Europe has spoken: free the iPhone!

Stan Beer
Thursday, 22 November 2007 02:57

Business IT - Technology

Now German carrier T-Mobile has been forced to offer unlocked iPhones for sale, it is using its visual voicemail service as the carrot to lure buyers to its iPhone service plan. It needn't bother. Nobody is going to pay nearly US$1500 for a phone in Europe that's not even 3G when they can get one across the Atlantic for a bit more than a quarter of the price. This is a cynical exercise which thumbs its nose at both European laws and consumers.

Obviously T-Mobile is not really in the business of selling handsets, just as Apple is not really in the business of providing mobile phone services. Yet Apple is getting a cut of T-Mobile's business and, as is the case in the US with AT&T, the iPhones sold on T-Mobile plans for US$599 are not subsidised - Apple already makes a profit on them.

The fact that iPhone unlocking hacks have proliferated and unlocked grey market iPhone imports can be purchased in Asian markets shows that there are plenty of customers who want to buy the iPhone right now. But they don't want to be told which carrier they have to sign on with.

This may be a brilliant money making strategy for Apple - making selected carriers pay through the nose for the right to be the exclusive iPhone provider for a region. However, for the consumer - to put it bluntly - it sucks. It's anti-competitive.

What's more, Apple doesn't need to do this. The iPhone is a big enough product to survive on the open market. If it was sold through every major mobile carrier's outlets on unsubsidised plans, as well as Apple stores, demand would still be enormous.

Competition among carriers would force the cost of iPhone plans down, different carriers would co-develop unique offerings with Apple, and, while Apple may not get as big a share of the carrier revenue, it would move far more product through far more outlets. Most importantly, however, this is what consumers want.

People are not thinking of clever ways to unlock iPhones just for fun. When they buy an iPhone, they're not buying T-Mobile, Orange or AT&T. By forcing consumers to lock in with a particular carrier, Apple is in fact implementing the exact opposite to the competitive anti-monopolistic telecommunications regime that regulatory authorities throughout the world are working so hard to achieve.

Apple should wake up and smell the coffee. People love the iPhone but they hate the way it's being sold. Come on Apple - listen to the Europeans and free the iPhone.