Bolx... O2 suck. I was really hoping for Orange or Voda in the UK. O2, come on Apple, why? Just because they were willing to bend the most? Think of your customers once please.
An iPhone was a certain until now. If this is true, I will seriously think twice about buying one on O2. I certainly won't be rushing out to be one of the first in the UK like I was planning.
In my experience (having been a customer of all 5 UK operators) 02 is indeed the worse, But Apple will probably be thankful that they have got anyone even if it is 02. They are pushing a product that the carriers do no really want to sell. As has been discussed many times now the mobile phone market has changed alot recently, carriers are now also content providers, they see their future profits coming from selling music and videos to customers directly, the iPhone does no fit into that model.
The Biggest question has to be however is that if they have signed T-Mobile in Germany why the hell have they not signed T-Mobile in the UK???
... MMS messaging does not seem to work at all (tried several handsets). Oh well, that ain't even a potential issue on the iPhone
No but it could be a huge issue to iPhone in the UK, i can see lots of people trying to return iphones when they realise they cannot send pictures to their mates phones.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the financial paper said T-Mobile of Germany, Orange of France and O2 in the UK, have each in recent days signed agreements that afford them exclusive rights to market the Apple handset to customers within those respective nations.
Noooooooooooooo!
All three of those carriers operate in the UK yet it seems from the above we'll be stuck with the crap one - O2 - with the highest charges, worst coverage and no EDGE at all, unlike the other two.
The O2 website doesn't even work properly with Safari and their shop throws certificate errors. It's down for maintenance now apparently. Terrible.
Seems like an odd choice for Apple to take - pick the least iPhone compatible service.
I'm on O2 - I think they're pretty good - but i think it really does depend on where you are. The only problem I have with them is that MMS messaging does not seem to work at all (tried several handsets). Oh well, that ain't even a potential issue on the iPhone
MMS works fine for me & all my family on 02 & on different handsets?
Quote:
Originally Posted by aegisdesign
Noooooooooooooo!
All three of those carriers operate in the UK yet it seems from the above we'll be stuck with the crap one - O2 - with the highest charges, worst coverage and no EDGE at all, unlike the other two.
The O2 website doesn't even work properly with Safari and their shop throws certificate errors. It's down for maintenance now apparently. Terrible.
Seems like an odd choice for Apple to take - pick the least iPhone compatible service.
O2 website works fine for me Safari. When I got my contract (on-line via safari) O2 were by far the cheapest for what I wanted. The deals change all the time. Vodafone had the worst customer servce & orange the worst coverage (in my area)
No but it could be a huge issue to iPhone in the UK, i can see lots of people trying to return iphones when they realise they cannot send pictures to their mates phones.
Try sending the picture through email. Works fine.
Try sending the picture through email. Works fine.
email is not MMS.
with MMS you take a photo pick a contact and press send, it then compresses that photo automatically to a small size and instantly it appears in ANYONES inbox.
To email a picture to someone elses phone they need a phone with a POP3 email client (which is set up and they use - and not many people at all have POP3 email working on their phones becasue texting is easier) you would want to manually compress the picture first to make it small enough because if you or your friend are not on 3G you do not want to send a huge file. you physically have to write the email and attach the photo. And if you want your friend to see the picture straight away (which is the whole point of MMS) you will probably need to call them or text them to check their inbox!!
And you say it works fine?
Trust me, it may not be an issue in the US but in the UK MMS is very popular especially amongst the young, we used to use it all the time when i was in the UK. sending pics from bars, concerts, holiday etc..
Nice, but what will Apple do in the other country's? Belgium, The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden ... ? Also Simlock is forbidden in Belgium, so will they pick a partner there?
Oh yeah, I live in Belgium and I travel a lot to other EU country's! The Netherlands, France are just a half our drive away.
At some point in the future, people are going to look back and shake their heads wondering were they really silly enough to buy an iPhone. The greed inherent in Apples demand for a slice of the coms traffic is really something to behold. I would like data rates to get a lot cheaper in Europe, as they are in the US and Japan, not more expensive!
The carriers who carry the iPhone are certainly not going to be keen to reduce their charges if they have to give Apple a slice of the pie.
Apples model will fall apart in time, I think. So maybe they are just grabbing as much as they can before people and the carriers wake up to having being conned. Surely they won't be able to get the carriers to agree to do the same for future simplified and cheaper models, there is just too much competition.
I really can't get my head around this. How far would Apple get if they tried to demand a share of broadband connection charges for the computers they sold - mad!
People in Europe travel between countries a lot, just like people in the US travel between states.<<
YES REALLY!
More europeans cross their boarders than US citizens cross thier state lines! THATS A FACT!!!
