** The Official WWDC 2009 Thread **
- Thread starter Marky
- Start date
Terrible overprised tarrifs, and overprised phone 
Deffiantly sticking with my 3G on Orange, if there was more too it like some of the romors look wise, like larger screen and generaly better looking then i might have been tempted to sell up and get one. But now ill just be waiting a hole week for 3.0
Deffiantly sticking with my 3G on Orange, if there was more too it like some of the romors look wise, like larger screen and generaly better looking then i might have been tempted to sell up and get one. But now ill just be waiting a hole week for 3.0
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I see o2 have slapped on tethering charges, pfff I can tether now on my jailbroken 3g at no extra cost
I think the 'problem' a lot of iPhone owners are having with the 3GS and 02's current thinking is that they've been denied the same upgrade path as before. It's something of a slap in the face to customers who many would say are already seen to be getting somewhat screwed over with 02's pricing structure.
I don't really see the point in not allowing existing iPhone contracts to be upgraded to the 3GS as long as the customer is happy for the contract period to be reset. It make sense for your 'best' customers to be given the chance of having the latest tech and it reinforces the brand's image to those yet to purchase an iPhone.
Though I agree, it makes little commercial sense for O2 especially as your arguement only would work for this round of upgrades. What would happen if the next iPhone came out next July and you were still stuck on a year+ left of you current extended contract...
All AT&T have done is made a workable solution for this upgrade, but next time I very much doubt they could assit with customers who still have 1year+ on their contract...
You make a fair point, however....
The point of a contract and early termination fees is so the mobile operator ultimately gets the handset price paid for. When you take out a contract you're basically receiving a subsidised handset, so if you were allowed to upgrade early then you will have only paid however many months for your existing handset.
In other words say you had a 3G iPhone on contract for 5 months, then this came out and you wanted to upgrade. Say O2 allowed you to and reset the contract term to however long the 3GS one is. You've now got a 3G iPhone handset that you can sell on which you've only paid 5 months worth towards.
Charging early termination/upgrade fees is standard practice on mobiles for the above reason, so you can't really be too aggreived about it. You're not entitled to the new iPhone.
Soldato
How much does it cost to upgrade early then? Is it a case of paying the remaining months at your current monthly figure?
Last time, the iPhone 2G was essentially paid for outright, so there wasn't much of an issue with upgrading early.
With the iPhone 3G, the phone was subsidised with the cost to be recouped with an 18 month contract. If they let you upgrade early and just reset to 18 months, they lose out.
I think the problem is that the iphone is obviously exclusive to o2 and their iphone contract prices are considerably higher than any other tariff. You're paying a lot for the phone and then a lot every month for the privilage of owning an iphone. The kind of people who are willing to pay these prices are more than likely going to apple fans who want to use the latest apple hardware releases. O2 know this and sting you for it by raising their contract costs. I think therefore it's only fair to assume that when apple release a new iphone, o2 give a little back and let customers already in contract upgrade for a small fee. Of course not if you've only had your contract for 3 weeks or whatever, thats silly. But i've had my iphone 3g contract since launch day last year and i'd love to upgrade.
I completely appreciate where you are coming from and to some extent I totally agree with the points you make. I'm not an iPhone user so it doesn't affect me but I do see why some people are finding the current situation a little hard to swallow.
But there has been a precedence set and I think 02 would be slightly foolish not to follow it again. There must have been a lot of 2G iPhone handsets that were made available by contracts being ended early for the 3G handset. Obviously 02 lose out somewhat with the decreased revenue, but they have the ability to make up for that with the new contract they are tying the customer to.
If anything, it makes sense for Apple to subsidise the cost of any upgrade path as it not only gets more 3GS handsets on the streets but it also creates a large second-hand market for older handsets and increases the brand's awareness to consumers.
I have to admit I've been a huge Apple sceptic for years but I'm slowly being won over. Not because of what it promises but because of what it does - the only reason I'm even considering an iPhone is the sheer number of people who I've seen with one and seeing first-hand what it can do. if Apple really want to push on with the dominance of the iPhone it makes sense for them to get as many out there and in the hands of consumers as possible.
But what about all those customers who didn't buy an iPhone 2G near the release day? They must have had longer contracts to upgrade from - I assume 02 still allowed them to switch to the 3G?
Given just how much money 02 are taking on an 18-month contract, there's got to be room somewhere for a similar 3G > 3GS upgrade path as there was with the 2G > 3G?
Or is it simply that we'll be seeing a completely new iPhone in the next six months and 02 aren't wanting to lose out yet again?
Yes, because you essentially paid for the phone outright up front last time. Remember the 100s of people who bought the phone from a shop, took it home, unlocked it and never signed up with O2? It was nearly £300 for an 8Gb version before the price cut.
The 3G was subsidised with far lower price points. It doesn't make sense for them this time.[/QUOTE]
Associate
Phone is pretty pricey, and the plan is kind of poor compared to G2 android, which can be had for £25 pm, free handset 600 mins, unlimited texts
Actually, you make a fair point there. The 3G did come in at a significantly lower price-point which I'd totally forgotten.
The fact remains though that if 02 wanted to give its customers the same upgrade path, they could. They make enough money off the iPhone contracts to at least give their longest-standing customers a nice deal.
Soldato
Phone is pretty pricey, and the plan is kind of poor compared to G2 android, which can be had for £25 pm, free handset 600 mins, unlimited texts
True, but look at the price of a macbook compared to a similar specced acer.
The fact that the phone is expensive is the exact reason why the monthly plan is expensive. Same thing.
