Why is there no Irish interest in new 3G iPhone?
I have been running surveys among friends and can only seem to find a tiny (sub 2%) group of people who are buying the new 3G iPhone in Ireland.
Whats going on here?
With queues already in place at the Apple store in New York, O2′s UK website being swamped by demand and a seriously upgraded phone on offer I was expecting to see excitement instead I am met with “so what” response.
Of course it may be down to the fact that we have one of the worst packages on the planet with the iPhone or maybe that O2 just haven’t engaged with the customers but I think it may be down to the fact that the first launch didn’t exactly get out the door successfully and people aren’t seeing the iPhone in the “real world”
I was at a wedding last Saturday and saw a guest holding his iPhone at chest height awaiting comments or inquiries from people around him, when it didn’t happen it was sheepishly put back in his pocket.
The Nokia N95 8GB has also got of to an amazing start with more and more of them on the street now plus the package that Vodafone don’t seem to want to talk about (5GB for €29.99 a month, APN is hs.vodafone.com) appears to be catching on and the obvious mess that O2 have made of the tariffing compared to the rest of the world appears to have again destroyed any interest in the device.
Canada have gone through the same pain as ourselves with the iPhone pricing and it has developed into a huge backlash against mobile operator Rogers with the launch of an anti iPhone site and almost 50,000 people voicing their displeasure.
Im not sure why you are surprised that people may buy the iPhone abroad and bring it here to a local network, instead of being ripped off locally. I know loads of friends that will be doing this. Yeah, you might miss some apps, but hey.
May this be another lesson to greedy O2 Ireland, who apart from over charging and inflating prices, fail to promote the best phone in the history of phones even in their own web site.
Well I was so going to get one after the keynote speech, I twittered like crazy about it.
Then O2 had the cheek to want 299 euro (according to the press release the first day) which after much online anger seemed to amazingly drop to 229 euro on the 45 euro bracket.
I on average spend between 45 and 50 euro a month so a 45 euro tarriff is all manageable, but I have been following the forum on O2′s site and am appaulled at the fact that if you are an existing bill pay customer, the only way to keep your number and get an Iphone is if you are eligible for an upgrade. I was not but pushed customer care and am now eligible. So what discount do I get for joining esat as it was at the time on the first day of launch, sticking with them throughout?
The privilage of been able to order an Iphone, end of. If I was on vodafone/meteor/3 there would be no questions asked, if I was speakeasy no probs, but if I spend a shit load of money with them for years you get hassle, in my opinion the loyalty shown is nothing short of a disgrace, I have lodged a complaint and will wait to see if I get a call back.
The 1 gig data cap is the other thing I was waiting to see if they would shift from, alas they have not budged even though the 3g phone is obviously going to get a lot more data use. Once again I think I will hold off untill they change it.
Amazingly I have seen quite a few V1 Iphones about I would say 8, all of which are unlocked versions, not once have I encountered or seen a person with a genuine Iphone from O2 weird that for such a much wanted bit of kit!
Sorry for the rant but you know my feelings on O2.
Quick correction for you Pat:
Anti iPhone Site http://www.ruinediphone.com/
From a personal perspective – I followed your advice last March and held off getting the first gen iPhone waiting instead for the 3G version. The real clincher for me on the 3G version is actually the MobileMe service. As a Dot.Mac subscriber I automatically get upgraded to MobileMe, which means with an iPhone I will get my mails etc. pushed to my phone.
That’s a big deal for me and really made this product far superior to anything else I could put my hands on. Without MobileMe I would be less enthusiastic about the launch. Similarly if I had to pay another €99 to Apple (I think that’s the price) to get MobileMe and move to the new me mail address I think it would also put me off. But as an existing dot.mac user I have already paid for all of that.
Given that many people who “really” wanted an iPhone bought the first gen, which was only 4 months ago – I think this release is a little hot on the heels of the previous one and as such there is going to be less excitement as many people will still be enjoying their first gen phone.
Finally the pricing plan is still a major problem and is prohibitive – one could argue you are getting a fraction of the iPhones usage as you are limited by the O2 data package. I am interested to see how the free wifi on BitBuzz in dublin works out for me as they seem to have a strong presence in town.
All in all, I think my enthusiasm is based on the fact I held off from the initial launch four months ago coupled with the MobileMe service provided by apple – at no extra cost to me. Without the MobileMe service I would certainly be more hesitant about this deal as the pricing remains a problem.
I think a lot of the fanboys jumped into the water for the first edition of the iPhone and since most people get two year’s use out of their phone, those first buyers aren’t through the first half of their expected phone life cycle.
