iPhone Release 2.0 - Notes from Europe

IanFogg | June 09, 2008, 11:57 PM

Interesting points from a European perspective:

Worldwide availability on the same date, just a month from now. This takes some doing. Congrats to Apple for understanding that launching in just the US isn't the way to win hearts, minds and wallets elsewhere.

So, initial European iPhone purchasers are between one and seven months in to 18 month contracts... this is going to create some real vocal angst among Apple's most fanatical early adopters. Operators and Apple need to 'think different' here to head off some bad pr: Perhaps offer a special price early upgrade deal?

This does appear to be business model 2.0 - AT&T (US)says this lower price is due to lack of revenue share to Apple, for 3G iPhones.

BUT I have multiple announcements from European operators about the 3g iPhone in my inbox. I've checked two of their websites as well. None mention European pricing. This worries me: How will prices compare here with the US? O2 UK says come back tomorrow so hopefully we'll know soon if the lower US pricing really is carried over here without awkward small print, or unreal exchange rate conversions.

The hardware is also a v2.0 but it's more evolutionary that most of the rumour-mongers speculated. Other than a GPS, and the 3G network support, the user-facing features look near identical. Most notably, the camera looks tired: Here even the new crop of business smartphones have 3 megapixel cameras! The current batch of consumer-grade ones have 3-5 megapixels, branded optics, and real xenon flashes.

No front facing video camera (apparently) this is very rare on 3g handsets and indicates video calling isn't a key feature, if it's present at all.

The appplication shop, already pre-announced, on first impressions looks to be a winner provided the cataogue is large. I'm curious to see whether the more edgy, business model disruptive, appplications are able to find shelf space. Many of the VoIP companies I've spoken to recently have been optimistic about launching their applications on the iPhone.