Soldato
I think O2 might be being sneaky by not offering the upgrade to existing iPhone users.
Hmmm what phone will likely launch around the time iPhone 3G contracts expire? Pre anyone?
Hmmm what phone will likely launch around the time iPhone 3G contracts expire? Pre anyone?
Caporegime
Why do you think Apple get anything from second-hand phone market? I very much doubt brand awareness is an issue with the iPhone, though I agree it makes sense to get the phone into as many contracted consumers as possible. You have to remember that Apple do make money out of the contract AFAIK...
As I said before its pure naivety you would consider the current iPhone contract anything other than a standard phone contract. New versions of phones come out all the time (like at the Nokia N series) yet I dont hear people moan that they cant upgrade because they are still stuck in a contract and expect to be released.
The iPhone perhaps is a revolutionary piece of kit but its pricing/contracting isnt and follows something thats been standard for easily over a decade...
Also back to my previous point - if 02 allowed present iPhone3G users to extend their contract by 18months what happens to them when a new iPhone turns up July next year?
ps3ud0
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Soldato
Yep. You pay out your existing contract months and then re-sign to a new contract...for another sodding 18 months. For me that works out at £315 or so since mine expires in Jan 2010.
Trouble is if you go this route, you'll get stiffed when the next phone arrives in June 2010 lol since you'll still be under contract.
Soldato
Heres my take.
The announcement yesterday was overall what I was expecting, I'd like to have seen a few more innovative changes and I have a feeling that many of these will appear over the next 1-2 years. The iPhone hardware seems to have caught up with the software now and we have what is essentially a reasonable phone operating at a reasonable speed and doing things that phones have been doing for years like voice dial and cut and paste. The iPhone prior to this was really an iTouch with a phone rather than a phone which also did other things, so its understandable why things considered essentials on 'phones' have been late to appear.
I can understand why a lot of people are disappointed, yesterday wasn't the revelation the rumour mill had built but a product announcement to consolidate Apple's position, the G3 will save them money, no need to invest in new tooling or go through too much stress testing as its a known and OS3 has been in testing for a while. The compass is nice as is the faster processor but as I say it’s not a revelation. I'm expecting bigger things in the next two years as the economy comes back up. This doesn’t mean it won’t sell, things like the new TomTom support and the app store will keep a steady influx of new customers.
The big bugbear here is not a lack of innovation nor in fact is it Apple themselves it’s their carriers and how they are dealing with the introduction of the 3G. I believe they were expecting a brand new phone, just like a lot of Apple fans and had decided to capitalise and bump the pricing a bit and make people pay through the nose for an upgrade because they knew they would be salivating for a new toy.
O2 have priced the 32Gb at £280 on top of an 18 month contract commitment and it would seem they are demanding a full contract buy out for existing iPhone users who are still in their last contract period; costing some early adopters of the 3G up to £450+ to upgrade again. Couple this with an extra £15-20 if you want to use Apples newly introduced tethering (phone as modem) despite the contract including ‘unlimited’ internet access and this is a major expense in a troubled time. O2 didn't do themselves any favours by setting a precedent upgrade path to the 3G. I suspect there are reasons why they did this; the original iPhone was crippled by its lack of 3G, as an internet heavy phone GPRS just wasn't fast enough and the 3G was almost more like a product recall than an upgrade!
There is already a lot of moaning on Twitter about O2 and I expect this to continue but I also suspect O2 are smiling to themselves, creaming off cash from people desperate to upgrade a perfectly good 3G to a 3G taking a steady stream of new customers who aren’t trapped in a contract (me) and grinning behind their hands at the super rich who will pay for tethering but won’t know how to use it properly.
The 3G has been turned from a crowd pleaser to a Marmite phone by the carriers who are looking to maximise profit in troubled times, whether they will kill the goose that laid the golden egg remains to be seen, its unlikely but they may leave a lot of fanboys weeping into their iPints in the meantime.
MB
The announcement yesterday was overall what I was expecting, I'd like to have seen a few more innovative changes and I have a feeling that many of these will appear over the next 1-2 years. The iPhone hardware seems to have caught up with the software now and we have what is essentially a reasonable phone operating at a reasonable speed and doing things that phones have been doing for years like voice dial and cut and paste. The iPhone prior to this was really an iTouch with a phone rather than a phone which also did other things, so its understandable why things considered essentials on 'phones' have been late to appear.
I can understand why a lot of people are disappointed, yesterday wasn't the revelation the rumour mill had built but a product announcement to consolidate Apple's position, the G3
The big bugbear here is not a lack of innovation nor in fact is it Apple themselves it’s their carriers and how they are dealing with the introduction of the 3G
O2 have priced the 32Gb at £280 on top of an 18 month contract commitment and it would seem they are demanding a full contract buy out for existing iPhone users who are still in their last contract period; costing some early adopters of the 3G up to £450+ to upgrade again. Couple this with an extra £15-20 if you want to use Apples newly introduced tethering (phone as modem) despite the contract including ‘unlimited’ internet access and this is a major expense in a troubled time. O2 didn't do themselves any favours by setting a precedent upgrade path to the 3G. I suspect there are reasons why they did this; the original iPhone was crippled by its lack of 3G, as an internet heavy phone GPRS just wasn't fast enough and the 3G was almost more like a product recall than an upgrade!
There is already a lot of moaning on Twitter about O2 and I expect this to continue but I also suspect O2 are smiling to themselves, creaming off cash from people desperate to upgrade a perfectly good 3G to a 3G
The 3G
MB
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