Exactly. I've been to france, switzerland and belgium so far this year, all on seperate trips, and I'm only finished college in June. I am obviously nowhere in the league of a busy traveller either. Off to Aberdeen in Scotland in 8 hours, ie. flight takes off in 8 hours... better get some sleep. So yeah, roaming is hugely important to the European customer though I doubt that many people take it (costs) into account.
I would like data rates to get a lot cheaper in Europe, as they are in the US and Japan, not more expensive!
The carriers who carry the iPhone are certainly not going to be keen to reduce their charges if they have to give Apple a slice of the pie.
On the glass half-full side:
Apple could sell the handset for 800 ($ or Euro), let providers subsidize it down to 400 or sell it to them for 400 and ask for 10% of the revenue.
My problem with handset subsidies is that if you do not get a new phone every year (or second year depending on your contract) your phone charges are used to subsidize the handsets of the people who get a new phone every year.
Huh? I have been to 3 other countries within the last two years and it will be 4 by the end of this year. I bought my current phone from a girl in the UK. She had been to at least 6 different countries within 18 months. She forgot to delete the photos from the phone before parting with it and they were date stamped. There were some 'interesting' shots she really should have deleted first - no, make that would wish she had deleted.
Every Telecom has been working with Apple in both a sales and technical standpoint to make the product work as expected by Apple on their respective Networks.
the carriers made the bargain to gain customers and after the att situation a 2nd or 3rd tier carrier can poof gain customers in other situations would cost them boatloads., i bet someone on these forums as the experience to say what is the average cost to get a NEW customer, how to steal a customer, how else with such a simple thing......use the iphone and apple"s name recognition and you give up a little on the marginal revenue but then you've got $$$$ you would not have had in the first place. also use it as a competitive assault on your big name players. SJ is brilliant. i bet the carriers want apple to go away, but not before they bring boatloads of new customers that they can entrap with long contracts. also much of the advertising cost is being made by apple and the media. it's like the carriers have won a lottery. talk about a halo affect.....for the carriers, for all that don't get the iphone at the carriers how many buy from them anyway waiting for apple upgrades to come along and then they don't have to mess with changing carriers to get the apple bling
Apple could sell the handset for 800 ($ or Euro), let providers subsidize it down to 400 or sell it to them for 400 and ask for 10% of the revenue.
My problem with handset subsidies is that if you do not get a new phone every year (or second year depending on your contract) your phone charges are used to subsidize the handsets of the people who get a new phone every year.
My problem is I see the way many people use mobile phones, particularly if data charges are involved, and I liken it to them deliberately taking a pair of scissors and cutting the corner off their wallet, a hole in their pocket, and then walking around all the time leaving a trail of money behind.
Probably comes from being old and being able to remember when international phone calls were 3-4 Euros a minute and you made one or two in a decade and it was a BIG deal.]
Comments
Bolx... O2 suck. I was really hoping for Orange or Voda in the UK. O2, come on Apple, why? Just because they were willing to bend the most? Think of your customers once please.
An iPhone was a certain until now. If this is true, I will seriously think twice about buying one on O2. I certainly won't be rushing out to be one of the first in the UK like I was planning.
In my experience (having been a customer of all 5 UK operators) 02 is indeed the worse, But Apple will probably be thankful that they have got anyone even if it is 02. They are pushing a product that the carriers do no really want to sell. As has been discussed many times now the mobile phone market has changed alot recently, carriers are now also content providers, they see their future profits coming from selling music and videos to customers directly, the iPhone does no fit into that model.
The Biggest question has to be however is that if they have signed T-Mobile in Germany why the hell have they not signed T-Mobile in the UK???
... MMS messaging does not seem to work at all (tried several handsets). Oh well, that ain't even a potential issue on the iPhone
No but it could be a huge issue to iPhone in the UK, i can see lots of people trying to return iphones when they realise they cannot send pictures to their mates phones.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the financial paper said T-Mobile of Germany, Orange of France and O2 in the UK, have each in recent days signed agreements that afford them exclusive rights to market the Apple handset to customers within those respective nations.
Noooooooooooooo!
All three of those carriers operate in the UK yet it seems from the above we'll be stuck with the crap one - O2 - with the highest charges, worst coverage and no EDGE at all, unlike the other two.
The O2 website doesn't even work properly with Safari and their shop throws certificate errors. It's down for maintenance now apparently. Terrible.
Seems like an odd choice for Apple to take - pick the least iPhone compatible service.
I'm on O2 - I think they're pretty good - but i think it really does depend on where you are. The only problem I have with them is that MMS messaging does not seem to work at all (tried several handsets). Oh well, that ain't even a potential issue on the iPhone
MMS works fine for me & all my family on 02 & on different handsets?
