November 9 is the big day when the iPhone is officially released in the UK, handcuffed to O2 as the exclusive, multi-year carrier. Customers will be forced to take out an 18 month plan with O2 for £35, £45 or £55 pounds (US$70-$111) - meaning customers will be up for at least £900 (US$1811) over 18 months.

The 8gig version will sell for £269 (US$542).

Customers will again be forced to unlock their phones using software and hardware hacks, but it remains to be seen if Apple and O2 will change the sale model so that you dont physically get the phone until you sign up to a plan. It is definitely expected that models that go on sale in the UK (and in the US) will start to implement new attempts to mitigate any unlocking of the phones.

Apple are believed to have negotiated to receive 40% of all call/data revenue from each handset.

The iPhone yet again disappoints with its inability to run on a modern 3G network, using legacy 2G technology instead. Many people were expecting the release of a 3G version soon, but are again disappointed.

As per normal, Apple blames others for any product shortcomings, and this time its the 3G chipsets which are labelled “real power hogs”. Its interesting how every other phone manufacturer manages to get OK battery time out of them. Apple say given the other things they want you to do on the iPhone like listen to music, surf the net, there isnt enough battery life. Amazing, because not only can you do those things on most other 3G phones, but it would seem that the issue is caused by things OTHER than 3G normal phone usage - ie music and the internet.

A 3G model is set for release late 2008 (cut a few months off that as they are always conservative so they arent put under pressure).

In a side benefit not related to Apple, O2 have said free WiFi will be available at over 7500 hotspots around the UK.

A few more European countries are expected to have the iPhone released next quarter including Germany (Deutsche Telekom AG), Spain (Telefonica which is the parent of O2) and France (Orange).

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 19th, 2007 at 7:48 am and is filed under Gadgets, News, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.