Telstra still firmly in the race to get the iPhone 3G?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 11 June 2008 09:45

Your IT - Mobility

We also know that Vodafone will offer the iPhone on a pre-paid and contractual basis, indicating that there could also be outright price for the iPhone, a contract price and that $0 upfront price that sees you paying off the device over a 24 month period, as happens with most phones today.

Optus could well do exactly the same - the 'revenue sharing model' of the 2G iPhone seems to have gone out the window in the US with AT&T, and if that's the case, nothing stops carriers from offering the iPhone at whatever price they want - even if Steve Jobs announced 'parity' pricing.

The news from US sites like Gizmodo and others also indicates that the policy of selling iPhones without first being activated is set to end with the iPhone 3G.

Apple and AT&T are only too keenly aware of the fact that many people are happy to buy an iPhone and then unlock it for use on other networks, something that denied Apple and AT&T their share of shared revenues.

If there are no more revenues to share, then the phone needs to be purchased with a contract, with the activation to be performed in store. Even online ordering is no longer - you'll need to activate, reportedly, in the AT&T or Apple store where you purchased the iPhone.

If the iPhone is also available without a contract at an 'unsubsidised price' in various countries around the world it will likely cost a lot more than US $199 or US $299 to purchase. Such phones may or may not already be officially unlocked, letting you use any SIM, but they won't be jailbroken.

However, just because you may well be forced to activate your phone and sign up to a specific contract, users will still want to unlock and jailbreak their iPhones. This is so they can use other 2G or 3G SIM cards when roaming, as well as running unauthorised third party apps, likely alongside legitimate apps from the iPhone App Store.

It's all speculation at the moment but if iPhone 3Gs can be purchased without signing up to a contract it will make things very difficult for users who simply don't want to connect to the telecommunications providers on offer in the 22 countries the iPhone 3G will launch in, and the 70 countries it should be available in by the end of the year.

So, if you thought that today meant an end to all the speculation... sadly that's not the case at all, with a number of new speculative fronts now wide open. Steve Jobs certainly knows how to keep us all on our toes! The iPhone. It's not just a phone, or an iPod, or a browser, or a smartphone or a handheld computer. It's a freakin' never ending adventure - or is it Steve Jobs just taking us all for a ride? :-)

Still, the iPhone is one of the best digital rides I've ever been on. And we've just reached the end of the beginning. The real fun is still yet to start!