However, if you look at the history of selling phones without subsidies, it is scattered with failure.

Any country that tried to ban subsidies (or hire purchase if you prefer) has seen its mobile penetration rate lag that of other countries. As each 10% rise in penetration added nearly 1% to GDP, this is not merely denying expensive phones to the poorer customers – but having a very real impact on national economic growth.

Rather than sneering at Vodafone, maybe you can explain why expensive upfront costs are better than spreading the cost over a longer time frame and why it is good to effectively block the poorer people from having access to higher-end smartphones if they want them?

It’ll fail, the networks control the.. well.. networks, and as such they have all the cards, none of them will like the Apple idea and will all join any action Vodafone makes,

Apple is a nasty piece of work like Sony – both often make products that are both expensive and only compatible with their own stuff – so if you need a repair or replacement, you can’t shop around, you have to go with them. This is in a similar vein – from what you say, it sounds like Apple is making it so anyone wanting to buy their new Iphone has to stump up a massive wadge of cash upfront – not really something that means everyone can have one – fine if you are a rich member of the commentariat or blogging community but increases the divide between the haves and the have nots.

Why a leftwing blog would be cheering such a thing is beyond me!

Erm, you’re missing something here.

You can already go and buy a phone, free of network subsidy, and then buy a SIM card for whichever network you desire.

That the vast majority of high end phones are not sold on this model, rather, they are sold on the network subsidising the handset model, rather tells us something about what consumers themselves actually like.

You know, this consumer choice in the marketplace thing?

Tim the iPhone 4 has an apple mini sim card that you can only get from apple so you cant just go and get any dim card it is not on pay as you go either so the cartels do control the Market.

So I think you may be missing something here?

Skooter

Actually, Tim is correct. The sim cards come from the network, are standard items, and all of the operators are more than happy to sell them to you.

You can’t just go snd buy a sim card without being tied into a contract tho?

4: “You know, this consumer choice in the marketplace thing?”

Exactly. Why restrict choice unless the objective is to distort the market?

Skooter, of course you can; any network will sell you a pay-as-you-go sim and many of them will give them to you for nothing!

Not for the iPhone 4 as stated above? And they will can you tell me where to get one?

@8 and 10 – well there are about 1000000 other phones from which to choose

If Apple is only selling its phone on terms you don’t like then, erm, don’t buy it.

Strewth.

@11

I think you may be missing the point here? It’s about Vodafone et al not being happy that they can’t price fix Apple’s tariffs because they can bypass their network providers?

Only just seen that this has been cross-posted

@2 Where was I cheering Apple on? Suggesting that Vodafone and others are only too happy to form a cartel to stop them losing the market to Apple is not the same as praising Apple for trying to corner the market. Whether Apple will succeed or not is irrelevant.

11 tory butler “, well there are about 1000000 other phones from which to choose If Apple is only selling its phone on terms you don’t like then, erm, don’t buy it.”

So Skooter was right, and the tory trolls were wrong when he said that you can’t get a sim card for the I phone.

I do wish tory trolls would understand the word choice before they go about spouting their clap trap.

Not for the iPhone 4 as stated above? And they will can you tell me where to get one?

You can make one out of a normal SIM card. You can cut it yourself or buy a special cutter.

So Skooter was right, and the tory trolls were wrong when he said that you can’t get a sim card for the I phone.

OMG the world’s ending. Nurse! Nurse!

“OMG the world’s ending. Nurse! Nurse!”

Very good!

Yes, Sally.

Every time I walk down a shopping street I curse the lack of mobile phone choice.

There are just so few to choose from, aren’t there?

10 “Not for the iPhone 4 as stated above? … can you tell me where to get one? ”

12 “I think you may be missing the point here? It’s about Vodafone et al not being happy that they can’t price fix Apple’s tariffs because they can bypass their network providers?”

Gawd the trolls are getting more stupid by the day. Answer his question or shut up.

http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/iphone/pay-as-you-go.html (Black 16Gb – £480)
http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/iphone/buy-now/ (Black 16Gb – £499)

http://www.itproportal.com/2010/6/19/apple-iphone-4-payg-vs-contract-options/

Take your choice. Pay a lot up front or pay a lot over a period of time.

Oh look – here’s Vodafone’s iPhone PAYG page

Get an iPhone with us on pay as you go and enjoy everything that our fast, dependable network has to offer.

http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/iphone/pay-as-you-go.html

@20

That must be a relatively new offer? Even so the cost of the phone is controlled by Apple so all Vodafone can do is offer the network carrier which according to the article may not be the case in the future.

Skooter the iPhone has been available on pay as you go on a number of networks for quite some time.

Additionally, it’s available sim-free, direct from Apple, and you’re then free to use any tariff from any network at all. The sims are a standard size (its called a Micro-SIM), and are nothing to do with Apple whatsoever. Admittedly, they’re not to common at the moment (as not many handsets use them), but I’m sure that will change as new handsets are released that make use of them. I’d be surprised if it was impossible to get a microsim on whatever tariff you like, for the simple reason that phone companies are more than happy to get your business!

By the way, to echo some of the other comments, I don’t see how Vodafone/other telcos are the baddies in this story. The subsidised contracts have been pretty successful (not everyone can afford £500 for a new iPhone, but £30 a month is much more manageable). If Apple wanted to stop the subsidies and potentially hamper their sales by making the upfront cost of the phone more expensive, surely they’re the bastards here?

More info on the story at The Register – http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/22/iphone_sim/

Basically it was a non-story in the first place. So you’ve all been wound up about nothing.