There’s developing news in T-Mobile’s spat with Vodafone in Germany, after the latter won a court injunction to prevent T-Mobile from selling the iPhone on an exclusive contract there. T-Mobile has now announced that it will also now sell an unlocked version of the iPhone, but at a price.
How much? It’ll set you back a whopping 999 Euros. That’s about £720! Although for Brits who really really want an iPhone on an operator other than O2, it might be a price worth swallowing (plus travel costs to go and get one, of course). T-Mobile will continue selling the iPhone for 399 Euros (£287).
It’s the implications elsewhere in the world (and specifically the UK) that I’m interested in, though. It’s unclear if this kind of legal challenge could be mounted in the UK, due to differing trade laws, but with the principle of selling a legally unlocked iPhone established elsewhere in Europe, Apple may come under pressure to follow suit here and in the US too.
(via MobileCrunch)
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So, some new handset from a little-known company named Apple went on sale at 6.02pm on Friday, here in the UK. Earlier that day, it also hit the shelves in Germany. You might’ve noticed a slight hubbub leading up to the big day.
Anyway, there aren’t any official iPhone sales figures for the UK yet, which has given every journalist and his dog a chance to speculate wildly. The figure that’s being quoted most widely is 70,000 iPhone sales during Friday, Saturday and Sunday, which includes O2, Apple and Carphone Warehouse stores. Apparently this could rise to 400,000 by Christmas though. If you remember the inaccurate sales reports after its first weekend on sale in the US, you’ll probably take these with a pinch of salt.
In Germany, it’s a different story, with T-Mobile claiming it sold 10,000 iPhones on Friday alone. It’s a strong start, although the figures aren’t quite as barnstorming as the hype. Why? I wouldn’t be surprised if early adopters have learned the lesson of the US launch, where people queued around the block for days, only to find iPhones in plentiful supply for weeks afterwards. In other words, us Europeans have realised we can probably saunter into a shop sometime this week and pick up a handset, rather than getting het up for Friday’s launch.
T-Mobile has launched its own version of O2’s Simplicity deal involving a Sim-only deal and 30-day contracts. Just Sim is available from today at T-Mobile stores and from its website.
Just Sim is aimed at those who want to keep their old handsets while having the freedom of a short-term connection with the calling and texting value of a contract.
Customers who get the Sim card go on a monthly rolling contract and can end it at any time by giving 30 days notice.
T-Mobile’s offering three packages costing £20, £30 and £40 a month with Just Sim. Customers can get up to 1,200 call minutes and 3,000 texts a month, with extra minutes costing 30p each and texts 10p.
The operator claims that Just Sim offers comparable value to its existing 18-month contracts, but obviously without the hassle of being tied to the operator for that long.
The only catch is that handsets may need unlocking if customers are switching from another operator, but then this only costs around £10 to do anyway.
T-Mobile website
T-Mobile US has unveiled its latest two Sidekick messaging devices – the infamous favourite of Paris Hilton – just in time for Christmas.
The Sidekick Slide is the first from someone other than Sharp/Danger (Actually made by Motorola) and is smaller than previous Sidekicks. However, it boasts a hi-res 320×240 pixel screen to show off the usual Sidekick messaging options like POP3 and IMAP email support and instant messaging, plus support for the new MySpace Mobile application. It also features Bluetooth, a 1.3-megapixel camera and music player (With microSD card slot). It’ll cost $199.99 with a two-year contract.
The Sidekick LX, from Sharp, has a swivel screen three-inches in size with 400×240 pixel resolution and comes in two colours – midnight blue or espresso brown. Like the Slide it has full messaging support (Including MySpace Mobile), a 1.3-megapixel camera and music player. You can also program it to light up when you get messages. If you want. The LX will sell for $299.99 with a two-year contract on T-Mobile and goes on sale on 17 October (In the US), and 24 October in the rest of the World.
Absolutely classic bit of consumerist opportunism here, with a Newport Beach, California, T-Mobile reseller kiosk shouting that, ‘We unlock iPhones!’ Best of all is that the kiosk is apparently located across from the Fashion Island official Apple Store.
iPhone Matters spotted the poster while out shopping, but sadly didn’t venture inside to inquire what method the T-Mobile guy was using to unlock Apple’s handset. Whatever he’s doing, we salute such outrageous behaviour in the face of corporate attempts to control!
(Via iPhone Matters)
UK operators 3 and T-Mobile are reported to be in discussions about sharing their HSDPA high-speed 3G networks in order to cut costs. The deal, which could save the two companies millions in network investment costs, would also speed-up deployment of HSDPA in the UK. Which is good news for us punters.
However, lurking in the corporate bushes is the prospect that T-Mobile could go on to swallow 3 whole, with the latter having been up for sale by its parent Hutchinson Whampoa for some time. If a buy-out by T-Mobile lead to an expansion of 3’s innovative services, such as its X-Series, then we’d be wholeheartedly behind it (there’s nothing worse than a company lingering on the point of sale for months or even years on end).
But corporate acquisitions often lead to less consumer choice rather than more — and for Hutchison to flog-off mobile internet evangelist 3 as the industry stands on the cusp of a mobile internet explosion (thanks to HSDPA) seems perhaps a little short-sighted.
(Via Mobile Today)
It’s been a long time coming (the handset was announced back at the end of May) but Nokia’s all-aluminium 6500 Classic has finally made it onto Vodafone and T-Mobile’s ‘Coming Soon’ pages.
Based on Nokia’s trusty Series 40 platform, the 6500 Classic sports a nice 1GB of on-board storage but — as far as we know — doesn’t have a microSD card slot. However, you do get a QVGA (240 x 320 pixel) screen, quad-band reception, and a two-megapixel camera, all wrapped-up in that slinky aluminium body. Oh, and you don’t have to deal with Nokia’s crappy mini charger plug — the 6500 charges and synchs via a micro USB port instead.
Looks like it’ll be a good quality ’standard’ handset. Expect this baby to land later this month/ early next.
Quite a timely bit of rumour-mongering this one, given that Apple’s just made a series of big iPod/ iPhone-related announcements. By bringing the price of the 8GB iPhone down to $399 (£200) in the US, Apple has cleared the way for a possible 16GB top-end iPhone (matching the storage spec of the new iPod touch).
There have been rumours flying for months about there being a 3G/ HSDPA version of the iPhone in the works for Europe. So this supposed T-Mobile ad for Germany, found via MacBidouille, purporting to show a 16GB, HSDPA iPhone for €499 (£339) slots nicely among the current batch of rumours. But for €59 (£40) we’d expect a damn sight more than 300 mins/ 150 texts; file this for now under maybe, not definitely.
(Via AppleInsider)
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