Wow
That's iPhone 3GS prices, which were already the highest for years.
Have we seen the end of highly-subsidised smartphones?
Samsung’s first Android-based smartphone has finally appeared for sale on O2’s website. Samsung_I7500 Samsung's i7500: now available from O2 The Galaxy i7500 is available for free on a £73-per-month ($120/€83) contract which includes 3000 minutes' call time and 1000 texts. But it will set you back £244 ($397/€276) if you …
I was torn between this and the iPhone 3Gs, but the latter hasn't been in stock for ages. About about two in the morning, Friday night/Saturday morning, after a few drinks, I decided to check if the iPhone was in stock. Nothing. So I figured I'd check if the Galaxy was out, or at least had a release date. Lo and behold, there it was, so I ordered straight away.
The phone has now been dispatched and should be with me either today or tomorrow. I would review it for the denizens of El Reg, but I'd rather just play with it :D
What an absolute nightmare the phone market is at the moment?
O2's policy seems to be to sign up all the best handsets exclusively and then they think they can charge what they want - £75 per month is just a stupid amount to pay. Anyone paying that must have more money than sense, or maybe thats more debt than sense?
The only other network with tempting phones to me is t-mobile with their G1/G2. Except t-mobile coverage around here is shockingly bad so thats not really an option either.
It seems that downgrading to PAYG and sticking with old handsets is the best option for now.
My Vodafone Magic was "free" for £22 PCM. 600 mins, unlimited texts and mobile Internet.
I can understand how iPhone fashion victims could be persuaded to part with £crazy for a *phone*, but how O2 expects to screw that kind of money out of people for an Android phone when almost identical phones are available for *much* less is beyond belief.
....that folks have that much to waste a month on a mobile phone.
Most folks I ask that have such phones and paying such a high price rarely use a fraction of the service they are paying for. If you really need it fine (but I would hazard a guess that maybe a better solution may exist if truth be known) but chances are 98% of those that buy these things dont.
Knock it down to a £15 a month contract and put the £60 saving into AVCs or something more useful, you know...maybe the rent?
People really need to get a grip on their real needs...and wallets.
looks like your now better off buying the phone and then running it on your favourite/cheapest tariff.
1000 msgs per month? what? i send about 10 txt per week..and an internet enabled device such as this would be used for internet stuff such as twitter/facebook etc updates... the days of txt's is going to dry up rapidly...and these carriers dont seem to realise this...find another revenue stream guys...and be quick about it!
in fact, you can pretty much drop the included minutes too. just 20 quid a month for 'unlimited' internet and I'm all set.
Time for a Deaf Phone Tariff
Nine million people in the UK (15% of the population) suffer from permanent, disabling hearing loss.
The estimated demographic figure has ranged from 22 million deaf and hard of hearing to as high as 36 million deaf and hard of hearing worldwide. Of these, only a few million are considered "deaf" and the remainder are hard of hearing but cannot use a phone.
for 30 years this group has had to PAY for Unused "Call Time" and I for one is sick of it.
Surely for a majority of us that really dislike phones wishes a network would provide a worldwide backbone for these data only services.
A revolution is taking place in the mobile device market - Smart phones like the HTC HERO and other Google / ANDROID phones will be introduced later in the year are truly open source - this means the software is free - and thousands of developers are busy creating useful applications that would truly enrich our lives - live email - instant messengers - Live Subtitles - video on demand ....
I want to hear from DEAF Users - (especially the angry ones that are fed up with the way DEAF users are treated) by phone networks. Call centres - paying out every month for hundreds of so called "FREE TALK TIME".
Well I have had enough of 25 years of FREE TALK TIME I CANNOT USE.
I have put out calls to the Google ANDROID developers to see if they can provide as real time as possible SUBTITLES to speech. - yep on a hand-held -
Switch on the app and anything heard by microphone could be sent to a server for voice to text and squirted back to the phone. C
So All you can eat Data Plan - Pay for calls as you go. a Lovely Android Phone and best of all IF your a network it could add millions of LOYAL customers and their mothers and brothers.
Please call or write to your network - ask them if they would consider a DEAF TARIFF - it might actually be very good for business.
* Update 24th August 2009
RNID?: Yes I have written to the RNID however when it comes to technological issues the RNID seems stuck in the mid 70's
I also take issue with the Teletype service in the UK - its time it was abandoned completely. If you proposed a network for the deaf tomorrow and it required the sort of hardware available over a dial up line that only really served the deaf community and was not available to talk or communicate with external devices you would be laughed off the blogisphere.
I have also written to all the networks and virtual networks - apart from some standard reply about their commitment to equal opportunities few even acknowledged they saw the problem. You can rest assured I keep the pressure on.
None saw the vast business opportunity.
Number 10 has a petition, and every MP in the country has been petitioned many writing in to offer support.
I have also asked the ANDROID development community to consider DEAF applications for the 20 or so Android phones coming to market by year end.
Suggestions so far would offer Live Subtitles for a conversation, Lip readers could just glance at their screens rather than saying - "sorry what did you say?" - That alone could transform some peoples lives.
