iPhone costs in “rip off” Britain are they founded?

Posted by Kieran on August 4, 2009 under Mobile, iPhone | Be the First to Comment

Apple announced at WWDC the price points for the new iPhone 3GS and a price reduction for the iPhone 3G

3G 8GB goes from $199 to $99.

3GS 16GB to be $199 (same as old price for 3G 8GB)

3GS 32GB to be $299 (same as old price for 3G 16GB).

From O2 in the UK looking at the same 24 month price plans you would have to sign up for with ATT

the 3G 8GB is free on all 24 month contracts

The 3GS 16GB is £90 on £35 a month contracts and free on £45+ contracts

The 3GS 32GB is £175 on £35 a month contracts, £97 on £45 and free on £75+ contracts

The cheapest ATT contract I can find for a San Francisco zip code would be $30 for data  + $39.99 for nation 450 + a one time activation fee of $36 .

Another thing to note many people forget that o2s contracts all include unlimited wifi with the cloud, whilst I would rather have a great hspda network everywhere I go, the inclusion of being able to use the cloud for me personally is very useful

So was it more a case that o2 was subsidizing the  3G iPhone more heavily than ATT? rather than rip of Britain being the usual case?

One thing is for certain I would be very happy if the rumours that Tmobile and Orange may be stocking the iPhone in the future are true, as competition can only be a good thing for the consumer and hopefully people who would purchase an iPhone, if it was not restricted to o2 without unlocking it will be able to do so.