that canadian girl

First thoughts on iPhone launch for Europe

Well, it’s here. The iPhone has now been officially announced for the UK and the rest of Europe.

There’s coverage everywhere; Engadget, PocketPicks, TechDigest, TUAW… And I think we’ve all got the same feeling. We’re slightly underwhelmed by the announcement, seeing as there won’t be any 3G.

However, the partnership with The Cloud is interesting. Free WiFi for all iPhone users where The Cloud is available. Having a look at the areas covered by The Cloud, it should be pretty good for Londoners and those based in busier centres, with a few hotspots sprinkled across the rest of the UK.

For the past few months, I’ve coveted the idea of having an iPhone instead of my clunky N95, but there are definitely pros and cons, and I’ll have to mull it over for a bit longer before I decide what to do. I WANT the iPhone to succeed in the UK because I want to see more phones with smoother user interfaces, better thought-out features and less Symbian-like crashes and grey screens. But at the moment, the £35-£55/month tariffs are at the very high end of what we’re willing to pay, and considering the network speed limitations, I’m not sure I’m willing to stump up the money just yet.

What about everyone else? Are you getting one? Are you disgusted by the deals? Are you waiting for the 3G iPhone which might come out next year?

Categories: ,
Vero's avatar

Published by

Vero

5 responses to “First thoughts on iPhone launch for Europe”

  1. Symbian Avatar
    Symbian

    I have to tell that my Symbian device doesn’t crash for all time I own it.

    Reply
  2. Liz Avatar
    Liz

    Yup I’ll be buying one and breaking my hideously expensive Vodaphone Contract to do so. At the moment I’m paying £35 plus £7.50 for 3meg of data a month. So O2 at £35 and unlimited data looks really good.

    The 3G issue I’m not too bothered with mainly because there is no 3G in Ely and when I have used it frankly it doesn’t seem much faster than GPRS. I want it for the wireless access which will be more useful than the 3G imho.

    I just wish the camera had more res and that might be the thing that stops me rushing to get it.

    Reply
  3. Matthew Pennell Avatar
    Matthew Pennell

    I was planning to, but I think I’m more likely to stick with my PAYG and maybe get an iPod Touch instead. For the amount I use my phone, I just can’t justify £500+ a year on a contract.

    Reply
  4. Ade Avatar
    Ade

    Symbian-like crashes… tee hee.

    In my experience, virtually all of the crashes I’ve experienced on Symbian phones are not directly the result of Symbian OS. Almost without exception, all the bugs are in the software produced by the phone manufacturers themselves.

    However, the bit which Symbian doesn’t like to admit is that producing Symbian phone software is so difficult that it’s virtually impossible not to admit bugs. Yes, there’s good memory management; yes, it’s hard to overflow buffers; but there are lots of complexities in integrating a device which has such a complex multitasking scheme and so many different software providers.

    Reply
  5. Grant Avatar
    Grant

    Hey

    Yeah it sucks there is no 3G, I think I’ll be picking one up and hacking it to work with T-Mobiles and there Web n Walk service.

    Nice blog by the way, I thought I’d leave a comment after reading your post about the future of web apps conference. I can’t wait, gonna be a blast.

    Reply

Leave a comment