The Wholesale Forums

[Supremetronics]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Those are my thoughts too.

The only benefits I can see by doing an exclusivity deal is to control the distribution and effectively control the price, but I'm sure this can be done even if multiple distributors are used. I would imagine 02 have much more to gain than Apple from signing an exclusive deal.

Thoughts?

I think the exclusivity will only be for a certain period for example from release to christmas or new year. Which would benefit O2 more so than Apple. But i think the fact most people are unsure how UK consumers will react to the £300 for the phone + 18 month or 24 month contract at £35+ a month. Might not be a huge success. So Apple signing an exclusive deal and making a fair bit of money before any phones have even sold may not be such a bad idea.

Also i think if Apple was to manufacture variations for each network it would delay the release date.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Supremetronics

I think the exclusivity will only be for a certain period for example from release to christmas or new year. Which would benefit O2 more so than Apple. But i think the fact most people are unsure how UK consumers will react to the £300 for the phone + 18 month or 24 month contract at £35+ a month. Might not be a huge success. So Apple signing an exclusive deal and making a fair bit of money before any phones have even sold may not be such a bad idea.

Also i think if Apple was to manufacture variations for each network it would delay the release date.

Some excellent points raised there Awais.

£300 on top of a no opt out 18 month contract is still a fair old price to pay! What are these phones going to go for sim free? Or are they only avaliable on contract basis for the time being?

[Supremetronics]

Only on contract for the time being. Sim free prices not announced yet so im assuming they wont be available on sim free straight away

[Supremetronics]

iPhone battery is expected to only last just over a year if you fully use it as both phone and music player.

The battery is soldered in, so it will cost $79 to have it replaced. If you dont want to be without an iPhone while it is being replaced you can loan an iPhone for $29

After the warranty period it will cost $199 for 4GB and $249 for the 8GB model.

http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/news/article.php/3688121
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070705/...e/apple_iphone

its working out rediculously expensive to own one

[Anthony]

Do you guys think that the high cost of this item will stop it from becoming as successful as the iPod? Or is it just a matter of time (when the price comes down) that it will be as successful?

[DSC]

I expect the exclusive period to be much longer that a few months it wouldn't be worth it for the operator otherwise.

UK consumers are used to getting free phones, and good ones at that so I think many will bulk at the price and if it does go to O2 they are buggers when it comes to good deals on phones (my £150 a month average bill wasn't enough for them). The fact that we are unlikely to see a sim free one for a good while yet will also hurt sales. All said though I will probably get one.

[Supremetronics]

Unless they drop the price of the phone i dont think it will be as successful as the ipod. i think £450-£500 sim free would be reasonable for the iphone. with this contract it will work out at almost £1000 for an 18 month period, more than £1000 if they only release it for 24 month contracts.

Also with Sony in the process of making a PSP style phone and rumours that google are looking to launch a mobile phone, i dont think apple will be able to charge such a high price for long. They also have competition from this new open source mobile phone: http://www.openmoko.org/ Nokia and Sony Ericsson are also going to release music phones to compete with the iPhone.