3G iPhone Expected in June

MaineCoasts writes "The Times Online reports that European sellers of the iPhone are braced for 'significant losses' on unsold inventories of first-generation iPhones which must be cleared away for the new 3G versions expected in June. The three European distributors of the iPhone 'sold 330,000 units to the end of December, but industry sources say that European sales of the iPhone were forecast to be between 500,000 and 600,000.'"

I'll take one

[B3ryllium (571199)]

If they're just blowing them out, I'll take one at a discount :)

Re:

[cs02rm0 (654673)]

Not without GPS for me thanks.

Re:I'll take one

[Derek Pomery (2028)]

GPS isn't that useful in urban areas.
The accuracy when you can't get 3 satellites is no better than using cell tower information.
And many times you can't even get that. Indoors of course, nothing at all.
In the country, it is better, but then, most of the time when I want directions for Google Maps I don't care if it positions me to a "mere" half a kilometre of precision (which is about as bad as it'll get - in city you can often get to within one or two hundred metres).

Battery drain and increased internal demands of GPS on the already space-tight iphone isn't worth that for my uses of it.

So. Basically, hell yeah I'll take what amounts to a UMPC - especially at a discount.
And for the /. crowd - it now runs linux... (Damn Small Linux at the moment - more to come I'm sure - and still needs work on, oh, the radio and touchscreen)

Re:

[plumby (179557)]

In some city centres surrounded by skyscrapers, possibly. My N95 can usually locate me to exactly the right street even in the centre of Nottingham. I don't often find the need to use it (I've got dedicated ones for on my motorbike and for hiking) but whenever I have wanted to use it, it's always been pretty accurate.

Features i'd like before considering getting one

[by Anonymous Coward]

It would be cool if we could see:
3g
uncripled bluetooth so it pairs with a gps mouse
mms
copy/paste
camera with flash
flash support in browser

Re:Features i'd like before considering getting on

[peragrin (659227)]

updated software has fixed the MMS issues.
Very few phones have camera's with flash
I disable flash most of the time now anyways,

I will take 3g and either uncrippled bluetooth for a GPS dongle, or my favorite a car adaptor dock, with a GPS receiver built in. That way GPS runs off my car battery not killing the iphones battery. Copy paste, is a software/interface issue. figure it out and release it as a patch apple.

Re:

[Ford Prefect (8777)]

My Sony Ericsson K750i has a decent flash.

You sure? My own Sony Ericsson K750i hasn't got a flash. It's got some naff white LEDs which light up, but they're on continuously - it's definitely not got a conventional, camera-style xenon flash tube.

Not that I care, of course - flash photography is the spawn of the devil. And is why I spend a bit too much on fancy, low-light lenses for my Canon dSLR... ;-)

Re:

[peragrin (659227)]

So what's that 2-3 styles of camera phones with flash? wow that is a so in demand feature. I bet it has a color screen too.

Cell phone camera's are dumb. The only good reason they have to exist would be for a video phone that no one uses.

Re:

[dreamchaser (49529)]

That is actually one of the main reasons I'll never buy one. I like having a real keyboard and can type without looking at all with my phone.

Me!

[Kamineko (851857)]

I'll have 'em if nobody wants 'em.

Unlocked

[chiller2 (35804)]

Until the phone is available unlocked it's worthless to me. I need to travel between the US and UK, and don't want to have to pay extortionate roaming fees when I already have sims for networks either side.

Re:Unlocked

[chiller2 (35804)]

If you visit any international airport you'll find plenty of people travelling in and out who switch their handsets sims. It's hardly unusual.

You're quite right that the iPhone can be unlocked easily, but that's not the point. It shouldn't be limited to those with the technical savy to do so. Anyone should be able to buy an iPhone handset and use it on any network they please.

In the not so distant past, iPhones unlocked with the simple as pie hack you suggest were bricked by a subsequent Apple update. Non techies should not have to worry their unlocked iPhone may die in this way.

Whether we can hack our way around the roadblocks is irrelevant. We shouldn't have to play these games with devices we spent a lot of money on.

boo-hoo

[Maavin (598439)]

O2, which sells the phone in the UK, and T-Mobile, the German distributor, are said to have significantly overestimated the number of first version iPhones that would sell in Europe.

What they really say is: "Damn, we shoudn't have been THAT greedy." or "Hm.. maybe our pricing model was too over the top?"

I'd like to take a moment to say: I told them so!

[MacDork (560499)]

What they really say is: "Damn, we shoudn't have been THAT greedy."

Says who? O2/T-Mobile, or Apple... Apple is the one demanding a cut of the carriers' revenue. [businessweek.com] Hence, no carrier subsidized iPhones.

