Mobiles2day - Mobile Industry News

Apparantly you can get an iPhone for £169 from Carphone Warehouse without a contract! Friend of mine told me that last Saturday he walked into the Carphone Warehouse and bought one without a contract. All you need to do is to say that you are existing O2 customer, register your details for warranty and that’s it! Sales person didn’t even ask for O2 number or any other proof of O2 contract.

You will be asked to activate your phone through iTunes, but if you are not intended to use it on O2 network, then you don’t need to do that. Just unlock your phone and use it on the network that you are on. There are plenty of resourses on the net on how to unlock your iPhone, check this site for example: http://iphone.unlock.no/

Following price slash on iPhone last week, I guess Carphone Warehouse doesn’t mind giving them away without contract, they need to get rid of them as many as possible before new version comes out this summer.

If you have bought this phone without contract, share your experience with us!

From today O2 is offering 8GB version of iPhone for £169. This is £100 less than it was previously. You still have to take up 18 months contract with at least £35 per month.

Promotion runs will 1st June, so if you were planning to get hold of this device, you can do it now. Carphone Warehouse sells it at £169 as well. 16GB version stays at the same price: £329.

This price cut follows iPhone price cut by T-Mobile Germany where you can get it now for 99 euros (approx. £79.7). Retailers are clearing their stock before 3G version comes out this summer.

iPhone continues it’s world expansion, it is now available to buy in Austria and Ireland. T-Mobile Austria offers iPhone for 399 Euros for 8GB version and 499 Euros for 16GB version. On O2 in Ireland you will have to pay exactly same amounts for the device.

In UK iPhone has been on sale for a while now, O2 UK has improved iPhone tariffs since the launch, which I have blogged about here.

Apple is now distributing iPhone SDK for developers to develop apps for iPhone and also trying to capture enterprise market with Microsoft Exchange and Cisco networking support.

O2 is changing it’s iPhone tariffs effective from 1st February 2008. Now new and existing customers on certain tariffs will get at least double allowance for the same money! Table below shows comparison of old and new allowances:

As we can see existing customers on £35 per month now get 3 times more inclusive minutes and 2.5 times texts! Customers on £45 now get double of inclusive minutes, £55 tariff is now discontinued and all existing customers on this tariff will be moved to £45. There is 1 new tariff introduced: £75, which gives 3000 minutes and 500 texts inclusive.

O2 informs on their website that existing customers will be upgraded to new tariffs latest by mid March 2008. Customers do not need to do anything, O2 will send sms informing them about changes.

All tariffs come with unlimited (subject to O2 excessive usage policy, check here for details) data and Wi-Fi usage, visual voicemail and reduced roaming rates. Same as before, minimum contract length is 18 months.

If you are new customer, you still have to pay £269 for the handset. Considering that new customers have to pay so much for this ‘Jesus phone’, it is a good move by O2, their tariffs are now more competitive comparing to other mobile operators. In effect O2 is rewarding existing customers and makes iPhone tariffs more attractive to new ones.

What competitors offer for similar monthly payments? Let’s have a look at O2’s basic £35 tariff and compare it to other operators. T-Mobile’s Flext 35 + Web’n'Walk (18 months) gives you up to 900 minutes or 1800 texts and unlimited browsing for £37.5 per month. Vodafone for £35 per month on 18 months contract gives you 500 minutes and 500 texts. As you can see O2’s new iPhone tariffs are a big improvement. The only problem is that other operators give you range of mobile phones for free on these tariffs and some of them are as good as iPhone.

I would say that £269 for iPhone is pretty high and you are tied for next 18 months. O2 and Apple have to cut the price of iPhone like Apple did in US. I am sure many more customers will be joining O2 then.

What do you think?

Following european iPhone launch in UK and Germany, handset now available in France.

Image from iphoneblog.com

iPhone is available from Orange France today in 12 outlets and will be rolled out to all other Orange stores on Thursday, 29th November.

Orange France Telecom has obtained exclusive rights to sell iPhone France. iPhone is available for 749 euros (approximately £534), Orange claims that more than 50,000 orders have been placed already.