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Cellphones Businesses Apple

3G iPhone Expected in June 167

Posted by CmdrTaco from the no-surprises-here dept.
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.'"
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3G iPhone Expected in June More

3G iPhone Expected in June

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  • MS has released a new screen saver for the zune: A chair flying across the screen smashing into an iPhone

    • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

      by OMNIpotusCOM ( 1230884 ) *

      Are you kidding me? Off-topic? Flying chairs and Microsoft are never off-topic, and you bloody well know it! Here... is this better?

      A chair flying across the screen smashing into a non 3G iPhone, proving that Apple is da coolest and most elite product you can pwn, thus making you pwn!
      That should appease you.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        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.

        • Done to death? Done to death? This is Slashdot! Christ some of the jokes around here are older than some of the posters.

        • Uhmmmm, since I'm the tedious nerd with unimaginative, phony, and downright sheeplike sense of humor, perhaps you'd like to explain what is news about the smoke and mirrors that is the new iPhone?

          Speculation has already started on what exact second it will be released. Betting pools have started on which Hollywood star will be the first to sport the new iPhone. Industry pundits have already covered > 99% of all possible news angles regarding the release of the new iPhone, and yet people mindlessly drive
          • "Today men died in Iraq, but we are worried if fucking Obama wears a flag pin or what colors the damned iPhone will be available in."

            Lighten up Francis.....

            :-)

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by tm2b ( 42473 )

            Today men died in Iraq, but we are worried if fucking Obama wears a flag pin or what colors the damned iPhone will be available in.
            "My GOD man, how can you enjoy that chocolate, the company of a beautiful woman, or a poignant sunrise?? TODAY MEN DIED IN IRAQ!"
  • If they're just blowing them out, I'll take one at a discount :)

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by cs02rm0 ( 654673 )
      Not without GPS for me thanks.

      • Re:I'll take one (Score:4, Informative)

        by Derek Pomery ( 2028 ) on Saturday April 19, 2008 @03:40PM (#23129672)
        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: (Score:3, Informative)

          by 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 (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 19, 2008 @11:56AM (#23128220)
    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
    • 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.
  • 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 y

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by hoshino ( 790390 )
      You pay for your phones with sex? Oh, crazy Europeans.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by aliquis ( 678370 )
        I'm sitting in the sofa at 19.34 and haven't finished my breakfast yet? Do you count slashdotting as exercise? :D

        I guess it may be for the average reader ;)

    • Re:The ridiculous monthly fees (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Naughty Bob ( 1004174 ) * on Saturday April 19, 2008 @12:16PM (#23128332)

      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 (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Lemmy Caution ( 8378 ) on Saturday April 19, 2008 @12:19PM (#23128362) Homepage
        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: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by 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 (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Frag-A-Muffin ( 5490 ) on Saturday April 19, 2008 @12:18PM (#23128342)

      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: (Score:2)

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

        The irony is that they two companies that support GSM here are the same company, since Microcell (aka Fido) got bought out by Rogers. Knowing how Rogers work they will probably only sell the iPhone on the Rogers brand and force you to pay a penalty to move from Fido to Rogers! Yes I am cynical. Then again, I would rather get my iPhone from someone else, other than Rogers and unlocked.

    • Re:The ridiculous monthly fees (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Concerned Onlooker ( 473481 ) on Saturday April 19, 2008 @12:18PM (#23128344) Homepage Journal
      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. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by aliquis ( 678370 ) on Saturday April 19, 2008 @12:42PM (#23128504)
        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: (Score:3, Informative)

          by 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: (Score:2)

            by 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 :)
            • It has all the same applications, syncs with iCal, and I did forget about it not having a camera.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by CODiNE ( 27417 )
          I'm not sure what the current price is compared to your 3000 sek but it's REALLY easy to unlock iPhones now. About a dozen different programs to do it for Windows and Macs, probably Linux as well if you look around since several are open source. It's so simple now you just plug it in and click "Unlock" and it's done in less than 5 minutes. There's nothing that prevents you from walking into an Apple store, picking one up in a box and unlocking it as soon as you get home. The unlockers also activate it s

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by aliquis ( 678370 )
            Yeah, I have no issues at all with buying an unlocked iPhone, but it's not as it's sold or intended to sell (I guess the price you pay even say with a subscription? Guess they should make it more binding ..)

            Something which indeed prevent me from walking into an Apple store are that there aren't any in Sweden ;D

            If I could order a locked new phone I would, I don't feel like ordering an unlocked one if someone have added a lot on the price and it's really easy to do, but it's more tempting then buying one with
    • They're extremely easy to unlock. Look for a program called 'ziphone unlocker'. Just plug it in, push a button, and it's unlocked.

