Orange gets UK iPhone deal France Telecom's Orange is to start selling the iPhone to UK subscribers later this year. The company has yet to tell us the date, or pricing plans. But it did issue a short statement which confirmed an agreement with Apple to, "bring iPhone 3G and 3GS to Orange UK customers later this year. Orange globally now offers iPhone …
Interesting that Steve Jobs, a really smart individual in so many ways still has this cockamany "exclusive" attitude towards his little iPhone. What he needs to do is look in his rear view mirror - the competition are not just closing on him, they're in a higher gear. If I were Apple I would have opened the door to all network operators to sell the baby before it falls out of the pram and is replaced by a nicer looking and less fussy infant.
No, it isn't the end of chat.
Vodafone having spectacular coverage isn't going to matter one bloody jot if I can't get coverage in my house. Who relies upon getting coverage in every corner of the UK? No-one. You pick the network with the best coverage *in your area* based around what you do with you life. For me, that's O2 by a fair margin. Tried Orange and Voda, never got reception in my living room, one bar upstairs in the bedroom. Useless!
All these cheap contracts that people mention sound great, well done for getting them. Quick question, is free unlimited* Wifi access included in the tariff? What about MMS, are they an extra, or do they come out of your allowance? Since Orange are doing a deal with T-Mobile, they'll probably supply the wifi, and seeing as that's an extra £20/month for unlimited, the tariffs suddenly start to look OK, and yes, to get FULL use of some the iPhone features (iTunes, downloading larger apps from the App Store to name a few off the top of my head) then you do kind of need it. Not forgetting that phone is *partially* subsidised (alright, not by much!). I'll admit that there are some irritating about O2's services, such as service outages, coverage, tethering (if enough people complain to the right authorities, then they'll be forced to change that), but having swapped from Orange about a year ago it surprises me to hear people say that their customer service is poor. It's spectacular next to what Orange provided me with - the signal where I live is an order of magnitude better (I *actually* get one!).
*OK, I know that O2's idea of unlimited is entirely different to that of some of you, but what do you people want to download?!
You're forgetting something, the competition tried to beat the iPod but guess what? when any mp3 player is being tested the iPod is still the benchmark.
Sure, plenty of other players have more features, many of them sound better but where is the alternative mp3 player that has an established hugely popular application store?
One store gives you TV and movies (purchase and rental), lots of useful applications and games, plus lots of music. Nobody else has the same amount of selection in a easy to use package.
Even if you don't buy anything or download anything, you still have an music and media player that is one of the best to use.
Apple won't roll over and let Orange ruin the iPhone, I suspect the reason Orange took so long to get the iPhone was due to Apple holding out on them until they agreed not to mess with the software.
It's about time someone stood up to the greedy mobile operators.
Since when did competition make Apple products cheaper? You can by a Mac in several shops on the high street and web based stores but the prices are within a few pounds of each other. Same is true for ipods.
I'm going with Lee on this one, Orange will either price the phone the same as O2 and hope their brand attracts customers or they'll use a completely different tariff structure to make it impossible to compare the two.
Currently Orange customer thinking about ditching to O2 to get a 3GS. Think i'll take orange up on their offer as long as the interface and menus aren't completely crippled by them. I'll have a play with an orange branded one and if it's not destroyed, i'll stay. Apple are notorious for controlling their products, so maybe Orange had to back down on this one and see that I don't care about their shovelware.
Now that the iPhone is on a network NOT made up of tin cans and string then maybe we'll stop hearing the shrill cries of the fanbois defending O2 when it goes down (again)
Personally as long as it doesn't stop Orange offering handsets that I actually want then I couldn't really care less.
Frankly, Orange are shite, have been since FT bought them so good luck with that, but after the grief of the last Apple update (not just mine other peoples too) I'm inclined to say that the Jesusphone is also utter shite, Android's the way forward.
Alien because it seems to be what testing is for the Apple software development team.
" Have you ever tried using the O2 online store? I hear internet commerce is the coming thing..."
