Fans Cheer as Apple's iPhone Finally Hits Europe 381
An anonymous reader sent in this article which opens, "Apple fans lined up through Yesterday night in Germany and Britain to be among the first in Europe to buy an iPhone, the must-have gadget that is set to shake up the mobile industry." Over 10,000 phones were sold in Germany by Friday afternoon. In France, however, the iPhone doesn't arrive until the end of month.
France's iPhone (Score:5, Insightful)
just shows there are gullible people everywhere (Score:2, Insightful)
Glad to see that there are people everywhere who get taken in by glitzy, superficial, overpriced, under-featured gizmos - just because the tech media says they're wonderful.
Is there no hope?
It's Kind Of Sad... (Score:3, Insightful)
And so few are outraged that that traffic (or at least the connections) will more than likely be logged by the government against the will of the people.
There's no outrage though - we get an iPhone!
Sad.
Re:just shows there are gullible people everywhere (Score:2, Insightful)
Nope, none at all. Listening to the news on BBC radio 1 yesterday, they interviewed some guy and asked him why it was so important - "Because it's Apple".
And this after the BBC had a "shoot out" between the iPhone and a Nokia (N95 I think) and concluded that it was pretty much form over function.
no more whining (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:just shows there are gullible people everywhere (Score:1, Insightful)
I agree that many people whine about particular aspects of products while seemingly ignoring the fact that they don't *have* to buy it... but you picked the wrong whipping boy in this case.
Not that great a phone, not that great a contract (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not so good for Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
This is easy to explain. The iPhone brings nothing new to the table in Europe, where all of its features are available generally in other phones, and most are common in any high-end phone. In America, which for some reason appears to be 2-3 generations behind Europe in the mobile phone arena, this isn't true.
iPhone in America = OMFG this phone has everything, even a camera!iPhone in Europe = Pretty, cool, doesn't do X as well as Nokia or Y as well as Sony Ericsson and OMFG the price!
Being a fan is a bad thing (Score:2, Insightful)
I try to be a fan of as few things as possible, and instead buy on the technical merit.
Re:France's iPhone (Score:4, Insightful)
My Opinion basically boils down to one word (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:No 3G (Score:3, Insightful)
That probably has an awful lot to do with it as well. In fact, it's probably the prime concern. But this way, they can say that the iPhone offers better battery life than the Nokia N95 (8 hours vs. 4 hours, evidently), plus it's a hell of a lot prettier.
But I think the response was perhaps somewhat underwhelming in Europe, because people think that if they are going to buy a phone this cool, it damn well better have 3G. The lack of that is a deal-breaker.
Re:just shows there are gullible people everywhere (Score:3, Insightful)
Also, it doesn't have a choice of carrier, Flash, Javascript, wireless synchronization due to poor Bluetooth usage...
Stuff being common on mobile phones years ago and that many mobile-oriented web sites pretty much assume it can do.
Seriously, I do feel they're being cheated on the feature set. The only thing this one seem to have going for it is three things: Looks, brand name, and user interface.
Re:no more whining (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Not so good for Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
I generally agree that cellphone tech lags in in U.S., but you realize that pretty much the same high-end Nokia and Samsung phones sold in Europe are also sold in the U.S., right?
It's not the phones themselves that are hampering the tech, it's the carriers.
$600 again!? (Score:3, Insightful)
I am amazed at prices the expect people in Germany to pay, i mean i payed $299 + tax (i think it was like an additional $17)
when i bought my iPhone in the US (ok so the 8GB was $399) but now they expect people to pay $585!!!
And somehow i know they are not going to reduce the price in two weeks!
Now i know why they call it Rip-Off-Europe, next to a PS3 thats crippled and costs twice as much as in the US/Japan,
this would simply go into my 'like hell i'm paying extra for THAT' list.
But, I'm just glad i bought mine over there, for (at current rates) just 203 Euros.
Re:France's iPhone (Score:3, Insightful)
There are dozens of countries in Europe and the iPhone has been announced in three (including France). So I'm not sure what you mean by the French getting the phone last?
Wikipedia has some facts [wikipedia.org] for you.
You don't get it... (Score:4, Insightful)
The point is that the iPhone does mostly what other phones do in a new way. The phone works like a cellphone would if it had just been invented, unlike other cellphones which are essentially a lot of bling and tech-spec thrown onto foundation/philosophy from 10 years ago. And that's why the iPhone is all that. And that's why you'll read reviews on European sites that say things like "my head says no, but my heart says yes." The iPhone makes sense, and has a unique feel, even if it falls short in certain individual categories.
In terms of actual new things, the iPhone has visual voicemail. All of those other "advanced" phones have voicemail that works like a 1970's cassette-tape answering machine.
