iPhone & Orange France - part 2

Thomas Husson | November 28, 2007, 02:33 AM

Eventually, Orange France confirmed the voice/data plans to be made available tonight with the iPhone.

A few comments:

- phone available as expected at 399 euros. 549 euros for Orange clients who do not want to benefit from one of the four plans. 649 euros for others (naked phone without any bundle). The last price is dissuasive enough for SFR & Bouygues Clients (who would like to unlock the phone) and complies with the French law.

- More importantly, another less well-known point is that consumers have the right to ask their operator to unlock the phone after 6 months (again, a specificity of a French consumer law). Orange would charge 100 euros to unlock the phone before the 6 months period. Not sure what prevents you to go in any other shops to do so. Not sure also what prevents you to buy it in $, except the VAT + shipping costs. Anyway, those artful hackers will not benefit from the fullly optimized Orange/Apple experience.

- all you can eat data plan including e-mails and Internet browsing. Modem, VoIP, p2p forbidden and usage capped at 500Mo.

- number of SMS included (50 / months in the cheapest plan) is not that significant for early adopters and not unlimited as per the SFR Illimythics (39 euros)...

- outside bundles, price per minute is 0.37 euros

- the good news is that there are 10 hours Wifi connection on Orange hotspots even for the smallest package. That's a strong differentiator

- prices are for a 24 months lock-in period but consumers can pay an incremental 4.5 euros / month if they want to be free after 12 months

So, as mentionned yesterday, the aim is really to acquire the high-value consumers. BUT it is also to drive traffic to Orange shops so that vendors can sell other devices if the client is finally not interested in the iPhone or cross-sell with other France Telecom products (livebox...). Interestingly, most outdoor advertising is precisely to show the range of products Orange can offer.

Didier Lombard, CEO of France Telecom, mentionned in various interviews that the target was to sell between 50,000 and 100,000 iPhones by the end of the year. With 63,000 pre-registered users (among which many journalists, bloggers, competitors, curious...and obviously fans), it seems pretty reasonable and obviously always better to announce achievable targets.

To my knowledge, the agreement is not exclusive as far as retail is concerned. Apple could perfectly decide to distribute the iPhone in other shops, provided they sell it with an Orange bundle. My take is that FNAC is the next one on the list. See here the list of recently opened Apple shops.

More later on the Orange World experience on the iPhone when the url is live.