iPhone Austria Ireland

Apple on Friday introduced the iPhone to Austria and Ireland, the first countries to receive the handset since 2007. Already confirmed via its website, T-Mobile will be the exclusive carrier in Austria and is both announcing and launching the iPhone today. The European provider will offer just two service plans for the phone. A €39 Classic plan offers 1,000 minutes of calling to any network, Visual Voicemail, up to 3GB of data transfer per month, and SMS text messages at 25 Euro cents each; a €55 Supreme plan offers both unlimited calling and text messages with the same data cap. A two-year contract is required.

O2 has previously announced its plans, which range from €45 to €100 for between 175 and 700 minutes of call time, 100 to 250 built-in SMS messages, and a 1GB data limit. As with the British release, the plan requires an 18-month plan.

In both countries, the iPhone itself will sell at €399 for an 8GB model and €499 for a 16GB version, either of which is available directly through Apple's online stores in the respective territories. Austrians can also buy the iPhone through either T-Mobile's retail or online stores, while Irish customers can buy the phone through O2.

by MacNN Staff