World of Apple

Both Carphone Warehouse and O2 in the UK are reporting that the 8GB iPhone is “out of stock” and “no longer available” respectively.

Thanks to the most phenomenal response to the promotion, The Carphone Warehouse is now out of stock on the Apple iPhone.

We apologise for the short notice but would like to thank everyone who participated in the campaign. Carphone do not expect to receive any additional stock at this time.

The strange occurrence comes just two weeks after O2 and Carphone Warehouse slashed the price of the iPhone to £169 causing a reported spike in sales.

Mobile Today is reporting that O2 is set to mirror T-Mobile Germany and begin offering significant discounts on iPhone units in the UK.

According to the site O2 will discount the 8GB iPhone by £100, from £269 to £169. The offer will reportedly run from April 16th to June 1st.

The 16GB iPhone will remain at £329.

Apple’s partner in the UK has today announced a record financial quarter and is thanking the iPhone for its success.

O2, the UK division of Spanish firm Telefonica reported that sales were up 9.5% in the last quarter of 2007.

Although the company didn’t disclose exact iPhone sales figures it did note that the device “helped” bring in 484,000 customers and 276,000 contracts.

According to O2 the iPhone has the highest satisfaction rating and lowest return rate out of any of its phones and iPhone users generated around 30% more revenue per use than the average O2 customer.

O2 also announced today that it will be the official carrier in Ireland and the device will go on sale on March 14.

O2 Ireland and today confirmed that it will be the official carrier of the Apple iPhone in Ireland.

The iPhone will go on sale in Ireland on March 14 and will be available through O2 retail stores, and Carphone Warehouse stores.

iPhone will be available in an 8GB model for €399 (inc VAT) and a 16GB model for €499 (inc VAT).

Danuta Gray, O2 Ireland CEO, said, “The iPhone is changing the way people use their mobiles forever, and we’re thrilled to offer it to O2 customers in Ireland. Our strategy in Ireland continues to be to bring our customers the very best innovations and experiences in mobile communications.”

The following tariffs are avilabke for the iPhone:

• €45/mo: 175 minutes, 100 texts, 1GB data
• €65/mo: 350 minutes, 150 texts, 1GB data
• €100/mo: 700 minutes, 250 texts, 1GB data

In what appears to be a surprise announcement, O2 will be moving all current iPhone users to new tariffs, offering more texts and minutes for the same price.

The move is part of an overall improvement in the network’s offering for all its mobile phone customers. The company is introducing six new and simpler tariffs and introducing free voicemail for its new and existing customers from 1 February.

iPhone users currently paying £35 a month will enjoy up to 600 minutes and 500 text messages (was 200 minutes, 200 texts).

Those on £45 a month will receive 1200 minutes and 500 texts, and finally those currently paying £55/month will be moved to the lower £45 or offered a chance to join a £75/month tariff receiving 3,000 minutes of calling and 500 texts.

O2 CEO, Matthew Key was reportedly in California last week briefing Apple CEO, Steve Jobs on the iPhones impact on the UK market, reports Andrew Parker for The Financial Times.

“Mr Key says 200,000 iPhones should have be sold in Britain by early January - in line with his expectations since its November 9 launch, although some analysts claim his target is conservative. Gartner, the research firm, says sales of up to 400,000 should be possible,” Parker reports.

The FT.com reporter wrote that “A 3G version of the iPhone will be launched by Apple next year; Mr Key is confident that O 2 will also have an exclusive deal for the mark two device.”

“O2 has signed a multi-year deal with Apple for the iPhone, and Mr Key insists Vodafone, for example, could not muscle in and take the 3G iPhone in the UK.”

“About 60 per cent of iPhone customers are sending or receiving more than 25 megabytes of data per month, which is the equivalent of sending 7,500 e-mails. By comparison, only 1.8 per cent of O2 ’s other mobile customers on monthly contracts are consuming more than 25MB per month,” Parker reports. “The O2 research suggests that, after years of dashed hopes for the operators, customers are on the verge of surfing the web on their mobiles in significant numbers.”

