In the United Kingdom, if it

In the United Kingdom, if it did not invent the scheme, Virgin Mobile certainly made pay-as-you-go extremely popular here. I liked the idea of simply paying the going price for a handset (or finding a bargain), buying and installing the SIM, and off you go. I switched from Vodafone as soon as my previous contract was up, and I'd never go back. Not even for the iPhone. Of course, you can also contract with them as well, but that's optional, and can still be independent of phone purchase. It's easy to replace a phone (eg, when you discover that its battery life is poor, or you dislike the user interface): just buy another. What could be simpler? I also used (and still use) my phone fairly infrequently, so I always lost out on the other contracts.

With devices like the iPhone, I'm also more interested in WiFi connectivity than 3G, for my purposes, so again a normal telephone contract would not suit me. Indeed, I see that existing cell carriers in the US and Canada don't really seem to understand that it's a network data device, to judge by the rates and limits they provide for 3G and WiFi access. Tiny data limits? They don't get it, so (probably) neither shall I, except perhaps for application development. I wouldn't dare use it if the UK charges are similar, or worse.

Another aspect of the iPhone that bothers me, not mentioned here, is the closed scheme for iPhone applications. As I understood it, you can only buy them from the Apple store. If the applications are not free of charge, they take 30% of the price. Is that right? If so, it seemed excessive to me, even in our high-tax country. Furthermore, I understood Apple looks at the application first to see if they want it on their blessed machine. Who owns the device? It seems to be the Cell phone operator, then Apple, and then we might be allowed to use it, within their constraints.

The whole notion of "locked"

The whole notion of "locked" phones in the US undermines the FCC's open competition stance amongst service providers. I vividly recall the first months in which Local Number Portability (LNP) was imposed on US carriers, which led to a frenzy of defections of disgruntled customers, or those just seeking a better deal- yet retaining their existing telephone numbers. Horay for the consumer! Just as in the pre-LNP days, customers are again boxed-in and bound to a specific carrier, but this time through a locked handset. Perhaps this is an issue to be reviewed next year by the Obama administration (chuckle, chuckle).

The thing you seem to be

The thing you seem to be missing is that in the US (and I'm sure elsewhere) the iphone WILL be available unlocked. Of course the price will be higher, but that's the same with any phone. So if you want an unlocked iphone - go ahead and buy one. One caveat however: in the US only T-Mobile has a compatible network besides AT&T, so you would have to use one of those two carriers while in the US. It could be used in many other countries around the world however.

You're only looking at this

You're only looking at this from the Apple AT&T and who makes which benefits point of view.
The real benefit for the users (you and me) would be that you can get one phone anywhere, and then use it anywhere in the world with for example prepaid cards when you travel, instead of having to pay huge fees to your carrier when abroad just to check your messages!
I live in France, work in Switzerland, so spend about 50/50 of my total time in each country. I'd love to be able to just swap the SIM card when I cross the border and keep all the rest as-is: contacts, messages etc..

It appears Apple may have

It appears Apple may have fumbled here... why? I and others were going to purchase the new 3G iPhone, but after reviews regarding worse battery life, with recommendations disabling 3G service, when not in use, and unsubstantiated data rate plan increases while dropping text service, it's just too much!

Consider, when the data rate was $20 per/month, half of that $20 went to AT&T, the other to Apple, plus you were allotted 200 text messages per/month.

Now, Apple no longer shares data rate revenue and AT&T increases the data plan to $30 per/month, and drops texting inclusion within the plan. You now have to pay an additional $5 per/month for 200 messages ($15 for 1,500, or $20 per/month for unlimited).

So now, the data plan is $35.00 per/month, a revenue increase of 285% for AT&T from the previous equivalency of service at $20 per/mo.

My city does not have 3G service. As a matter of fact, only 280 cities presently have 3G service, with supposedly another 70 on their way (we've heard that before). My town was supposed to be 3G last year, and the year before that.

Consider, you may be paying for 3G service when you won't have access to 3G service.

Furthermore, when you consider the new 3G iPhone data plan costs, over a two year contact, amounts to more than $840. Compare that to $480 for the previous two year contract, that's a 570% jump in costs for data rate features.

