Has The iPhone Bombed In The UK? November 27, 2007

yah it has. most people get a new phone for free when they start a contract theyve not had to pay for a phone since the early 1990's! instead of spending £300 with a £50 pcm contract for 18 months for a product thats underdeveloped im opting to get one (8gb) from a friend in Taiwan for £300 inc postage, unlocked with all the bells n whistles on it. im on 02 anyway so shouldn't be a problem. why am i getting one? well because my xda II mini is looking a bit tired and a change in job means i have the luxury of being able to pose with my phone lol.

What Mark said. It's a reasonably nice handset but the contract price in addition to the cost of the handset itself are highly prohibitive considering other "advanced" handsets are available for nowt on cheaper, shorter term contracts

Exactly what the others said. It's desirable, but insanely overpriced. I'll buy one when both Apple and O2 become reasonable concerning prices.

iPhone is not a bad product. It has good features, but you can find just about all of them in other phones, in particular with Windows Mobile. The lack of 3G is the biggest issue on top of the huge price to pay.

So iPhone II may have a chance when it has these features, but for now I cant see lots of British customers rushing out and buying it. Granted, its cool, but cool will only get you so far.

I believe:
Sales are not good because most uk users who want a iphone, would have already got a Yankee iphone for $399 +/- £200 (Weak Dollar goood ;-) ), unlocked it and use the service provider of their choice.
Perhaps a 3G model with free service provider of choice option would do better, but by then all major mobile phone makes will have their own touch screen phones and which will cool down the iPhone hype.
David Bowie's lyrics come to mind:
...This is not America

Same as the other posters.
I love Apple products, had almost all of them at one stage, even run 160 + macs and a few xserves at work, and although I like the look of the iPhone and lusted after one when a rumor, the reality is that I just dont want one yet.
They are far far far too expensive. If Im paying that much, I want premium features like 3G and GPS. For lots less I could get a Nokia N95 inc 8GB, 3G, and GPS or any number of Windows Mobile devices with loads of tech.

Yes, I know that the GUI of the iPhone looks fantastic, but that just wont cut it here. Its too expensive for people who want a simple fashion phone, and too underspeced for people who want a multi function device.

For me, I think Im going to get another Win Mobile device. I can get one with a real keyboard, GPS, HSDPA and a load of storage for free, on a 12 months contract with unlimited HSDPA. The device will have wireless too, but I will hardly ever use it when it has HSDPA which around the places I go gets around 1.8mb all the time!

iPhone v2, maybe. iPhone v1? only if its free, on a 12 month contract or £279 sim free.

I have an iPhone and it is the best gadget i have ever bought and a truly game-changing mobile phone. £35-45 a month is not that far away from what i was paying for the same minutes,texts,data with my old mobile plan, and £260 isnt that far from what i would have paid for a new ipod touch + the small upfront fee for the latest mobile phone.

So all those jumping on the iPhone bashing wagon... you are all totally off the mark. It isnt that much of a premium compared to what else is out there, and it is a first generation device which always commands a small premium anyway.

There are always people who wont put their hand in their pocket under any circumstances, and those same people always want something for nothing - its so tiresome. As for windows mobile - ive had 3 windows mobile devices over the past few years and frankly they have always been a total disappointment.

One more thing, which got cut off the bottom of my last post...

I accept that i have the best coverage because i live in London, however i get near perfect EDGE access - the data speeds are just as speedy IN PRACTICE as what i was getting on my old 3G nokia - after all the real world is much removed from the theory. Webpages download nice and fast - even with graphics, my emails zip through every fifteen minutes without delay, and all the apps and widgets take no more than a few seconds to update when i ask them to.

GPS is irrelevent because the iPhone is a walking nagivator not a driving one, eg i always know the name of the road i am standing on to tap into google maps... so why do i want to sacrifice my very reasonable battery life in order to wait the three to five minutes it takes for gps to locate itself from a cold start, when i can type in 'baker street, london' in ten seconds.

The iPhone is a giant among phones. Believe me, i swore that i would wait until the second generation till getting one, but once i got one in my hands in the real world, i realised i could never do without it.

2 points.

In the UK you know it will be free on a £50 pcm contract in the next 4 months.

The other thing is that O2 is the worst operator in terms of reliable signals and actually getting calls to connect. If it was on Voda I think it would have sold more.

I'm a power user of Mobile phones, always have been. I was excited at the prospect of an IPhone and playing with it the GUI is impressive, but then I looked at the specs and did the maths.... 18 month contract on this phone will set you back £1170. What do you get, well a smart looking 8GB IPOD with no 3rd party applications, no 3G, limited bluetooth support.. sigh what a screw up !

