Forbes has an insightful article today on our favorite gadget and its European version.
“The general standard in Europe is you get a handset for free or a small premium of maybe 50 or 100 euros ($65 or $130) at most,” said Arber from his office in London.
The bad news comes for Vodafone, Orange and Whampoa users, which might not get their favorite mobile iPod on the network; the good news might come for UK users:
Niek Van Veen, an associate analyst at Forrester Research in the Netherlands, said the phone would not be attractive to networks like Vodafone and Hutchison Whampoa’s 3, which already have their own music download services.
He points to British cellular operator O2, a subsidiary of Telefonica (nyse: TEF – news – people ), as a potential initial carrier, given the quick way it picked up the Motorola (nyse: MOT – news – people ) Rokr when it launched in Europe in September 2005. Rokr was the first cellular phone to be integrated with Apple’s iTunes music player. “I see O2 as a more relevant operator to start with.”
A lack of capability third-generation capability had also looked like an initial problem for the iPhone’s acceptance in Europe, since all operators there have launched 3G phones, whose broadband capabilities make them useful for music and video downloads. “To come into the European market at the end of 2007 with a non-3G phone for high-end users,” said Van Veen, “just wouldn’t be attractive for the target audience.”
After all, the current EDGE specs for the iPhone are a bit slim for Europe’s 3G spoiled asses; the download speed is orders of magnitude slower. The good news is that Steve said he’ll eventually add 3G to the iPhone. Maybe the European version will have it?
Posted by Alex
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