At the moment, there’s a cash-conscious attitude descending on Ireland so any purchase made faster than prudently planned is going to come as a Christmas present or special gift. So I wouldn’t grade the result of the 3G iPhone in Ireland until January 2009–recognising the early rush may not materialise on Irish soil.
I certainly agree with the comments above about the pricing of the contracts. I am an O2 customer with my Blackberry and as a high data consumer the tariffs they quote are just too expensive.
Apple made the same approach to pricing when it launched in the US as Ireland and while many people love Apple, there is some degree of caution in terms of jumping in immediately as they are known to drop their prices.
The cost conscious comment from Bernie is both across our own household pockets and corporate pockets – so even if some people feel they could expense them at work in large companies, they won’t due to what people might think of them at a time when budgets are under control.
Now give us all a way Pat that we can avail of a great price on hardware and data packages that are much more competitive (please MAXroam!) and you might find a different answer.
I think Bernie’s onto something about Christmas too – unless there is the next gen about to be launched in Jan/Feb of course then we’ll hold off a wile longer!
The tariff is a big issue. Another factor is Apple’s traditional hardware glitches on new platforms. I’m waiting-and-seeing for a couple of months. By then the 3G rev2 should be out and who knows maybe we’ll see a tariff price drop a-la O2 broadband.
The 3G iphone, whilst a nice update to the first version, doesn’t have enough new features to warrant a rush. The first iPhone was a total game changer, long anticipated and revolutionary in many respects (though backwards in some – MMS, Bluetooth, Video etc). The 3G iPhone addressed the network speed issue, and some enterprise concerns, added GPS, and opened up the prospect of 3rd party apps, but other than that, it’s more of the same again. Same Form factor, UI, Crappy-ish camera, same storage capacity etc. It would have been easy for Apple to nail some extra features to give the wow factor again, but they missed it.
Most people who craved an iPhone found a way to get them the first time pre O2 launch and the 3G changes are not sufficient to make them salivate to change. That, coupled with the fact the O2 Ireland messed with tariffs and pricing so soon after the previous launch means that some people are adopting a suck it and see approach to see what happens. Add to that, the new registration policy that means you’ve to sign up to a contract there and then, and no user accessible Sim, you have many people feeling they’re buying a brick again!
I think there’s probably plenty of interest in the phone itself but with the contract terms offered by o2.ie, I wouldn’t buy it either.
Twitter: johnmryan
8th July, 2008 at 12:04 pm
GPS on a phone – who really needs it?
3G its ok, im not going to surf anough to upgrade my iPhone, BIG no interest here…
Software 2 is good thou?
New Zealand, being the first in the world to get the 3G, was in for a shock today. The plan pricing is way past what most people expected:
The 8GB model for example costs NZ$549 (260euro) with monthly costs of NZ$80 (38euro) on a two year contract or NZ$199 (95 euro) with monthly costs at NZ$250 (120euro), making this a NZ$6199 (3000euro) experience over two years. Usage is between 250MB and 1GB, included minutes a sad 120mins – 600mins.
Costs for the 16GB are steeper still…
For me it’s all to do with the long term costs. If you’re not a heavy user and a billpay customer then changing over to O2 billpay just for an iPhone is totally unreasonable.
I’ll stick with no mobile internet for now, so I can save myself a fortune on calls and texts. You just can’t have both – it’s either one or the other in this country.
I’ve already got a HTC Touch and a Nokia N95, both do what the iPhone does but better.
I’ve played around with the iPhone on a few occasions now and it just does not grab me.
Also what’s with the no MMS and no bluetooth?! What are they thinking of? Look at a huge chunck of “trendy” phone users (kids). What do they do a *lot*? Exchange files. How do they do it? Bluetooth…
iphone V3 anyone?
Evert is right. I don’t understand why they didn’t complete the bluetooth stack . Because of this it’s missing out on mobanode compatibility.
Hey Pat
you are a man with contacts – can you dig out anything more on this?
http://msmvps.com/blogs/thenakedmvp/archive/2008/07/10/o2-ireland-listened-we-now-have-business-plans.aspx
I have to say i totally agree with each comment i read here,the price plans are way too high. Not only that i would certainly not ush into buying the new iphone 3g. The new apps firmware was released but sucks. Itunes Ireland gets half the apps than anywhere else. Although there are many there are actually no games on Itunes Ireland. I did update my original iphone and to be honest i am very dissapointed with the lack off apps, although many of the apps will appeal to some people,not me. Apple and o2 really need to pull there sock up