I'm not a complete idiot you know. There are two problems with the online store:
1) They were also out of stock
2) Lots of things are going missing from my post at the moment (may be due to the strikes round my way). A selection over the last 4 weeks:
- 2 x credit cards (sent separately at different times)
- 1 x cheque from insurance company
- 1 x card pin notification (not the same as the credit card though)
- 1 x package with car parts (front brake caliper bolts if you're interested)
The likelihood of an iphone arriving unmolested to my house at the mo is pretty low!
@Simon - I have wifi at home, and in the office, and if I'm out and about there are innumerable coffee shops that I know of that provide free/cheap wifi. So having free access through 'The Cloud' isn't a big issue to me.
Orange possibly aren't the best network to get the iPhone, and it's moot for me because I just took out an 18 month contract on a phone, but more competition can only be good. The handset will still be prohibitively priced, but perhaps O2 will finally get round to upgrading their 3G network to compete.
Indeed. I went into the 02 shop the other day looking for a smartphone type of thang to replace my Touch HD. I told the monkey I didn't want a JesusPhone and he tried to get me to take a vintage HTC handset rebranded and recased (probably an original Touch looking at it!).
When I asked if they had anything a bit more, you know, current, the only option was an iPhone. Take it or leave it. So I left it.
In Orange's defence, although their customer service is second to all they have the best phones when it comes to 'serious' devices.
I was with Orange for 18 months, just before the end of my contract, I moved home.
I was not able to make phones calls in my Home any more. When I asked Orange, they told me that was normal. Nice
And only live three miles from a large Town.
O2 are not great but I can just use it in my home if needed.
And don't get me started on how bad o2 data service is
Greg D says:
"Vodafone having spectacular coverage isn't going to matter one bloody jot if I can't get coverage in my house. Who relies upon getting coverage in every corner of the UK? No-one. You pick the network with the best coverage *in your area* based around what you do with you life. For me, that's O2 by a fair margin. Tried Orange and Voda, never got reception in my living room, one bar upstairs in the bedroom. Useless!
True true. But I think you'll find it's MY HOUSE. No wonder my leccy bill is so high.
Personally the IPhone is not my thing and I am not looking forward to more IPhone users not only arguing over the fact their phone is better than everyone elses but now that their network/tarrif is better than other IPhone users....
What with the New Orange/T-Mobile Joint venture soon to be in effect I think the Orange network will give the much hated O2 network (by me anyways) a good ol kick in the arse.
Yeah, it's the vagaries of the cellphone networks for sure that lead to these sorts of experiences. I was happy with Orange while I was living in Stoke-On-Trent, but after I moved to Birmingham and then later to Basingstoke, my Orange phone (well, phones plural, as I upgraded over the years) always had worse coverage than my partners phone on O2 or my work phone on Voda when I had one.
I've been really happy with O2s coverage where I use it, but that's the point - it's where you use it that the coverage matters, not an Ofcom map; a network might have 99.9% coverage, but if you live and work in part of the 0.1% area, that network is useless to you and you may as well go for one that has 98% coverage, but you're *in* that 98% area.
Get over yourself. Is there really any need to be like that? Nobody else's who's commented has been nasty about their experiences, but I guess that's why you're an Anonymous Coward isn't it?
Other than that, I refer you to my previous comment:
I've been really happy with O2s coverage where I use it, but that's the point - it's where you use it that the coverage matters, not an Ofcom map; a network might have 99.9% coverage, but if you live and work in part of the 0.1% area, that network is useless to you and you may as well go for one that has 98% coverage, but you're *in* that 98% area.
Why is The Register and every other media outlet so breathless with this news? I was always given to understand that Apple's iPhone exclusivity contract with O2 was likely to come up for review after two years, similar to the deal with AT&T in the US. It's standard business practice, after all. Maybe I made it up. Oh no, hang on: I read something about it in The Guardian in August last year: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/aug/01/telecoms.mobilephones
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