Apple UK iPhone day approaches...

[GreatOldOne]

Everyone and their dog knows the UK iPhone launch is at 18:02 (02, eh? The marketing bods must have burnt the midnight oil to come up with that one...) this Friday.

I've already owned up to being somewhat keen to get one, and to this end my mate and I will be queuing up outside the Regent's Street store on Friday evening, with credit cards burning holes in wallets.

Is anyone else going to join the throng? What time are you planning to join the queue?

In related news, I came across this earlier today (Must have missed it over the weekend). O2 have dropped the cap on data usage on the iPhone:

O2 has scrapped plans to cap web usage on the Apple iPhone, leaving users free to download as much data as they like.

The hotly-anticipated £269 handset – a combination of Apple's iPod music player and a mobile phone – goes on sale in the UK next Friday.

O2, which is offering the iPhone exclusively on its network on monthly tariffs of £35 to £55, hopes that customers will make much greater use of the web with their mobiles.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/mai...niphone103.xml

Whilst I wasn't expecting to do that much browsing I'd hit the cap, this is excellent news.

[crazyg1zm0]

I am looking forward to this although will be unable to get one till next year due to being locked into an 18 month contract so will be looking with interst at how good it is here and how much better it gets and also the prices this time next year for one. cause i would prob want a bigger hdd for music

[Tim S]

I'm quite happy with my iPhone, but the worst part of it is the phone as it loses signal quite regularly for me here (I know I'm not the only person that has this problem, too). However, when I was in the states the other week, I didn't drop signal once so I'm guessing that it's a firmware thing that will/has been fixed on the UK version. Once the new 1.1.2 firmware has been hacked, I'll probably update to it... even so, £180 inc tax for a SIM free iPhone was a better deal than £269 + £45pm (the £35 tariff is useless).

[DougEdey]

I was thinking of "doing a Tim" went I go to Canada at Christmas, but I'm still not sure after seeing the Gadget Shows review. Apparantly the Camera is poor, and I kind of need one because I'm a student, there's no video recording (see previous) and when you're inserting text into some text boxes on pages it can be exceptionally hard to read or see what you're putting in (the example they used was multi-map because google-maps doesn't always work)

[mookboy]

I'm really stoked by the iPhone... in theory. I was on the brink of maybe looking at one for Xmas this year, but some of the features are so relatively weak (camera, 8GB memory) that I'm gonna hold off until the next revision comes around as the suggestions are all those things will be fixed.

I think it's easily the most lovely thing Apple have produced design wise.

[crazyg1zm0]

i'm with you mookboy esp due to my contract

[DougEdey]

If I don't get the iPhone., I'll definately get the iTouch, Jamie makes me want one

[mookboy]

Oh yeah thats the other thing. What's the deal with these and contracts? Is there a particular iPhone contract you have to take or are they usable on any tariff?

[GreatOldOne]

Nah, there's three specific tariffs, one at £35, one at £45 and another at £55. Progressively more minutes & texts on the increasing price, unlimited data on all of them.

[crazyg1zm0]

the only annoying thing with o2 is that i am with them now and i liek them and my £30 a month contract gets me 400mins and £500 txts which is okish for me but teh £35 iphone gets 200mins and 200txts which i would obliterate in 2 weeks

[K]

Yeah, I want one. But I don't wanna pay for it? Hmmm.

*shakes fist at Steve Jobs*

Friday is gonna be absolutely manic. Seriously. The thing is gonna be stupidly huge.

[Tim S]

Originally Posted by GreatOldOne

Nah, there's three specific tariffs, one at £35, one at £45 and another at £55. Progressively more minutes & texts on the increasing price, unlimited data on all of them.

Yep, and if you're a slightly moderate user, 200 minutes for £35 will not be enough.

[seebul]

Originally Posted by Tim S

Yep, and if you're a slightly moderate user, 200 minutes for £35 will not be enough.

Yeh tbh wtf were O2 thinking with there deals? 35 quid for 200 minutes?! If only vodafone had it...

[crazyg1zm0]

yea i know mate if it was a good contrant ammount of calls and txts i would cancle my current contract and get the iphone at xmas

[K]

Now I live with my girlfriend I barely use my 500 texts anymore, but find I now need way more than my measly 50 minutes talk time. 200 - 200 would be fine for me I reckon.

[seebul]

Originally Posted by K

Now I live with my girlfriend I barely use my 500 texts anymore, but find I now need way more than my measly 50 minutes talk time. 200 - 200 would be fine for me I reckon.

Do apple employees get different offers than the general public, K?

[K]

I really can't go into it mate, sorry.

[mookboy]

The fact it's tied to an operator is one more thing to make me doubt the former awesomeness of Apple. The O2 deal is rubbish frankly. I pay £35 a month with Orange for 1000 minutes and unlimited texts, even the missus on O2 gets 1500 minutes and 200 texts for £35 too.

It's basically an excuse for O2 to make a fortune from a closed market, and Apple to make a fortune from the massive kickbacks from O2. Those tariffs have completely killed my interest in it tbh.

[K]

I'm sure you're not in the minority mate. It's the same as how the AT&T deal went down really, pretty extortionate stuff. Viva la France?

[mookboy]

Originally Posted by K

I'm sure you're not in the minority mate. It's the same as how the AT&T deal went down really, pretty extortionate stuff. Viva la France?

It just seems so silly to make it such an exclusive product when even in it's early life it's such an obviously awesome product, as many average people will be completely put off. But then Apple has never been a company for the common man, price wise (OS aside).