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Apple’s next-generation iPhone could be available in Britain for about £100 next month, as the computer company adjusts its strategy to boost sales.
Apple is expected by analysts to allow mobile phone operators to subsidise the touch-screen handset, which is likely to use third-generation technology, giving it much faster internet access and download speeds.
Steve Jobs, the chief executive and co-founder of Apple, is expected to unveil the new phone during his keynote speech at the company’s Worldwide Developers’ Conference in San Francisco on June 9. Unlike the original, Britons will be able to buy it soon.
A source close to the deal said that the new model was expected to be on shops’ shelves by July, very shortly after the launch in the United States. There was a gap of several months between the American and British launches of the original devices.
UBS analysts believe that the new iPhone could be available across Europe for as little as €99, but think that this price is unlikely to be that low in the UK, where O2, the mobile operator, has a multi-year exclusive deal for the iPhone, suggesting that a British price could be close to £100.
Ben Wood, a CCS Insight analyst, said: “They are also looking for more flexibility on how the operators can price the iPhone, although I am not convinced that they will let them have open season on the price, as they have a lucrative iPod market to protect.”
Cutting the price and ending exclusivity will help Apple to meet its target of selling ten million iPhones by the end of the year. It is a long way short of that. At the end of December the exclusive carriers for Britain, Germany and France — O2, T-Mobile and Orange — had sold 330,000 phones between them, but industry sources say that European iPhone sales were forecast at 500,000 to 600,000 units.
Apple’s former strategy — in which operators pay upfront for the iPhone, sell it to customers with a small mark-up plus VAT, and pay an estimated 15 per cent of average revenue per user to Apple — has begun to crumble in Europe. In April Tim Cook, Apple’s chief operating officer, said that carriers were free to price the iPhone as low as they wished and followed it with a U-turn on operator exclusivity.
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all apple have to do to wipe the floor with any other 3G phone the following:
allow cut and paste, forwarding of contacts, real keypad and a better battery.
i have a blackberry and use a macbook which is a nightmare to sync, but without these features i won't switch.
ben, london,
Can anyone actually picture this Phone being on sale for just £100?
Hmmm........ Me wonders
Henry, London, UK
I wouldn't really use symbian being established as a put down, Apple thought putting yesterday network access in the original iPhone was OK...
Hopefully the features will now match the interface. And this is from a current iPhone user
Paul, London,
"My Nokia N95 is 3.5G, has Sat Nav, email, internet, MP3, Video, Sky+ remote record"
It doesn't have sat-nav, it has maps. Sky+ remote record is available on any phone with SMS...
...and N95 battery is awful!!!
People who slate the iPhone, generally own something worse and are jealous.
Ian, Horsham,
Nokia N95 use Symbian..wich is a very old OS...!
:D
Spike, Parma, Italy
World's first and only pocket computer? Don't be ridiculous.
My Nokia N95 is 3.5G, acts as a Wireless Router, has Sat Nav, email, internet, MP3, Video, Sky+ remote record, Salling Clicker (with which I drive iTunes remotely), Gmail, a 5M camera, Video recording, speakers, auto-rotate, bluetooth, ..
Stuart, Chichester,
It's nice and hope Telia launch the 3G iPhone in Scandinavia the same time as in the UK, and not just 'sometime in 2008'.
22% thinner, GPS, HSPDA, cheaper - it sounds to good to be true ;)
Jakob, Copenhagen, Denmark
People go on and on about the iPhone specs. Forget the specs: any new phone can offer them: its all about the interface, stupid!
No one understands how to create simple, clean, intuitive User Interfaces better than Apple. That's their genius. My current S*ms**g has been an infuriating experience!
James Petersen, Sydney, Australia
3G, GPS and a subbed price (a bit atleast) will help the new iPhone, it's reputation will make it sell also, but the games that come from the SDK will be the killer for me. Forget the DS and PSP, the iPhone has the same graphics chip as the SEGA Dreamcast! EA and other are doing games, bring it on!!
Rich, Rochester,
The iPhone will be shipping to a market of over 1B consumers by the end of 2008. People will be owning and appreciating the world's 1st and only pocket computer.
Can you spell DOMINANCE? (in the market, in the pocket, in the enterprise, in the ear, and on the desktop!)
Disclosure: I am long aapl.
pk de Cville, Cville, USA
If Apple get the pricing wrong again this time, Samsung and SE have just the phones to pick up the market slack left by a bad pricing stategy. The network providers can win by selling the alternatives at a price discount to the iphone. The iphone isn't new anymore and the competition is ready.
Bruce R, Plymouth, UK
whattttt??is that possible?mmm...nokia trembles!!
alberto, granada, spain
Just hang on a while - Android will be along soon ...
Rupert, Wolsingham, UK
I'm waiting for the next generation iPhone that uses the patent Apple just received - to put solar panels underneath the entire display area...
Jonathan, Bucks, UK
James, all handsets and electronic equipment is made for the least possible cost. What would be your reasons, as a manufacturer for paying more than you need to for production? And yes, iTunes is protectionist, but it's incredibly popular. If people didn't like it, they wouldn't use it. But they do.
Neil, Gateshead , UK
i phones are made in the cheapest country apple can find. The battery is impossible to replace. They are bulky and unreliable. They also operate the most awkward protectionist music software known to man.
james , edinburgh, uk
its so nice
its gerat phone ,i love it soooooooooooooooo
Mahmoud samy, cairo, egypt