Let's compare just one other phone on the market..Nokia N95 8GB - more than capable of the features of the IPhone, ok no jazzy touch-screen but GPS, 3G, FULL bluetooth, excellent Web and data facilities etc etc.. on an 18 Month contract with Vodafone for approx £730.

If you are buying an IPhone for any other reason than to seek "Wow dude, that looks nice" comments then you are making a mistake. Only Apple fans will buy this phone. Sorry the truth hurts here.

Oh dear, not another N95 comparison.

Since as a 'power user' you will know very well that the N95 is a complete let down once you have actually used it.

The interface is simply awful, the GPS consistently crashes the phone as well as sucks the battery dry (I will forget the fact that vodafone charge data fees for every refresh of the maps!), the build quality is cheap and nasty, and the 3g is no faster than EDGE once you are out of the lab.

Also there is nothing more tedious than front loading the cost of the handset into the contract cost!

@LG: So did O2 & CPW massively over-hype their expected early sales?
Or are punters avoiding the iPhone like the proverbial plague?

A concern I have with an unlocked iPhone is: the Apps and Widgets obviously connect to the net, and on a pay-as-you-go sim you pay a flat rate of £1 per day if you connect with most of the providers. So, if my widgets connect every day, that's £30/£31 a month already! Sure you can set it to wifi only, but that kinda defeats the purpose. any thoughts?

@Frikman - how's about unlocked iPhone on a Vodafone contract with 120MB Web access (£7.50/month) and whatever talk/txt package you need (don't forget, stop-the-clock evenings & weekends so you probably need to buy a lot less minutes than you use). Oh plus of course you get the free phone from Vodafone that you can sell on eBay to cover some of your iPhone costs!
@LG I hear ya, after 18 months of suffering with an N80, the N95 does look nicer but seems to suffer the same old problems - not least of which is constantly unlocking and dialling people when it's in a pocket! Oh and my N80 browser is dog-slow on 3G... if the N95 was as bad then the whole EDGE/3G argument is moot, is processing power sufficient to keep up with data rates?

"Oh no not another N95 comparison"..... If you read before you write you would see that I was referring to the new N95 8Gb which is a different phone to the N95. The 8GB version has an improved battery, re-vamped GPS and totally different firmware. I have used both the N80 and N95 and to be quite honest they both do a very good job with the latest firmware applied.

Also, for reference the battery life is a problem with nearly all 3G phones and down to the way it works. If you want to double your battery life on any phone disable UMTS(3G) and stick with GSM like I do when not using data or video - you don't need it. This is why Apple did not go for 3G and I don't blame them for that quite frankly - They are working on a solution to this for IPhone mkII.

£ for £ there are many better phones than the IPhone. It took Apple 5 years to release and in the meantime Nokia are on their 3rd generation of functionality packed Smartphones using a well established and open Symbian OS. If it wasn't for the Star-Trek style GUI on the IPhone the phone spec is 2 years old and £150 over priced.

to be fair it is a super product but i think that for an £899 phone it is a little expencive. 899 is the phone and the cheapest 18 month contract, *this isnt adding any extra calls you might incure

to be fair it is a super product but i think that for an £899 phone it is a little expencive. 899 is the phone and the cheapest 18 month contract, *this isnt adding any extra calls you might incure

It's exactly the same story as with the PS3. They are both great quality and excellent products but the vast majority of their target market are pretty savvy and will just wait until the prices are slashed before making their purchase. Sony are actually making a loss on each console even with the inflated price tag.

I think there are a lot of misguided people out there who only seem to see things along parallel lines. Comparisons can't really be made to any other phones as it's an i-touch, with phone function, so, out-of-date my a@#e! On any of the contracts you get unlimited wi-fi so for some of us who get stuck with coverage in and outside of London actually being able to be in touch with people's a bonus. Better add-on packages than Voda, better customer service than Voda. Unlocked you don't get VVM which believe me is worth it when you need to get info fast...and yes it is a sexy piece of kit which gets people talking and admiring it, if you need your phone to tell you where you are then you don't have the sense you were born with. You're comparing a a DB12 with a combine harvester!! Oh and last time I looked O2 had a greater market share than Voda and better Customer Satisfaction Ratings...

I've said it before and I'll say it again...

The problem with the iPhone in the UK is not that it's overpriced, its that customer perception is that a mobile phone should be free!

People are happily forking out for the iPod touch at the same price and are really happy with the design etc.

However if you imagine that you have a choice between paying £270 for an iPhone and getting stuck in an 18 month contract or getting one of these free mobile phones with a free xbox 360, many of which on a 12 month contract, which would you go for?

Heck you can even get a free phone on a 12 month contract with a free iPod Touch if you are such an Apple fanboy.