The Times is reporting a juciy tidbit to add to the huge pile marked ‘next-gen iPhone rumours’. In an attempt to flood the UK market and grab some mindshare, Apple is relaxing its price controls on the new 3G iPhone and letting operators set their own price. Industry rumours suggest that this could be as low as £100 in the UK and €99 on the continent.
The new handset is expected to be revealed on June 9th during the now-traditional Developers Conference keynote speech by Apple CEO, Steve Jobs. The phone is expected to hit the UK market by early July.
Telecoms analyst Ben Wood, of CSS Insight said, “exclusive deals with operators pushed more people to unlock iPhones and meet demand from customers on competing networks.” Could this mean that Apple are about to rethink their exclusive deal with O2? Either way, a slew of cheap iPhones would really give the UK market a kick - £100 is comparable to a low end Nokia smartphone, and it would be interesting to see how the other manufacturers respond.
Fingers crossed for a UK smartphone price war this summer!
when it will be available?
unlock or not?
when it will be available?
it can be unlock or not??