What I find interesting is.. oh wow, only 50 posts in the first 90 minutes? Where are the fanboys now? Seven months ago, when I predicted with prefect accuracy that Apple would fail, [slashdot.org] you couldn't get them to STFU. They were gaa gaa over the iPhad, and now look... They are nowhere to be found. Fair weather fanboys as always. Those fanboys aren't real Mac fans. They don

Re:I'd like to take a moment to say: I told them s

[Lemmy Caution (8378)]

I'm an Apple-critical Mac user (love their designers, really dislike their business practices), and I don't own an iPhone for many of the reasons described in this thread. But the problems with the iPhone are eminently fixable, and I expect the iPhone to become a stronger product over the next couple of years. In Europe, it is a flop. But in the US, it is doing well, and the surprise success it is enjoying as a status symbol among the elite of less-developed nations (as awkward as that is, perhaps, for thos

Re:I'd like to take a moment to say: I told them s

[dangitman (862676)]

Well, I'm not a fan of the iPhone. But I don't see how you can say that Apple has failed with the iPhone. I don't think making millions of dollars selling a popular product is failure.

£100 price drop in the UK

[ItsIllak (95786)]

The three UK retailers (Apple, 02 and Carphone Warehouse) have all dropped the price from £269 to £169 a few days ago. They claim this price is valid till the 1st of June. It's still stupidly priced - I can go into a shop, buy one for £169, go home, jailbreak it and that's it. If I follow what they want me to do and sign up for the semi-unrelated contract, I get screwed for £35/month and for some reason have to agree to being screwed monthly.

By comparison, my current phone contract which gave me a free HTC Tytn II is £15/month for free internet and £60+ worth of calls and texts.

Say no to the new pricing model - if you have to, buy an iPhone, but get another phone for free on a new contract and sell it to recoup the costs.

Re:

[Crypto Gnome (651401)]

I get screwed for £35/month and for some reason have to agree to being screwed monthly.

if that's all it costs to get properly laid on a regular basis in the UK, I'm pretty certain you're about to see a major influx of slashdot'ers emigrating.

only 3G

[gEvil (beta) (945888)]

But I can already get a 16G iPhone now. What's the big deal?

Re:

[gEvil (beta) (945888)]

Hey man, leave him alone. He's got enough problems. I mean, he's Swedish after all. : p

Imports?

[$random_var (919061)]

I wonder, after we take into account the exchange ratio will it be a better deal for US customers to buy an imported iphone at the expected clearance prices? Unfortunately Apple almost certainly has contracts with distributors that prevent them from stepping on each others' territory like that, so they won't be sold directly to the US, but through 3rd parties who will tack on their own profit margin.

Still, since iPhone unlocking is so easy now, I'd consider buying one if it worked out to be cheap.

Re:

[$random_var (919061)]

You make a good point, but cost is important too. I'm very much a "good enough" kind of guy when it comes to tech... I'm content to stay a couple of versions away from the state of the art. Yeah, browsing will get faster soon... but I already have my laptop for when I want to do extended browsing sessions. For me I think the iphone would be very much of a "pull it out of my pocket to google something" kind of device, mostly textual and low-bandwidth.

Additionally, I've heard that 3G's performance gains

3G iPhone Expected in June....

[pandrijeczko (588093)]

...fanbois expected to start queueing outside stores in May.

iPhone? In Europe??

[ThePhilips (752041)]

Well, to be frank, I'm surprised that iPhone took off in Europe at all.

Before iPhone, over here in Germany, there were literally no affordable data rates. Now there are. But still those which are affordable are useless on iPhone due to the all the limits set low.

Also, 3G despite being rolled out all over Europe, still used by only fraction of people. So it is not really any major attraction.

If Celcos want to move more iPhones they have to lower data rates considerably, so they will be accessible to majority of European market - youth, students and alike.

Sources My Ass

[His Shadow (689816)]

Are these the same "sources" that attempted to screw with Apple's stock price by inventing a "whisper number" of one million expected iPhone sales at release when numbers of expected sales were in the 150 to 350 thousand mark?

poor showing

[nguy (1207026)]

The three European distributors of the iPhone 'sold 330,000 units to the end of December, but industry sources say that European sales of the iPhone were forecast to be between 500,000 and 600,000.'"

That's a really poor showing. The Nokia N95 sold more than a million units in the UK alone in 2007; that's a single model and a single country, and it didn't have anywhere near the hype surrounding the iPhone release:

http://www.intomobile.com/2007/11/28/brief-nokia-n95-sales-in-the-uk-top-1-million.html [intomobile.com]

I can't figure out why anybody would buy an iPhone: it's a clunky phone with clunky desktop integration. Adding 3G doesn't change that.

Re:

[hoshino (790390)]

You pay for your phones with sex? Oh, crazy Europeans.

