11/28/2007, 9:40am, EST
Wednesday, November 28th
Locked, unlocked iPhones premiere in France
The iPhone is now on sale in France, according to reports. Agence France-Presse writes that the device's primary carrier, Orange, is selling it in three different price tiers: a base €399 level that requires an Orange plan, a €549 plan-free version, and finally a €749 phone (incorporating a €100 access fee) that can be used on competing phone networks. The phone is only available from 12 outlets until Thursday however, and Orange says that over 50,000 orders have already been placed. Some third-party French websites are said to be selling the iPhone, but Orange is threatening legal action.
Four different plans are in effect, starting at €49 per month; this gives a user two hours of daily voice, two hours on nights and weekends, and 50 SMS messages; included is unlimited e-mail, web browsing and Visual Voicemail, but only 10 hours of access to Orange-owned Wi-Fi hotspots. The top plan costs €119 a month, and grants 100 hours of hotspot access. Along with this comes eight hours apiece of daily and night/weekend voice, plus 1,000 SMS messages.
The Orange pricing scheme differs drastically with that of Germany's T-Mobile, which is simply charging €399 for a contracted iPhone or €999 for an unlocked one. Orange is confident enough in the appeal of the iPhone that it expects to sell at least 100,000 units by the end of 2007.
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And it costs $72 US for two hours a day worth of phone time? Sure, its got unlimited data (in theory, but maybe that's implying on a wifi network its unlimited), but this is supposed to be a phone first, right?
This is the best Apple could find in that country?
I'd also like to know what the 100 euro access fee is all about? A fee to have access to the phone?
considering that 50,000 have been pre-ordered, i would guess that the french have some money to burn.
Or maybe they've got that sense of rationality and calm, did the math, and determined that paying the UK price for the iPhone and associated plans isn't worth it.
In that sense, no handset is worth spending that much money on even if it has all the features you could imagine.
I guess their mindset is really different. Maybe they don't spend money on expensive cars either since any motor car will do as long as it runs.