By Achim Voermanek - Foreign Correspondent

Starting February 1, O2, Apple’s exclusive partner for the iPhone in the UK, will allow significantly more voice calls and text messaging for its existing iPhone customers. With these increases O2 is reacting to low sales numbers in the UK for the iPhone and ongoing criticism regarding its tariff structure for the iPhone and other multimedia cell phones. The improvements are indeed significant: for example users of the entry level package of 35 GBP per month get increases from 200 minutes to 600 minutes voice calls and from 200 to 500 SMS messages.

Sales of the iPhone in the UK so far have been reported as around 190.000 units, slightly below the bottom of the expectations of 200.000 sold units for the first two months.

Germany’s T-Mobile reported sales of around 70.000 iPhones in the first two months since the launch there. Orange in France was more successful with around 70.000 sold units in the first month alone, maybe due to the fact that in France the iPhone is sold as a unlocked device.

Share This

Given the venom that people seem willing to spew at the iPhone, Apple & AT&T when things don’t go perfectly in cell phone land, I thought it appropriate to mention that the Blackberry service was having big time problems over the last few days. And remember last April when it was down altogether for an extended period of time?

Can you imagine the reaction from the iPhone dislikers? - See you all who don’t like the word haters - I am throwing you a bone here

I can see it now - people threatening to never buy another Apple product, class action lawsuits, pundits predicting the demise of the iPhone and Apple as a company….

You get the point, and yes for those of you who are wondering; I am employing some good old-fashioned hyperbole here.

Share This

Apple has decided to release the iPhone using the EDGE over-the-air wireless standard. A faster option is available called 3G. But some experts think adding 3G to the iPhone could raise its price by $100. No doubt Apple realized the already pricey phone couldn’t take that hit, so they opted for a compromise. The iPhone ships with wi-fi capability. Depending on where you live, it’s possible that you’ll get better service with wi-fi than you would with either EDGE or 3G.

There’s one point here that I haven’t heard discussed very much. If you use wi-fi on the iPhone, will you be able to tap into VoIP (Voice Over IP) or Skype and get cheaper usage rates?

Share This