Re:The ridiculous monthly fees

[UnxMully (805504)]

I suspect you've misunderstood the saying "I'll be fucked if I'd pay that much for an iPhone."

Re:The ridiculous monthly fees

[Naughty Bob (1004174)]

Just prove that most of us europeans aren't retarded enough to fall for their stupid pricing schemes.

I bet that we Europeans are retarded enough, but we have a much healthier marketplace for the moment.

Not to be pessimistic, but I can only imagine that O2, T-Mobile and Orange are looking at their excess inventory, looking across at the US market with envious eyes, and are then beginning to try to figure out how they can conspire to handicap the EU market, just like US politicians have been paid to do over there.

Re:The ridiculous monthly fees

[Lemmy Caution (8378)]

Don't you think that unlockability (without voiding warranties) is a major issue for European consumers? Swapping SIMs when traveling is something that seems taken for granted. Even my can-barely-turn-on-her-computer mother-in-law does it when she travels between England and Spain.

Re:

[TheRaven64 (641858)]

The only reason this is common is that roaming charges are so insane. When networks were charging people 50p/minute for roaming on top of the call charges, it made sense to get a local pre-pay sim if you were planning on making more than 10 minutes of phone calls. The European regulator made them reduce prices recently, but I'm not sure how much impact this had. In the US, you have to travel a lot further before you get hit with roaming charges (unless you live very far north or south).

They're current

Re:The ridiculous monthly fees

[Frag-A-Muffin (5490)]

Just prove that most of us europeans aren't retarded enough to fall for their stupid pricing schemes. I would never buy a fucking phone for 18.000 sek of which only 3.000 sek or so was payed at purchase.

Nerd as I am I don't have any friends, girls and don't do phone calls. So the "services" I get for the monthly fee are more or less completely useless. Just give me the gadget!

I've been thinking about getting one and unlock it but I'm to lazy to read how it's done, but I've got the impression it's easy and you can do it yourself nowadays? But I don't think they are sold in Sweden yet so I still have to buy it from some other place and then someone have probably already unlocked it and try to earn some cash on it.

I'm from Canada, and perhaps it's a blessing that it isn't available in Canada yet :)

I purchased mine in the states and unlocked it to use with Rogers. I've done a bunch for friends too. Gets easier by the day (Thank iphone dev team!)

Anyways, my point is, It's probably cheaper if you buy one from somewhere else and unlock it and use it on your own terms. No pesky contracts, you pick the plan that you want (or keep your existing plan).

I've never used my cellphone so much before the iPhone. It just does so much. It's an amazing device.

Just my $0.02 CAD.

Re:

[aliquis (678370)]

Yeah, I don't own an mp3 player yet and my phone are real piece of shit so I'm intrested in it alright but not at the price they want me to pay. And also as I said it's no sold here. But if someone tell me how to get one in Sweden which aren't unlocked (like can I order from apple.uk or something?) and also tell me if all current versions can be unlocked and if it requires anything special (does pwnage or whatever it was called do it all for me?) then I may get one.

I feel so sad for the suckers which buy an

Re:The ridiculous monthly fees

[Concerned Onlooker (473481)]

I see your point. I mean, who really wants to pay a monthly fee for a phone? I think what you're looking for is the iPod Touch.

Phones doesn't require monthly fees.

[aliquis (678370)]

No, since it just cost slightly less and have much less functionallity. Also I would so much prefer the new Sony mp3-players, cowon d2, Sansa Clip/Fuze, over an iPod.

Over here you can buy a card with credits on it which you spend if you make phone calls, so it's easy to have a cellular phone which doesn't cost anything / month if you don't use it. Or you can get a real cheap subscription with free calls within the network and eventually other networks and/or landlines to.

If I could get the iPhone for 3000 sek as a gadget and then only pay for the phone calls I would actually make I would probably have gotten one by now.

Re:

[T-Bone-T (1048702)]

No, since it just cost slightly less and have much less functionallity.

Much less functional? You're comparing the iPhone and iPod Touch, right? The iPod Touch is practically an iPhone without the phone.

Re:

[aliquis (678370)]

It will have all the applications and it syncs with iCal?

Anyway, yes, even with only missing out on the phone part (and camera? Or is that in the touch aswell?) it's indeed much less functional :)

Re:

[Urza9814 (883915)]

They're extremely easy to unlock. Look for a program called 'ziphone unlocker'. Just plug it in, push a button, and it's unlocked.

Re:

[aliquis (678370)]

I've heard PwnageTool are supposed to be the best one. But the webpage don't have much details about it:
http://wikee.iphwn.org/news:pwnage1dot1_announcement [iphwn.org]

Re:

[Splab (574204)]

Not sure if this is only applicable in Denmark, but I'm pretty sure the law stems from EU. We have to put on the advertisements/price listings what the minimum total will be, if a phone is costing a minimum of 18.000SEK, people are probably gonna go for a Nokia or Samsung instead.

