Price increase on iPhone 3G S from O2 UK and more bad news
By admin • Jun 9th, 2009 • Category: iPhoneIf you were hoping for the new iPhone 3G S to be cheaper than its predecessor than we have some bad news for you as O2 UK has just announced the price plans for the new iPhone 3G S, that unfortunately is still exclusively on their network.
When the 16gb iPhone 3G was launched last year the cost of the phone on the £44 plan with 18 month contract was £59, whilst now with the new iPhone 3G S the charge for the phone on the same plan is up to £87.11. That represents close to a 50% increase. Guess this is the cost for the consumer when there is no competition.
For those looking to get the iPhone 3G S on Pay As You Go you will be looking at £440 for the 16gb iPhone 3G S and £538 for the 32gb iPhone 3G S.
Given that a lot has happened in the smartphone market in the last year or so, one has to raise the question if the upgraded iPhone 3G S is actually worth the cost. Yes, it does come with improved speed, camera, and some hardware changes that enhances the new iPhone OS 3.0 features. But at the same many will consider this a minor upgrade, more of an evolution of the iPhone 3G than a brand new iPhone.
Since the first draft of this more bad news have surfaced, this time for existing iPhone customers on O2. It has now become clear that O2 will not break existing contracts for the iPhone 3GS, therefore not providing subsidiesed upgrades for current customers. According to a Telegraph.co.uk article this week, annoyed cutomers have been all over Twitter and and other web forums over the last days expressing their anger towards O2 iPhone politics.
Until i have had a chance to test one, and compare it to earlier iPhone 3G model and possibly other iPhone challenging smartphones, i can’t say that it will be worth the money. But i am sure it will sell well among Apple fans looking to upgrade their current iPhone, but the big question for Apple is whether or not they will get the masses that has not yet bought the iPhone 3G to switch and buy the iPhone 3G S, of that i am not sold yet.
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I also feel that Apple should have brought more to the table with the iPhone 3G S as other phones are better value in terms of both price and features e.g. Touch Pro 2 and possibly the Palm Pre.
By the way as soon as the iPhone is released you can compare all the available deals here: iPhone 3GS deals (UK)
There also seems to be a lot of pissed off existing iPhone O2 customers out there that are not given the chance to upgrade to the new iPhone 3GS within their existing contract, or to start a new contract and upgrade before the end of their current contract.
Greed is usually the first step towards a downturn for any mobile phone operator. Lets hope Apple soon realizes that exclusive contracts are not the right way to go to make sure their customers, because lets face it most people who buy an iPhone is more an Apple customer than an O2 customer, and that they will make the iPhone 3GS and future iPhone models available across networks.
A Macworld UK survey following the launch of the new iPhone 3G S reveals that 21% of their readers will not upgrade to the new iPhone until there is a new carrier other than O2 selling it. At the same time almost half of current iPhone owners will wait until the end of their contract before upgrading to the new iPhone 3G S.
Iphone 3G have the best features among all the phones that i have owned. the iPhone is also very classy and stylish.