Noooooooooooooo!
All three of those carriers operate in the UK yet it seems from the above we'll be stuck with the crap one - O2 - with the highest charges, worst coverage and no EDGE at all, unlike the other two.
The O2 website doesn't even work properly with Safari and their shop throws certificate errors. It's down for maintenance now apparently. Terrible.
Seems like an odd choice for Apple to take - pick the least iPhone compatible service.
O2 website works fine for me Safari. When I got my contract (on-line via safari) O2 were by far the cheapest for what I wanted. The deals change all the time. Vodafone had the worst customer servce & orange the worst coverage (in my area)
No but it could be a huge issue to iPhone in the UK, i can see lots of people trying to return iphones when they realise they cannot send pictures to their mates phones.
Try sending the picture through email. Works fine.
Do they:
1) Have the 3G version of the phone ready
2) Get O2 to upgrade their network to support EDGE
3) Make us use std GPRS (yuk)
if it's option 3 it might be a blessing in disguise as O2's current data plans are to expensive to bother with.
Try sending the picture through email. Works fine.
email is not MMS.
with MMS you take a photo pick a contact and press send, it then compresses that photo automatically to a small size and instantly it appears in ANYONES inbox.
To email a picture to someone elses phone they need a phone with a POP3 email client (which is set up and they use - and not many people at all have POP3 email working on their phones becasue texting is easier) you would want to manually compress the picture first to make it small enough because if you or your friend are not on 3G you do not want to send a huge file. you physically have to write the email and attach the photo. And if you want your friend to see the picture straight away (which is the whole point of MMS) you will probably need to call them or text them to check their inbox!!
And you say it works fine?
Trust me, it may not be an issue in the US but in the UK MMS is very popular especially amongst the young, we used to use it all the time when i was in the UK. sending pics from bars, concerts, holiday etc..
People in Europe travel between countries a lot, just like people in the US travel between states.<<
Not really.
YES REALLY!
More europeans cross their boarders than US citizens cross thier state lines! THATS A FACT!!!
Oh yeah, I live in Belgium and I travel a lot to other EU country's! The Netherlands, France are just a half our drive away.
The carriers who carry the iPhone are certainly not going to be keen to reduce their charges if they have to give Apple a slice of the pie.
Apples model will fall apart in time, I think. So maybe they are just grabbing as much as they can before people and the carriers wake up to having being conned. Surely they won't be able to get the carriers to agree to do the same for future simplified and cheaper models, there is just too much competition.
I really can't get my head around this. How far would Apple get if they tried to demand a share of broadband connection charges for the computers they sold - mad!
>>Originally Posted by kenaustus
People in Europe travel between countries a lot, just like people in the US travel between states.<<
YES REALLY!
More europeans cross their boarders than US citizens cross thier state lines! THATS A FACT!!!
Exactly. I've been to france, switzerland and belgium so far this year, all on seperate trips, and I'm only finished college in June. I am obviously nowhere in the league of a busy traveller either. Off to Aberdeen in Scotland in 8 hours, ie. flight takes off in 8 hours... better get some sleep. So yeah, roaming is hugely important to the European customer though I doubt that many people take it (costs) into account.
I would like data rates to get a lot cheaper in Europe, as they are in the US and Japan, not more expensive!
The carriers who carry the iPhone are certainly not going to be keen to reduce their charges if they have to give Apple a slice of the pie.
On the glass half-full side:
Apple could sell the handset for 800 ($ or Euro), let providers subsidize it down to 400 or sell it to them for 400 and ask for 10% of the revenue.
My problem with handset subsidies is that if you do not get a new phone every year (or second year depending on your contract) your phone charges are used to subsidize the handsets of the people who get a new phone every year.
Not really.
Huh? I have been to 3 other countries within the last two years and it will be 4 by the end of this year. I bought my current phone from a girl in the UK. She had been to at least 6 different countries within 18 months. She forgot to delete the photos from the phone before parting with it and they were date stamped. There were some 'interesting' shots she really should have deleted first - no, make that would wish she had deleted.
On the glass half-full side:
Apple could sell the handset for 800 ($ or Euro), let providers subsidize it down to 400 or sell it to them for 400 and ask for 10% of the revenue.
My problem with handset subsidies is that if you do not get a new phone every year (or second year depending on your contract) your phone charges are used to subsidize the handsets of the people who get a new phone every year.
My problem is I see the way many people use mobile phones, particularly if data charges are involved, and I liken it to them deliberately taking a pair of scissors and cutting the corner off their wallet, a hole in their pocket, and then walking around all the time leaving a trail of money behind.
Probably comes from being old and being able to remember when international phone calls were 3-4 Euros a minute and you made one or two in a decade and it was a BIG deal.]