Cheap phones and girls for the evening.

[aliquis (678370)]

Yes they are. So why do you require this phone then?

Get yourself a cheap phone from a few years ago off ebay. Decent battery life and a clear display. Then you can send your texts, phone for a taxi and use it in emergencies. Sorted.

Maybe you could use the cash you save to get yourself a girl for the evening? Just a thought...

Because "don't do phone calls" was a round off, I guess I may do cellular phone calls like 2 times a month, and regular ones 1-2 times a day, but I could see myself scrapping the SIP-client and only use cellular if my phone wasn't shit.

I had an Ericsson T28s (3500 sek or something) which I liked, was quite "high end" and expensive then but had 60h battery life. Replaced with Samsung C55 (1200 sek) which I killed by some food wetness, had good battery life and slim form factor and was cheap with no extra fu

Re:mmmmm meat eating girls

[Have Brain Will Rent (1031664)]

I'm sorry but "I don't want... or a meat eating girl either"????? Are you crazy? (LOL - just in case)

Where I came up with the prices.

[aliquis (678370)]

I at some time converted the american prices for the iPhone + subscription and it ended up being 13.500-18.500 sek in total. It's not sold in Sweden afaik so I have no idea what it would cost here.

Yeah, I know there doesn't live that many people in Canada and that it's huge, northern Sweden are poorly covered outside bigger cities aswell and we have much higher population density I guess even thought it's low by almost anyones standards.

Over here you can get an unlocked phone without subscription and put in

Re:

[Have Brain Will Rent (1031664)]

keeps you from walking out of the cell phone store without paying an average of $50-60 CAD ($50-60 USD or 1 Canadian dollar = 5.93180398 Swedish kronor,) per month

Mmmmm - go to 7-11, buy a Speakout phone... $65-$100 for a phone (or free - sometimes they run a "buy $100 of airtime and the phone is free" offer), then buy some time - the time lasts for 365 days without expiring and air time runs at $0.20/minute. My average cost is $6/month.

Re:

[aliquis (678370)]

Sorry if you found it offensive. I guess it depends on how you usually use the language and who you usually talk to and in what ways and places.

I actually catch myself saying stuff in game which I get anxious about later becasue I feel bad using the words to people who maybe wasn't used with it or understood I was just "spamming" them.

Re:

[smallfries (601545)]

Seriously... this is a public site so get your fucking head out of your fucking ass and quit complaining about the gp's language. Retarded is a very mild form of abuse in europe, and in comparison to the US market it is a perfectly accurate assessment. What on earth makes your think that he should aim his language at your particular definition of clean?

Re:

[Lemmy Caution (8378)]

"Retarded" is declassé in every English-speaking country I've been to. The OP actually has the sense to realize that he took a word from his equivalent to a "locker room" and applied in a more general space, which weakened his stature.

Apparently, you are incapable of that kind of insight. That suggests you've hit your social/cultural ceiling.

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

Flying chairs and Microsoft are never off-topic

The flying chairs thing was never as funny as some people think to start off with, and it was frankly done to death ages ago. The fact that every second article now includes some tedious nerd contriving a feeble excuse to include this "joke" (regardless of how offtopic) says more about their unimaginative, phony and downright sheeplike sense of humour... or lack of it.

Re:Why I won't buy an iPhone anytime soon

[thanatos_x (1086171)]

With respect to your critiques of the iPhone, you're comparing a device that is 4-6 times as much and weighs almost 4 times as much as the iPhone.

It's got a number of features that the iPhone doesn't... but i could say the UX is a toy compared to a regular mobile laptop, and that such a laptop is a toy compared to a desktop replacement, so really everyone should lug around a desktop replacement.

The iPhone easily slips into a pocket, and fills it's intended role well. I'm very happy to see the shock it's given the market. There are 4-5 iPhone-esq phones that should be available in the US in 2008, which will hopefully encourage more than incremental improvements from apple.

The UX is 5.9x3.75x1.5 inches and weighs 1.2 pounds. It's certainly tiny, but it's not something that would fit into most pockets. They're built different roles, and should be judged as such.

Re:

[weston (16146)]

The iPhones retarded lack of Adobe Flash and Sun Java support makes its web browsing experience, for me at least, abysmal.

What kind of sites are your browsing that require *Java* these days? If the bulk of your daily visits is to sites with scientific visualizations, I can buy this, but most of the web has been Java free since the applet craze of the late 90s passed.

At any rate, yes, if bulk of your web browsing requires Flash or Java, then, yes, the iPhone is certainly not how you should be doing it. There