On the 9th of November it will officially be the turn of all who dwell in Blighty to stand and wait in line. O2 today has announced that the iPhone is definitely arriving to our shores.
I’m trying to get more information at the moment, but their online shop seems to be down as I write. Seems like a conspiracy to hide the pricing from me until they make a public announcement, damn you O2.
I’ll post as more information as it trickles through. A few questions I have yet to get answers for: Will it support 3G or EDGE? How much will it cost? What will be the price of the data connection? I’m sure I have more to ask, but right now I’m shaking. I cannot wait to get my hands on one of these little beauties. I am certainly not a Apple fanboy, but these things are gorgeous.
Update : 00:31 19/19/07
So, finally the O2 website has now been updated, and the internet has had time to digest the information, but I thought I would clear up the situation for our scattered visitors that are just coming around to finding out about this…
The iPhone will not be supporting 3G [initially], instead it will be relying on EDGE and GPRS connections to the wider internet. Apparently, and this is what I have read on El Reg, the 3G connection on the iPhone is going to suck all of the juice and kill your battery (paraphrasing). I have seen it mentioned that we are to expect an updated phone next year that will address this issue. This got me thinking though, just who uses 3G? And why did all the major players in the UK spend all of that money to license the spectrum all of those years ago? Anywhoo, I have also read that the EDGE network with O2 only has 30% coverage - Great huh, looks like most of us will have to suffer through GPRS, imagine YouTube on that!
The cost of the set looks to be approx £269 which seems looks as though we are being ripped off against our American cousins. O2 require you sign up for a minimum 18 Month contract before you get one, and they are limited to only two per customer. I have also read that they will not be accepting cash for these devices!
The contracts come as follows :
£35.00 PCM : Including 200 free talk minutes, 200 Text messages.
£45.00 PCM : Including 600 free talk minites, 500 Text messages.
£55.00 PCM : Including 1200 free talk minutes, 500 Text message.
All talk plans seem to come with free unlimited data plans, and if you are going to be depending on GPRS, you are going to need it, lets thank the tech gods that it supports WiFi.
Looking at the lock in and the pricing scheme, I’m wondering if I should just get an iPod Touch, and wait to see what the Google Phone looks like?