Steve Jobs is currently touring Europe as he goes from country to country promoting the iPhone and naming phone carriers for their device. Britain's O2 and Germany's T-Mobile has been named, with France's carrier to be named next week. So far, all announced carriers have been set to launch on November 9th, in the UK at a price of 269 pounds and in Germany at 399 euros for the 8GB iPhone. All carriers thus far have been GSM with EDGE, making the European iPhone identical to the American one.
Just as Americans had a month to let the price of the iPhone sink in (and debate the pros and cons of the pricing), so too will Europe, but instead, the iPhone launch day comes nearly a month after the release of the 8GB iPod Touch (199 pounds/ 299 euros) and the
16GB iPod Touch (269 pounds / 399 euros).
In the United States, we have the majority of the cost of our cellphones subsidized by service providers in exchange for getting locked into a 2-year service contract. Europe is much the same way, with free phones given away as a way to attract customers into longer term service plans. In addition, smartphones are heavily subsidized, making the iPhone a very expensive option. For instance, for the same contract as the iPhone, O2 will give you a Nokia N95 (Wi-Fi, GPS, 5 megapixel camera) just for signing up.
In Europe, I feel as though the iPhone will be facing tough competition; savvy buyers will opt for the free Nokia N95 and buy an 16GB iPod Touch for the same price as an iPhone.
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