Im also often told text packages are cheap - and be grateful for X thousands a month.
TEXT is YESTERDAYS tech - The world communicates via social networking - Facebook - Email - Forums Instant - Messenger - Twitter, they are universal and not device dependant.
Google Android on an open network offers free software - very low cost applications and a vast range of manufacturers producing devices at all price points. So the Time Is Right!
Some people have asked why a phone at all - use an ipod touch type of device on wifi?
Well its a myth Deaf people cant use a phone - for one someone in my circle might need to make a call or in some circumstances I can reply to a message with a call- Like telling your lift the concert has finished and pick me up outside the theatre. Calling emergency services do not require you to hear the operator as long as you keep repeating there is a fire at 555 High Street and a baby needs to be rescued.
The may be a touch naive, but is android not free for the manufacturers to stick on their phones? Even if it isn't, it has to be relatively cheap, no? Why the hell then, is this so expensive?
O2 have lost their marbles.
I was actually waiting for this, as all I basically want is a phone which takes microsd cards and has a 3.5mm jack to replace my mp3 player. There actually aren't that many out there that fit the bill.
Got tired of waiting for this, and had heard in advance about the horrific tariffs. In the end, I went for a nokia 5530 to keep me going for a while until more Android phones come out that don't cost the earth.
Nokia 5530 is a very nice little phone btw. No GPS or 3g, but I can just about live with that. And it's cheap - £130.
is get the Hero from T-Mobile, free on a £35pcm 18 month contract that gives you "unlimited" data and texts and 800 mins. That's exactly what I have just done and I am supremely happy with my phone. Used HTC WinMo handsets before and its only must dawned on me how dated they were. HTC's TouchFlo works well with Android and the seven home pages are very handy.
..of contract also pisses me off.
It's not just the fact that you're taking a reaming on your monthly bill, but now you're also getting shackled to a rack in a damp dungeon for said reaming for 18 or even 24 months if you want an upgrade.
I managed to renew my contract last November - not for an iPhone; I went for a Sony Ericsson C905 - for a 12 month term, but it wasn't easy. I doubt I'll be able to renew for anything less than 18 months this December when I will want to upgrade again.
I've been on the network since it was Cellnet (that's "Cellnet", not "BT Cellnet") and they've had a considerable sum of my money each month, on time and without fail or interruption, over the years, and some relatively light usage.
You'd think they'd offer me a nice phone once a year like they used to, at a fair monthly cost.
However, for the past few years, what was a once simple decision-making exercise over which phone I was going to have has progressed to become a "negotiation" of sorts. This will most likely proceed to the classification of "argument" with a snotty O2 salesperson this coming November.
As an 11 year Cellnet/O2 veteran who has previously recommended the service to many others in the past, I'm afraid to say that O2 aren't looking too attractive a service provider right now, what with increases in contract length, ridiculous upgrade fees and higher monthly costs.
Add to this the recent shitty service caused by frequent, unexplained outages. They might as well just despatch a crack team of O2 representatives in vans to visit each and every subscriber's home so they can kick them in the genitals.
O2, stop being such a bunch of dicks and get your act together.
O2 can really RAM up their 'BA HINES' What the F*** is the fuss about this android anyway?I thought people would have learnt that any new system takes time to stabilize.Plus if you hang on for a while, new,better,cheaper and more efficient android phones would be released in the nearest future.
I was so desperate for this samsung I7500 phone to come out so I could cop one, but eh eh, I ain't getting nothing - not for that price plus the fact that there isn't enough applications yet as compared to the windows based applications we used on windows mobile.
I tell you people, just get an OMNIA, that is a perfect fine phone and wait till these people get to their senses and bring down the prices or tariffs.
I thought I could install my old windows applications i loved so much on the android but EH EH, i have to wait for developers to design similar applications- No Way.
And I like it, mostly. I like Android, I like the hardware except for the slightly-too-much-pressure-required touchscreen.... the only seemingly dodgy thing might be the battery life, which I'm currently testing. Not sure I'm keeping it, as if the battery life blows it's gotta go back. It's a 1500mAh battery for God's sake! I thought AMOLED was LOWER power draw!
I upgraded from my N95 to this, and I'm paying nowhere near this much... in fact I got the thing free!! Can't believe how much O2 are asking for for the thing. Ridiculous.
If I have to send it back I might be forced to consider an iPhone 3GS.
Sony Ericcson Rachael anyone?
The thing you need to bear in mind is that as discussed on many many other forums including O2's own (ignored by them) customer forum is that the explanation goes like this:
All of O2's subsidy budget is spent on the iPhones.
Only on the iPhone can you get a years free data+cloud. (more subsidy).
Thus all of their other phones are expensive. The smartphones are even more expensive as they are in competition with the iPhone for customers. So basically they don't want your business unless you pay through the nose. It's also assumed that the iPhone either comes to O2 at a discount or makes them a lot of revenue after the first year once you are a data junky. So again all the other phones are expensive.