Ho Hum iPhone Hype

Sed the Grauniad*:

Apple’s much-hyped iPhone is prompting a rush to stores when it finally launches in the UK.

Carphone Warehouse, O2 and Apple are braced for huge queues and a surge of customers when the must-have gadget goes on sale.

and more......

Die-hard fans started queuing outside Apple’s flagship store on London’s Regent Street on Thursday morning.

Friends Graham Gilbert and Nik Fletcher huddled under umbrellas equipped with sleeping bags, food and chairs as they began their wait...

Silly boys...they could have trundled into town after a warm nights sleep, had a good coffee and panini at Pret or Costas or Starbucks, and just wandered in to buy one. Because all this hoo ha, dear reader, was pre-canned PR soup.

Yes, the UK has been completely and utterly overwhelmed by a wave of indifference towards the iPhone, as The Register points out here (and the Grauniad tries to pull back some street cred here).

Why is this....the sheer amount spent on PR, per head of population likely to buy a phone, was probably enough to buy the entire first wave a free phone each.

The reason is this - its still a cr*p deal.

Its £270 odd for the phone before "extras"** (in a country where we are used to having phones heavily subsidised), you can only use it on O2 (which has c 20% market share), and it won't do things we really want like run on 3G, make Skype calls, or hook into any WiFi network around. And as it was such a long time coming post US launch, people like 3 UK and Blyk have been able to launch "good enough" services to chip away at some of the reasons to change.

It will sell, but we predict it will sell as people come off their contracts from the other operators over the next 12 months or so, as there is just no compelling reason to switch operator to buy one yet, at that price and with that level of lock in. And as everyone knows, if you wait 6 months after launch with hyped stuff like this there will be better deals, and like DVDs, the unofficial hacks will be in place....

The Guardian article I quoted above also makes a bigger point, however (as does the New York Times here):

Until now, phones have been relatively primitive devices, so the corrupt absurdity of the closed systems operated by networks has not been obvious to most. The arrival of the iPhone lays it bare. Having an iPhone locked to a network which doesn’t provide 3G connectivity, and is unable to make VoIP calls despite having good wireless networking built in, is like buying a Ferrari and finding that the only thing you can do with it is power your lawnmower. It’s nuts - and our regulators have allowed it to happen.

I agree re the UK Regulators - Ofcom have come down on the fixed line services like a ton of bricks over the last 10 years, while at the same time allowing the mobile operators to run an effective oligopoly, and its only really the EU regulators that have fought the good fight for roaming price reduction, and even that has been painfully slow. Once again i am impressed by French law, which rules this sort of anti-competitive behaviour illegal.

* But no...they claim they did not in fact say this, merely published the news from AP under their own brand header. Tsk tsk...next time any MSM accuses the blogosphere of running with half truths ....

** £7.50 per month for theft insurance....according to O2, if you lose your iPhone and then buy another one (bear in mind there is no subsidy) you have to take out another network contract (£35+ pm) as well as keep paying on the first one. The £7.50 prevents this terrible occurrence and allows cancellation of the first contract. Says we - is that legal under UK contract law, as in theory they bear no loss on the first contract after loss of phone ?