France may not see iPhone this year - report
Orange, the wireless arm of France Telecom, is reportedly contemplating the prospect of not being able to launch Apple Inc.'s iPhone handset in time for the holiday amid growing tensions between the two companies.
"The risk we're evaluating this week is that Apple crosses France off," Les Echos quoted a source at Orange as saying in its Friday edition.
The French daily said the difficulties stem from a French law that would require the Apple handset to be sold both with and without contracts. This law would reportedly undermine the iPhone's exclusivity for Orange and Apple's demand of up to 30 percent of voice and data revenues.
A spokesperson for France Telecom went on record last month in claiming that the carrier had reached an agreement with Apple to distribute the iPhone in France. The two firms were widely expected to announce launch plans during the final week of September along side Apple Expo Paris.
The Paris expo came and went without any such announcement, however. Meanwhile, Apple along with partners O2 and T-mobile officially announced plans to roll out the handset next month in the U.K. and Germany, respectively.
"The risk we're evaluating this week is that Apple crosses France off," Les Echos quoted a source at Orange as saying in its Friday edition.
The French daily said the difficulties stem from a French law that would require the Apple handset to be sold both with and without contracts. This law would reportedly undermine the iPhone's exclusivity for Orange and Apple's demand of up to 30 percent of voice and data revenues.
A spokesperson for France Telecom went on record last month in claiming that the carrier had reached an agreement with Apple to distribute the iPhone in France. The two firms were widely expected to announce launch plans during the final week of September along side Apple Expo Paris.
The Paris expo came and went without any such announcement, however. Meanwhile, Apple along with partners O2 and T-mobile officially announced plans to roll out the handset next month in the U.K. and Germany, respectively.
Comments
You would think this would be one of the first things their marketing people investigated.
I'm sure Apple could still make lots and lots of money selling a phones in a much more open market.
The only problem is that it would provide a template for independent unlocking. the best thing I can think of to stop that is put in a minor change in the hardware that differentiate the two so that an independent unlocker would have to get inside and risk breaking the phone anyway.
Apple is going to quickly learn that when it comes to telecoms, the west of the world plays differently than North America. I think it is time they woke up and changed their business model, with regards to the iPhone.
FU APPLE
FREE THE DAMN iPHONE ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wonder whether they could add firmware to 'unlocked' versions that would prevent them using SIMs with companies they have signed exclusivity contracts with. I admit this would be convoluted, but maybe a compromise solution.
You would have thought that Apple's lawyers would have looked into this early on. Another poster from Belgium previously said that it was illegal to sell locked phones there also. Seems strange for this to rear its head so late in the day. Perhaps Apple were just getting too greedy in the end. They certainly seem to be getting more and more that way, much the same as Microsoft.
You would think this would be one of the first things their marketing people investigated.
It wouldn't have mattered. If there was no law to begin with, what's to stop the French government to create a law after the fact. Didn't the French lawmakers do something similar with regards to the iPod and then had to alter it's law or something?!
HAHAHAHAHA
FU APPLE
FREE THE DAMN iPHONE ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
France has 53 million mobile cellular customers, the EU (without France) has 413 million, the USA has 233 million. Not having France as a market doesn't really matter, as I see it.
France has 53 million mobile cellular customers, the EU (without France) has 413 million, the USA has 233 million. Not having France as a market doesn't really matter, as I see it.
Not all of the member states of the EU are as affluent as France, so France's 53 million customers are disproportionately valuable as potential iPhone users. You'd walk away from a customer base that is nearly a quarter of the size as your domestic base? You're an idiot!
It can be argued that Apple caved in to the oppressive demands of AT&T to get the iPhone launched in the US. Now that its initial success has been proven, Apple has no need to agree to the restrictive terms that we've accepted.
You'd walk away from a customer base that is nearly a quarter of the size as your domestic base? You're an idiot!
Perhaps you're right.
Perhaps Apple should start selling Mac's with Windows installed, too. Just drop OS X all together. After all, it's all about the domestic base, right?
Then again, I believe that sometimes you have to walk away from doing business with someone if you don't want to make the concessions they demand you make. If that's the case, then perhaps you're not right.
You would have thought that Apple's lawyers would have looked into this early on. Another poster from Belgium previously said that it was illegal to sell locked phones there also. Seems strange for this to rear its head so late in the day. Perhaps Apple were just getting too greedy in the end. They certainly seem to be getting more and more that way, much the same as Microsoft.