Talking to the The Times Online today, Peter Erskine, chief executive of Telefonica’s 02 Europe said that the iPhone “has been the fastest-selling device we have ever seen.”

“The phone had sold ‘in the tens of thousands’ since its launch on Friday,” he said in an interview with the paper.

When speaking to Thomson Financial Erskine declined to reveal how many iPhones it has sold, as the exclusive mobile network for the handset.

“He said early sales had been in line with its original expectations and customers had found the new handsets easy to use,” Thomson Financial reports.

This morning Apple UK sent out a press release hyping the impending release of the iPhone in the UK.

iPhone will go on sale this Friday, November 9 at 6:02 p.m. at Apple, O2 and Carphone Warehouse retail and online stores. iPhones will be available at more than 1,300 Apple, O2 and Carphone Warehouse retail locations across the UK.

“We can’t wait for our customers to get their hands on the iPhone this Friday night,” said Ron Johnson, Apple’s senior vice president of Retail. “Every Apple retail store will offer support for iPhone at the legendary Genius Bar, and beginning Saturday morning you can learn how to get the most out of your new iPhone by attending a free workshop or scheduling a personal training session through our popular One-to-One program.”

“O2 stores are fully geared up for what will be the year’s biggest product launch,” said Mark Stansfeld, O2’s sales director. “We’ve hired and trained hundreds of new iPhone specialists who will be in all 450 O2 stores giving live demos and showing customers how to get the most out of their iPhone.”

iPhone users in the UK will be able to activate their new iPhones using Apple’s popular iTunes® software running on a PC or Mac® in the comfort and privacy of their own home or office, without having to wait in a store while their phone is activated. Activating iPhone takes only minutes as iTunes guides the user through simple steps to choose their tariff and activate their iPhone.

It has been revealed that O2 has quietly scrapped the web cap that it had imposed on its “unlimited” iPhone data plan.

The iPhone which goes on sale on Friday November 9th in the UK was said to have “unlimited” data access when it was unleashed on September 18th. But further investigation revealed that the plan had a 200MB per month limit.

The mobile company says that average data usage on mobiles is just five megabits a month, its feedback showed that potential iPhone customers felt uncomfortable with having any limit.

‘Customers find ‘unlimited with limits’ confusing, plus most people don’t speak in megabits or understand what they equate to,” said O2 UK chief executive Matthew Key.

”So we’ve taken the decision to remove the fair usage cap so that ‘unlimited’ really does mean ‘unlimited’ – this is a market first.”

Matthew Key has also taken time to talk to the Telegraph about how O2 secured the deal with Apple to exclusively sell the iPhone in the UK.

O2 Contract Pit Falls

When O2 revealed its iPhone contracts last month it promised “unlimited” across all the tariffs. O2 also mentioned the availability of unlimited data add-on plans for other phone contracts.

On the O2 website “unlimited” data is simply accompanied by a star but with no explanation other than a “fair usage policy” applies.

At the Regent Store in London on September 18th, O2 CEO Matthew Key noted that the limit was 1,400 pages a day. But it appears that the fair usage policy only allows 200MB of data transfer per month. It seems that O2 believes that 200MB of data a month is more than sufficient, although this is only 1/5 of what T-Mobile offer.

On top of this, it has also been revealed that iPhone users will be limited to just 60-hours per month of Cloud WiFi network usage.

Unlocked French iPhone

It is looking increasingly likely that Apple and Orange will be forced to sell an unlocked iPhone on France due to a French law.

According to the International Herald Tribune, French law forbids the exclusive sale of a mobile that is locked to a particular carrier, so the iPhone will be forced to be sold unlocked.

Pricing for the unlocked device has yet to be revealed but is expected to go on sale on November 29th when the iPhone ships in France.