The iPhone has a proximity sensor to turn off its light and touch surface when it's next to your face on a call. (Perhaps other phones do this. I have not seen or read that any do.) It has accelerometers so it knows what way it's facing (landscape or portrait), which may actually exist in other phones, but is certainly not widespread. The iPhone has a consistent, fingers-only interface with things like pinch and stretch (which are unique).
Just look at how you move through photos or through tabbed web pages: they made it work the same. Other phones don't even have real web browsers, much less tabbed web browsers, much less one where they've rethought how you move between tabs so it's clean and consistent with the rest of the phone.
In the end, I'm glad to hear the naysayers. The more the better -- up to a point -- for my stock investment. Apple stock does so well because so many people underestimate Apple. "Death spiral", "iPod-killer", "iTunes-killer", "nothing new iPhone", "market share too small and can't grow", "no halo effect", etc, etc.
(Not to mention this is iPhone 1.0 and it's competing against Nokia 15.0 (or whatever) and Windows mobile 6.0 (?). Not that much different from the initial iPods, which did not exceed then-current MP3 players in many aspects, but did do it in a more stylish and polished way.)
It's not about features (Score:4, Insightful)
The iPhone isn't about features. Of course, other phones have camera's and music players and whatnot. The iPhone is about getting it right. I have a simple Samsung phone. I picked it because I wanted a phone with a music player and a decent amount of storage. When I got it, I realized that feature listings aren't everything. The interface is impossibly complicated, the music player is enormously whimsical, it's impossible to get it to play a specific playlist, once it's playing you can't turn it off, file transfer between phone and computer works only if you're lucky and, well, the list goes on and on.
That's why the iPhone is different. It not only has the features, but they're designed to be used. They got it right. The iPhone really is beautiful and exceptional, not because of all its features, but because of how they work and how well they work. Most phones are designed to be bought, the iPhone is designed to be used.
Re:France's iPhone (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Not that great a phone, not that great a contra (Score:1, Insightful)
>
What is happening is that you are paying for the phone by taking out a loan, and then that loan gets repaid over 18 or 12 months in the form of fees that are higher than they are at other companies where you do not get a phone. This may be a good deal, and it should be evaluated the same as any other kind of loan. It is certainly not free!
Eh? Who even uses those phones? (Score:3, Insightful)
Treo 3G Blazer and Windows Mobile 3G? I haven't even heard of them, or heard of anybody else use them. Actually I haven't seen anybody use any Treo nor any Windows Mobile device. If you want a true 3G phone then you take one phone from Nokia or Sony-Ericsson.
When talking about how iPhone with EDGE beats down 3G, I won't buy that. When you have good 3G networks that are not congested, as they usually aren't, 3G and especially with HSDPA there is no question which network connection blasts the other. It should also be noted that EDGE and 3G are not competing technologies, usually all 3G phones, and all Nokias 3G phones, have also GPRS and EDGE capabilities that they fall back when they fall from 3G network.
All the talk about EGDE beating 3G is just a symptom on the poor condition of US 3G networks. Outside the US the 3G networks really work as they are intended. Actually they are currently starting to phase out older networks, just in this week in example it was notified here in Finland that parts on 900mzh that has been used only with GSM can no be used with 3G.
Also about the bluetooth connection and syncing... really... ca'moon... it works. Just once try with a real phone.
Re:France's iPhone (Score:3, Insightful)
does it follow that the research, development and manufacture of the multi-touch technology is nothing?
if you don't think something is worth having, the appropriate response is to not buy it, not claim it's too expensive.
Re:France's iPhone (Score:4, Insightful)
For an EDGE-only phone with no installable applications, a 480x320 screen, no voice dialing, no A2DP, limited chat, no OBEX, no modem functionality, and lots of other limitations?
Yeah, I think that's overpriced.
about what I paid for my 5G when that came out.
There are no 5G phone [wikipedia.org] yet.
Re:France's iPhone (Score:4, Insightful)
Have You Actually *Used* Any Real Smartphones? (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, in the etch-a-sketch app, you can shake it to erase the screen. That's pretty cool... if you're three.
In terms of actual new things, the iPhone has visual voicemail.
VV was around before the iphone (CallWave, Simulscribe) and Google/GrandCentral's implementation works on any phone currently, for free. It's just not that hard to do.
Other phones don't even have real web browsers, much less tabbed web browsers
Opera *invented* tabbed browsing - it's been around a lot longer than you think. And the neat Mobile Safari zooming effect? That was on ThunderHawk.
Re:France's iPhone (Score:2, Insightful)
Yes, that means we pay about 40% more than Americans... Fuck you all.
Not legal? (Score:3, Insightful)
What would be illegal about using your iphone with your european phone contract?
Nothing, that's what. Apple might like to make it illegal, but that's a different matter.