O2 Cuts iPhone Costs January 30, 2008
Read more Apple , Gadgets , Gizmodo UK , Mobile Devices , Mobile phones , iPhone
With all the coverage about Apple ‘allegedly’ gagging its UK partners from not revealing poor iPhone sales figures, it’s not surprising to see that O2 is hoping to boost business by slashing the cost of running Apple’s stylish device.
O2 has taken the wraps off a new tariff structure that will apply to new users and – get this – existing customer too. How generous. Either that or they’re merely sidestepping the media shit-storm that would ensue if they ignored those ever-faithful early adopters.
Entry-level £35 per month owners now get their call allowance tripled to 600 minutes and texts boosted to 500 minutes. Those paying £45 now get the £55 package with 1,200 minutes of calls and 500 monthly texts. The £55 per month package is being replaced by an uber-caller £75 per month package for 3,000 minutes of calls and 500 texts.
Here’s the official statement and details:
*Existing £35 iPhone customers
We will be automatically upgrading you to the new £35 iPhone tariff which offers you 600 anytime minutes and 500 anytime texts a month. You will also continue to receive unlimited* UK data. All of this will be done for you without you having to do a thing and we'll text you to let you know when it's been done.
* Existing £45 iPhone customers
We will be automatically upgrading you to the new £45 iPhone tariff which offers you 1,200 anytime minutes and 500 anytime texts a month. You will also continue to receive unlimited* UK data.
*Existing £55 iPhone customers
We will be reducing the price of your 1,200 anytime minute iPhone tariff from £55 to £45. You will continue to get 500 anytime texts and unlimited* UK data at this new price.
The deal with The Cloud for free Wi-Fi and unlimited data use remains unchanged. Smart move, but will it boost sales?-Martin Lynch
Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
Comments
Although the package is now more inline with other smart phones and PDA packages, the phone itself is still extortionately expensive. I'd take an N958GB on that kind of contract and it wouldn't cost me a penny.
i dont really see this as much of an advantage. Ok u get more miinutes and texts but you have to look at the bigger picture. THIS THING WILL STILL COST £900 FOR 18MONTHS! Also, when you look at the bigger picture, who is gonna be buying one of these? geeeks and ritch people, right? ritch people will have the money to buy it anyway and geeks, lets face it, arent the most popular people so why do they need more texts? Bring out a £20/month tarrif and reduce the iphone cost to £140 and everyone will buy one!
Euan, it's rich people, and I am sure they have plenty of friends..
If you're going to be spending £35 a month anyway (as some people do), the tariff is not bad, at least not if you include the unlimited browsing.
THe answer to will it boost sales is still a big fat no.
Does more txts n mins mean that O2's coverage will get better? The answer is no.
Untill they create a pricing band that normal people can afford then it wont sell. £35 a month is a small market. And people able to afford that probably would like to be able to use all of those mins and txts by having signal.
Lets face it, apple didn't do research and went to the highest bidder for the exclusive contract insted of the best, and now they are the ones loosing out. Customers 1st then money, otherwise u end up in a situation like this.
J
The answer to will it boost sales is still a big fat no.
Does more txts n mins mean that O2's coverage will get better? The answer is no.
Untill they create a pricing band that normal people can afford then it wont sell. £35 a month is a small market. And people able to afford that probably would like to be able to use all of those mins and txts by having signal.
Lets face it, apple didn't do research and went to the highest bidder for the exclusive contract insted of the best, and now they are the ones loosing out. Customers 1st then money, otherwise u end up in a situation like this.
J
Excuse me but the title is wrong. O2 has not cut iPhone costs. The iPhone still costs a minimum of £35 a month. And I suspect that the increased calltime and SMS numbers won't mean anything to the majority of people on the £35 plan, since they don't use anything near the existing free allowances.
I'm not rich but the recent change in O2s tariff policy is really swaying me in the direction of the iPhone!
The only issue I have is the MMS support (lack of) and the handset cost. If Apple and O2 had sorted that in the first place, I would probably have had an iPhone by now.
http://blog.jofftastic.co.uk/2008/01/getting-closer-to-that-iphone/
They can add as many minutes as they like. It's the cost that puts me off. I don't NEED £35 worth of their calls per month, on top of an already overpriced device.
Bring it down to £20 a month and THEN we can talk, O2.
Euan, I'm a rich geek and I bought an iPhone on the day it came out. The upgrade to the plans is just the icing on the cake.
If you're too cheap to buy an iPhone, then don't buy one. No one cares about you Euan, and certainly not Apple.
To those that maintain a more balanced point of view, a £35 tariff is still a £35 tariff. The phone still costs £269. O2 still charge an arm and a leg for anything else apart from your inclusive minutes, texts, and data (try an international call at 30p per minute). The starting cost for an iPhone is still the same, so those looking for a cheap and cool phone will still look elsewhere.
However, for those that are high volume users, suddenly the iPhone becomes a serious possibility.
As an iphone user I really welcome this move. It put a smile back on my face - because whilst I love the iphone the limited tariff was a rip off really. This new deal is much more agreeable - I just wish the camera was better on the iphone, or maybe could it have a sound recorder - or handle Skype and live chat. Ok I digress. Thumbs up to the call time and text increase.
You can always read the MMS using wireless/EDGE on the iPhone..
You do get the link to see it sent to you by text when you receive an MMS.
David - yes you can read an MMS, but more importantly, you can't send one.
Rich Geek - "cheap" and "low volume user" are not the same thing. I don't need more than 200 mins / month. I don't need more than a £25/month contract. Apple do need all the business they can get for this to become a real winner. And by the way, Apple don't care about you either!
Well yes i have to admit "i'm rich too" And you could call me a geek because i love gadgets but when you have everything including many many people to call or text you have top it off with an iphone.
I have found it extremely useful too so i'm really happy.
Thank you "APPLE"
Changing the tariff was just an extra bonus.
I'm sure there will be more cool updates soon.
I never understand why someone in marketing can't get it right.
1. reduce the contract to 12months
2. reduce the monthly contract to start from £25.00
I don't mind paying for the phone but I don't want one at the extra expense per month when I don't use that amount of mins/texts.
Could they please change that ridiculous data rate when traveling abroad: £7 for a megabyte? That's 1972's price level! True piracy in 2008...
The new £35 contract is competitive with all other contracts available in the UK at the moment.... but the reason the iPhone is not taking off in the UK as Apple expect is simple...... we (the UK consumers) have been raised in a consumer environment where we expect most high quality mobile phones to come FREE with an £35 contract.
While some may argue that the iPhone offers consumers more functionality and are superior user experience (and I totally agree with this).... consumers are unwilling to stump the £280 because the iPhone is not a "true" convergence device....
e.g. One could easily justify spending this amount on a phone if it were an viable iPod replacement, however, £280 for 8Gb (or £329 for 16Gb) combined with poor battery life makes a Nokia and a nano a much more popular choice.