In the long run, you'll pay:
$199 (8GB) + $840 = $1039 + tax
$299 (16GB) + $840 = $1139 + tax.

That's just too much!

AT&T is clearly gouging their clients.

Apple needs get away from AT&T and make the phone available on all networks for competitive consumer rates... Otherwise, they'll never see the sales they need and want. As time marches on, so does lost market share.

Mobility Eye-pod.net makes a

Mobility


Eye-pod.net makes a good point that mobility is increasingly important, especially to the sort of people that buy these fancy devices. That depends on being able to transfer devices from one area to another easily. We can become as cross about petty restrictions on phones as we do with idiotic Region limitations on DVDs. (Insert here.)

Underlying data such as contacts, messages, etc should surely be accessible through the Internet, not bound to the wretched phone, so it should all be easy.
Of course, the traditional cell phone operators tend to be just the sort to have kept ISDN going, bet the company on ATM, and were relieved to have honest LAP retained in Bluetooth, instead of all that Internet rubbish; so I think there will be another little learning curve.

by Charles Forsyth (not verified) on 7/9/08 at 3:30 pm | reply

In the UK Apple have

In the UK Apple have blundered and got it completely wrong in choosing O2. Why? Well, they don't really have a good 3G network and seem to be miles behind the others.

Apple must be mad. many purchasers of the new 3G phone are going to be disappointed as soon as they move away from cities - take it into the countryside and it will crawl along. Just take a look at the coverage map, Apple!
O2 don't even have a decent EDGE coverage!

It should be available unlocked, when there would be very many more customers who could use networks such as three or t-mobile, who are much better. Seems very muddle headed business thinking to me

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Apple is NOT going to make a

Apple is NOT going to make a CDMA version of the iPhone for Verizon and Sprint, or any other carrier. CDMA is on the way out. Even in Japan and South Korea two out of the three major carriers in each country are switching to 3G systems that are evolved from GSM--namely UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA.

In the U.S. Verizon is going to ditch the CDMA path and plans to follow the GSM path, LTE, for their 4G network. The world's carriers are finally actually all heading in the same direction. (China is still trying to get their carriers to implement their home-grown 3G standard, WSCDMA, but the Chinese government recently realized how far behind they are and as soon as one carrier has WSCDMA running they're going to allow the other two major carriers to implement HSDPA and EVDO.)

Right NOW, though, there's only one U.S. carrier that the iPhone 3G will actually work on at 3G speeds: AT&T. The 3G network that T-Mobile is rolling out is at 1700 (uplink)/2100 (downlink) MHz, which the iPhone 3G does not support. Since there are NO OTHER carriers in the world using 1700/2100 MHz right now, there's no way Apple is going to bother adding that frequency. (T-Mobile made a bad decision in buying spectrum at 1700 MHz. Availability of 3G phones on their network is now always going to lag a bit behind everyone else.)

In a couple years LTE might be close to ready, which may coincide with the expiration of the contract between Apple and AT&T. At that point Apple may be able or ready to offer an unlocked iPhone, since there could then be three carriers in the U.S. it could be used on (AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon)--that's as long as they're all sensible and keep their networks on the same frequencies.

It may even be possible, before then, for T-Mobile to drop their GSM 2G network at 1900 MHz and offer 3G at that frequency, matching the European standard of 1900/2100 MHz. Apple's "multi-year" contract with AT&T might have expired by then, and they'd have more reason to offer an unlocked iPhone before LTE is ready. I wouldn't expect it, though. It takes a LONG time for a carrier to get all their 2G customers to switch to 3G, and T-Mobile has barely just STARTED rolling out their 3G network.

So in the U.S., right now, there really IS NO case for Apple selling an unlocked iPhone 3G. As much as some hate it, it's the AT&T way or the highway.

I'm just waiting for the

I'm just waiting for the iPhone to work on Sprint's network. I've been with Sprint since '97 and I'm not going to switch. I receive calls from and have used other people's phones (non-Sprint) and the quality is simply not there. So I'm hoping the iPhone comes to Sprint soon. :) (Not holding my breath, though LOL)

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