Free iPhone

It probably didn’t come as a surprise, but Steve Jobs has announced that the iPad will not be able to share the iPhone’s connection. The announcement was actually just a direct answer from Jobs to a Swedish fan who emailed him directly with the question.

iPad-iPhone tethering wasn’t expected, but it was hoped for; no handheld Apple devices currently have the ability to receive a tethered connection, unless connected to a computer.

It is also unlikely that this feature would be enabled in any future updates as a 3G iPad would solve the problem.

Yet another reason not to buy the 1st generation iPad.

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It is now official that there will be a Google Phone coming soon. Not just a rebranded HTC, this is the real deal; a 100% Google branded, sold and supported phone – and it’ll be called the Nexus One.

How this will affect the iPhone’s supremacy will be seen over the next 18 months or so – Google has a long way to go to match the runaway success of the iPhone. But they do have a track record of doing things well, as we all know from their success taking over the internet search sytem, web based email, and now their delve into social networking with Wave.

It is fully expected that the Google phone will incorporate all of these features at some stage, and much more

The phone will come loaded with at least a Google Navigation tool, and the new Google Googles.

How much?

The biggest question on my mind at the moment is how much the Nexus One will cost. To be successful as the newest and greatest smartphone on the market Google are going to have to do something a bit special. an they rely on some clever feature to make us buy their phone over an iPhone, or even a Blackberry with its new app store feature.

The only reason I would buy a Google Phone would be if it could match the iPhone in terms of features and applications AND be cheaper. Much in the same way as I haven’t binned Firefox for Google Chrome, I won’t be ditching my iPhone in favour of the Google phone unless it can offer me something much more financially.

Will there be a Free Google Phone plan? I hope so, and think that may be the only way for Google to make their mark on the World of smartphones in a real way. The Android is dead, but the Google phone could well be king.

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In a shocking announcement, Tesco Mobile has said it will be offering the iPhone in its stores and via Tesco Direct ’shortly’.

This surprise move, from the fastest growing UK mobile operator, will see it selling the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS in time for christmas 2009.

The superstore-come-phone provider is renowned in the UK for offering great deals that are very hard to beat and this announcement is likely to spark the iPhone price war consumers have been waiting for, and which didn’t come when Orange began offering the iPhone earlier this month with almost an exact pricing structure as O2.

Tesco will offer both contract and pay-as-you-go iPhones, although it is still in discussions with Apple over pricing.

The move comes as a big blow to Vodafone, who won’t get in on the action until early 2010, and Orange, who hoped to take up to 50% of the iPhone market away from O2; as consumers now will probably delay their iPhone purchase until next month to see what kind of deals can be had from Tesco Mobile.

O2 are the silent winners in all this, with a 50% stake in Tesco Mobile, they will retain their position has top earners from the iPhone in the UK, and are able to focus more of their efforts on marketing the Palm Pre – which it still has exclusivity on.

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The next version of the iPhone will contain a special chip that allows it to work on networks in Europe, Africa, Asia, America, and more.

According to American ‘technology experts’ the worldwide iPhone will be launched next Summer in the US by Verizon Wireless.

The new iPhone will utilise a Qualcomm microchip that will work on both the 3G dominant European and African networks as well as the CDMA2000 networks used by Verizon and much of the rest of the world.

“This Qualcomm-powered world phone will facilitate Apple to be carrier-agnostic,” Kumar said, meaning the new iPhone will not be restricted to any network providers.

This is a logical next step for Apple, who originally released the iPhone under exclusivity deals with network partners in the US, UK, France and Germany. It has recently changed this policy to offer to offer the iPhone through many more mobile phone networks across the world.

This strategy has increased the number of iPhone users worldwide and hugely increased the Christmas party fund at Apple HQ.

Yesterday was the first day that iPhone’s were available to Orange customers in the UK, ending the exclusive deal between Apple and O2. According to early reports from Orange, they were able to sell over 30,000 iPhones by 4pm. Carphone Warehouse are planning on shifting 1M iPhones before Christmas.

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With just a few hours to go before the release of Apple’s iPhone on Orange to UK customers, more than 250,000 people have pre-registered their interest in upgrading their current Orange contracts.

Unfortunately for all iPhone users and hopeful iPhone owners, the addition of  a new player in the market, ending O2’s exclusive deal to offer the device in the UK, has not sparked the price war we may have hoped for.

Orange’s 32GB iPhone 3GS handset will cost £96.50 on their £44.04 per month tariff with a two-year contract. Compare this with O2’s deal where the same handset costs £96.89 on a £44.05 per month tariff with a two-year contract and the Orange Apple is less appealing than was anticipated.

Orange have, however, given their customers a cheaper entry level option, offering the Orange iPhone 3G (the older model iPhone) for free on a two-year, £29.36 per month contract. The same handset on O2’s cheapest tariff will set you back £34.26 per month. It means that users signing up with Orange will save £117.60 over the life of the two year contract and really represents the best available iPhone deal.

All Orange iPhone contracts come with an ‘unlimited’ data use policy, designed to allow users to take full advantage of the high speed internet browser on the phone. The 750mb ‘fair usage’ cap very firmly contradicts this policy, but according to Orange, most users are unlikely ever to reach the cap….(!)

With O2 users complaining about the regular data outages and network downtime on their iPhones, it is anticipated that this offer from Orange may tempt a large number of O2 customers on to Orange.

An Orange spokesperson says it it confident in its stock levels and that there won’t be a supply issue when the iPhone becomes available on Tues 10th November.

With Vodafone entering the iPhone market from next year, we may have to wait until then to see any possibility of a price war to drive down the price of a half decent iPhone 3GS contract.

Orange will be selling the iPhone in a number of stores, including Carphone Warehouse, Orange shops, and Phones4U. Carphone Warehouse said that by the end of the year, they expect to have sold more than one million iPhones since the device first went on sale in the UK in November 2007.

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