    • I can only speculate at what 18.000sek would buy..but if you want to see prices that are at least equally ridiculous, hop a plane to Canada. We have a triumverate monopoly here that 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. And thats without any support for data-If you want 3G data it will cost you another 50-60 on top of that. Furthermore only one of our carriers is GSM and its been sa

      • 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

      • 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: (Score:2)

      by 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.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by aliquis ( 678370 )
        I don't know how it is here, I have a note on my door so I don't get paper ads, I mostly see them on TV and there the resolution is so crappy so they use that to show unreadable text for half a second with whatever things may apply to the offer.

        I visited siba.se and they seem to show total price now. But the fucking blown out price in red should be the total, not in store =P

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dn15 ( 735502 )

      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!
      Maybe I'm missing something here, but aren't you describing the iPod Touch? An iPhone without the phone...

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by aliquis ( 678370 )
        No, I'm talking about the iPhone without the huge service bundle.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dn15 ( 735502 )
          Ah, sorry for the misunderstanding. When you said the services you get for the monthly fee are useless, it sounded to me like you wanted it without a phone.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by aliquis ( 678370 )
            Of course I see something good in it also being a phone, but since I very rarely use a phone I don't need some high volume subscription service, a pre-paid card would do or something similair there I pay for the small things I may use. Now it's like eating for free 5 times per day in an all you can eat buffet while having anorexia ;D

    • Nerd as I am I don't have any friends, girls and don't do phone calls.
      Somehow, I don't think phone manufacturers care about the opinions of people who don't use the phone anyway.
  • I'll have 'em if nobody wants 'em.

  • Unlocked (Score:5, Insightful)

    by chiller2 ( 35804 ) on Saturday April 19, 2008 @12:09PM (#23128284) Homepage
    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.

  • boo-hoo (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Maavin ( 598439 ) on Saturday April 19, 2008 @12:14PM (#23128310)

    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?"
  • iPhones aren't available yet in Belgium and the Euro is very strong compared to the US dollar, so a lot of people visiting the US bring an iPhone home.

  • £100 price drop in the UK (Score:5, Informative)

    by ItsIllak ( 95786 ) on Saturday April 19, 2008 @12:17PM (#23128340) Homepage
    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.
    • 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.

      I have a feeling the window of opportunity Apple opened by the unlimited internet deals they struck has now been closed.

      Back in September, unlimited deals were rare and the Apple contract looked like a good deal. Now, data costs are dropping like a stone and the iPhone I was sure I was going to buy in November when my Orange contract expires is starting

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Inda ( 580031 )

      I've still haven't seen one in the UK. Do they exist? Has anyone actually bought one? Does anyone buy personal phones on contracts in the UK?

      Buying a pay-as-you-blow phone is far more attractive for most people I know. My provider, Tescos, knocked £80 off the price of my last phone and unlocked it after I'd bought £30 worth of credit. How can any retailer compete with that?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by biglig2 ( 89374 )
        You know, you're right... I've not seen anyone here in the UK actually using one yet. Plenty for sale - pretty much every town has at least 2 places selling them.

        For me, I find that the combo of a BLackberry curve and an iPod Touch does me fine: I'd probably prefer to have them in a single unit but I learned a long time ago that mobile internet over cellular networks sucks, so it's kinda helpful to know that the device in my left pocket gets crappy internet everywhere while the device in my right pocket get

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by 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.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by egghat ( 73643 )
      You can buy an iPhone in the UK *without* a new contract for a mere 169 pounds? Is O2 that brain damaged?

  • only 3G (Score:5, Funny)

    by gEvil (beta) ( 945888 ) on Saturday April 19, 2008 @12:22PM (#23128374)
    But I can already get a 16G iPhone now. What's the big deal?

    • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

      by Crazyswedishguy ( 1020008 )
      I'm having trouble determining whether above post was a joke... In case it was, I guess I missed the "woosh". Either way, I'm sure some people are actually asking the question, even on /.

      3G doesn't refer to the memory, but refers to the network capabilities and how fast it can handle data. Currently, iPhones work with EDGE, which is essentially a souped-up version of GPRS. EDGE is generally described as 2.5G, and is not very fast.
      The new iPhones will be 3G (HSDPA/UMTS on GSM networks), providing a much

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward

        3G doesn't refer to the memory, but refers to the network capabilities and how fast it can handle data. Currently, iPhones work with EDGE, which is essentially a souped-up version of GPRS. EDGE is generally described as 2.5G, and is not very fast.