You would think this would be one of the first things their marketing people investigated.
Yup you're right - as i said previously SIM lock and coupled sales (hardware + subscription in one go) are totally against the law in Belgium. It will be interesting to see how they will get around this....
It almost doesn't make sense for that to stop the deal. I think it makes more sense to offer an unlocked unit at double the price, some would go to Apple, some would go to the official local iPhone carrier anyway.
Ah and this is where the french law kicks "you" in the teeth - the phone needs to be offered at the same price. After all the bally-ho Apple did that they did NOT want cross subsidies, anyone that can read knows that stance. And the french consumer body is already looking at it with pleasure. Their comment was "Apple or no Apple - no one is above the law"
Didn't the French lawmakers do something similar with regards to the iPod and then had to alter it's law or something?!
No that pertained to capping the volume level on iPods as legislations stipulates that the noise level shall not be above 105 (or 100 dB). But you can unblock it afterwards.
France is particular anyway : Red Bull is illegal there -too much caffeine...
But they DID send some troops to the US to fight of the colonial Brits and sold you Louisiana....
The exclusivity deals will be a little less lucrative, but that's out of Apple's control. They can't change the law and I doubt that they will just leave out all the countries that have laws requiring the sale of unlocked phones. Besides, their phones are already being unlocked in the U.S. so the issue is moot.
Perhaps Apple should start selling Mac's with Windows installed, too. Just drop OS X all together.
How is that analogy even relevant? Let's see: Mac = iPhone ... ok, that works ... Mac OS X = exclusive carrier ... huh?
Locking a Mac into Mac OS X is equivalent to locking the iPhone to, well, Mac OS X (iPhone version).
The analogy that really fits here would be locking a Mac to a particular internet service provider. Now just imagine that... people would think it's absurd, there would be outrage. Yet, because of how the cellular industry has developed, it's just accepted by everyone that phones can be locked to a particular cellular service provider.
This is exactly the reason why I've always hated cell phones and continue to use them as sparingly as possible. Because literally every time you press a damn button on them it's costing you money. And every single phone has different user interface (and incompatible add-ons), and may or may not work with your computer. It's such a joke industry.
My wife is shopping for a new phone and it's ridiculously complicated trying to figure out which networks it will work on, whether you can use it in other countries easily, whether it will sync with her Mac.
I for one am glad the OpenMoko project is finally coming to fruition (even if it lacks some features still). I'm looking forward to the day where a cell phone is as open as a computer (ie. you can choose any service provider, it works on any network, choose any add-ons, sync with it in a standard way, etc).
France might as well be written off by Apple, though, since they have such screwed up laws. Look at all the crap Apple had to go through with iTunes. Beaucoup de merde.
Perhaps you're right.
Perhaps Apple should start selling Mac's with Windows installed, too. Just drop OS X all together. After all, it's all about the domestic base, right?
Then again, I believe that sometimes you have to walk away from doing business with someone if you don't want to make the concessions they demand you make. If that's the case, then perhaps you're not right.
There are a couple simple problems with that logic.
Western Europe is the prime market for the iPhone as it stands today. Language support is too limited for it to make it commercially viable in most of Asia, and price is likely to cause it to fail in much of eastern Europe from a mass-market perspective.
Suddenly, out of the 1B phones sold a year, Apple's market penetration drops significantly to the point that they would need an impossible share in the US, UK, and Germany to pull it off. Commercially, their current strategy is bound to fail at some point. They will have to sell them unlocked in enough of the world that they might as well just charge an extra $200 for an unlocked version now and be done with it. The initial uptake is really what they need to grab in a country, but 5-year exclusivity is stupid.
Apple might as well offer unlocked phones in Europe and just charge more for them. Locked: $399, unlocked: $599.
Right, because the extra cost is justified by the amount of work it takes them to unlock it. That makes sense.
France might as well be written off by Apple, though, since they have such screwed up laws. Look at all the crap Apple had to go through with iTunes. Beaucoup de merde.
Right, because having phones locked to a particular provider is the way things are supposed to be. God forbid any other country creates laws which differ from the ones passed down by the almighty himself in the USA. One god, one truth, one market, one culture.