Rebellion over O2 iPhone pricing

Comments

• Why is anyone surprised? They signed up for a contract. They're bound to it. Unless it said 'P.S: We'll upgrade you to the next iPaperweight because we're nice like that...' quite frankly customers are SOL.
  
  It's always been over-priced and it's always been under-spec'd. Vote with your feet and deal with it. You'll force Apple's hand eventually.
  
  Beyond the OS update which customers are all getting for free, it was about as tepid a hardware announcement as I've heard, so I'm not entirely sure what the big deal is anyway.
  
  ...and whilst I'm ranting - 'unlimited data' isn't and never has been. Learn to read the contract, not the marketing. Posted by L.Rawlins, UK
• @L.Rawlins - forced 18 month contracts with a 12 month product cycle were only ever going to cause anger from loyal customers - they did the right thing last time allowing us to upgrade for free and commit to a new contract. Posted by JohnONolan, UK
• @JohnONolan - you're missing something here. The original iPhone purchase price was paid for entirely by the customer, O2 didn't subsidise the price. Therefore, when the 3G was released, it cost O2 nothing to be nice and reset the contract and sell you a new 3G. But that 3G WAS subsidised - you entered into a contract to replay the cost of the handset over 18 or 24 months. Therefore, if you want to break the contract, you need to repay the missing part of the purchase price. There's nothing underhand or unfair about the policy, but yes, it's desperately frustrating for those of us (like me) with months of a contract to run still, unable to justify a 3GS; the 12 month development cycle trying to fit with the 18 or 24 month contract cycle makes this all the more daft - the 3GS is going to suffer because many of the target market won't be able to upgrade.
  
  More painful is the changes to the $/£ exchange rate, making the iPhone more expensive to subsidise for O2 - hence the higher cost.
  
  If there's anything that shows O2 up, it's there policy regarding tethering - shameful. Posted by Bruce Davies, UK
• Tethering, streaming, VOIP... all restricted. Makes you wonder what services like Spotify and Skype could ever possibly hope to achieve on the mobile platform really... Posted by L.Rawlins, UK
• No-one was forced to take the contract, and they aren't being forced to upgrade. If the price is more than you are prepared to pay then don't do it - just like any other form of shopping.
  
  And as L Rawlins points out, it's over-priced and under-spec'd anyway, if existing users wanted better features then they should have gone for a better alternative phone first time around. Posted by BG, UK
• 'Common sense... there isn't an app for that.' Posted by L.Rawlins, UK
• This makes me wonder what the tether charge is for exactly, the extra data or the use of the tether? With companies like Vodafone allowing blackberry users to tether for free within their existing data package this seems to display some ignorance on the part of o2. Posted by Graham Bates, UK
• @BruceDavies
  
  And what about those of us still on our original 18-month 2G iPhone contracts? We paid £330 (16Gb) for an unsubsidised handset and a few months later, O2 was asking for another £169 and another 18-month contract for new hardware. I chose not to pay at that point, but now I'm being asked to stump up £275 again for an unsubsidised handset. Is this how O2 is going to continue to operate?
  
  I know the mobile phone industry in this country really couldn't give a mokney's about its existing customers, but this time in partnering with O2 Apple has created a real monster. Posted by Yashin, Edinburgh
• You britons are beginning to know what Telefonica is. In Spain we call them "Timofonica", meaning "Hoaxphonics". Posted by Spaniard, Spain
• I have a 3G and I have jailbroken it to get Video, copy and paste, unlimited tethering now. I will upgrade to 3.0 when a jailbreak tool is available. From what I see the only bonus is the new device is faster with a compass and a few other extra apps - not worth the £300+ it will cost me to upgrade. Bit supprised o2 don't have an realistic upgrade plan for existing users as they will be the main ones looking for the new phones. No doubt though o2 will sellout and learn nothing from all this. Posted by Tallenglish, UK
• Your article is incorrect,
  "O2 has announced that the new handset will cost £275 on an 18-month, £35 contract."
  
  its actually £185 for 18month 16GB black/White
  
  Next time proof read please! Posted by David, uk
• lol dumb iphone customers. yeah the iphone is so attractive and i once wanted to get 1 so i poped in the store, the sales assistant went through about the pricing, at that time i just thought @lol@ its beyond my reach, yes i have the money for it but i am not dumb enough to pay 50pounds a month on it which only includes a decent tariff plan which not worth its price.
  you signed the contract, you deal with it.
  the upgrade issue is even more funny lol when you signed the contract you don't expect a network to give you an upgrade anytime, you should be extremely thankful if they did. I'm sure if the 3gs has a new shell new model number which makes it seem like another different handset then there will be less complaints and feel less cheated.
  Posted by learn to buy so you don't die, UK