        3G is not just about bandwidth, but has many other advantages over 2G.

        A big advantage of 2.5G over 3G is the range, as you with 3G have to be within 2km of the base station (antenna). This is also the reason you will probably have to use 2.5G outside cities.

        The new iPhones will be 3G (HSDPA/UMTS on GSM networks)...

        No. There exists no such thing as UMTS on GSM networks. There are UMTS networks and there are GSM networks. (And most 3G phones can handle both networks.)

        GSM uses TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) while UMTS uses CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access)

  • Imports? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by $random_var ( 919061 ) on Saturday April 19, 2008 @12:26PM (#23128394)
    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: (Score:2, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • iPhone? In Europe?? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ThePhilips ( 752041 ) on Saturday April 19, 2008 @12:53PM (#23128554) Homepage Journal

    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 (Score:5, Insightful)

    by His Shadow ( 689816 ) on Saturday April 19, 2008 @12:55PM (#23128566) Homepage Journal
    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?
  • The iPhones retarded lack of Adobe Flash and Sun Java support makes its web browsing experience, for me at least, abysmal.

    Until the iPhone can hold a candle to one of these [dynamism.com] running Xubuntu ( Ubuntu + Xfce ) , then I will just consider it a toy, with its one redeeming feature being multi-touch integrated with a great UI.

    See my previous post on this topic : [slashdot.org] http://mobile.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=513868&cid=22992830 [slashdot.org]

    jdb2

    • Rather than implement Flash on the iPhone, I would much rather that Apple bought Adobe, if only so they can kill Flash. Flash is a blight upon the WWW.
    • I was going to post saying that its not their fault flash doesn't support their architecture, but this isn't really an excuse as they have the money and ability to port flash to it themselves.
      OTOH i browse the web with flashblock and only have it enabled on bbc.co.uk (they have iplayer anyway) youtube (they have that too) and other video sites (wont the youtube trick work for them too?). The Java problem sounds like a biggy, i think sun offered to port it but, apples SDK blocks it. I only use Java for a cou

    • Re:Why I won't buy an iPhone anytime soon (Score:4, Insightful)

      by thanatos_x ( 1086171 ) on Saturday April 19, 2008 @03:45PM (#23129722)
      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: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by 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
  • Linux,
    I'm actually shocked i haven't heard of one running Linux yet!

  • poor showing (Score:4, Interesting)

    by nguy ( 1207026 ) on Saturday April 19, 2008 @04:48PM (#23130124)
    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: (Score:2)

      by egghat ( 73643 )
      Troll,

      you can say anything about the iPhone (and Apple) but being clunky can't be further from the truth ...

      If someones software is clunky then it's Nokias ... The N95 release has been delayed much in the US cause the firmware was not stable enough ... ANd is this one of the Nokia phones with 21 function keys and hierarchical menus that go down to level 9? That what I'd call clunky.

      Even your comparison is deeply flawed: How long has the N95 been available and how many providers support it? The N95 is availa

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by nguy ( 1207026 )
        The N95 release has been delayed much in the US cause the firmware was not stable enough ...

        It's stable in Europe and Asia and somehow not stable in the US? Get real.

        ANd is this one of the Nokia phones with 21 function keys and hierarchical menus that go down to level 9? That what I'd call clunky.

        Apple keeps its UI simple by crippling the phone. The Nokia UI isn't intuitive, but it is much more functional than that of the iPhone.

        The N95 is available everywhere and since (at least) 12 months, the iPhone is

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by egghat ( 73643 )
          Well our defintions of "stable", "crippled" and "intuitive" certainly differ.

          You think Nokias interface "isn't intuitive", I think its crap, utter crap and I always hated fiddling with the settings and gazillion of function keys.

          Nokias software tends to get stable after a few revisions. At least they now allow you to flash your phone so you don't have to go to some service point and pay 40 Euros for an upgrade of a buggy firmware.

          And well crippled: I can phone, send SMS, take photos, add and edit contacts,
  • Somehow, I doubt that Apple will release a 3G iPhone straight to Europe and NOT have it available in the US. In order to be used in the US, it needs FCC approval. The FCC operates an open approvals process, with the devices being displayed on their web site for everyone to see and comment on.

    That approvals process takes time. I somehow doubt that it only takes 6-8 weeks.

    So, retail availability in June?
  • I don't like AT&T, and get free phone service from work anyway. I like having a computer in my pocket, and was thinking about the touch. I'd hate to buy and then a week later have a hardware refresh

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