APPLE IPHONE

Apple has finally announced the release date for the UK Apple iPhone. It will be coming out on 9th November, will be carried by O2, sold via O2, Carphone Warehouse and Apple stores on an 18 month contract, and the 8GB model will cost £269 (or £69 more than it costs in the US).

Despite rumours suggesting the UK iPhone will come with 3G, in fact it won't - it's the same iPhone sold in the US, with just EDGE mobile connectivity.

To help offset this lack of speedy connectivity, O2 have created an agreement with Wi-Fi provider Cloud to provide 7,500 free Wi-Fi hotspots around the country.

In addition, you get unlimited EDGE data for a fixed monthly tariff of £35 (other tariffs of £45 and £55 a month are also on offer, and feature more free minutes and free texts), so at least you don't have to worry about paying for the content you download.

However, there is, of course, a catch...

More details on the UK Apple iPhone after the jump.

The so-called "unlimited" EDGE data does, in fact have a limit - according to the CEO of O2 UK, Matthew Key, "There is a limit: 1,400 internet pages per day would break the deal as part of fair usage agreement."

1,400 web pages - is that a lot? How do you know how many web pages you've surfed? Why put a limit on the number of Web pages you can view (assuming, of course, he does mean Web pages - maybe 'Internet page' is something different!)?

Explaining the rationale behind the lack of 3G, Steve Jobs said "The 3G chipsets are real power hogs. Handset battery life cuts power to 2-3 hours...Our phone has a talk time of 8 hours and that's really important when you want to use your phone for internet and music. 3G needs to get back up to 5+ hours, something we think well see later next year. ... WiFi is way faster than any 3G network. Energy efficient EDGE with better, faster WiFi. That's why we chose it."

Which is odd, as many other smartphones come with 3G, HSDPA and Wi-Fi (such as the Nokia N95), and none of them seem to have a problem. Certainly the users buying them don't have a problem putting up with shortened battery life for much faster downloads.

There's also another problem in that O2 has had to upgrade its network to support EDGE, and it hasn't exactly been able to roll it out nationwide.

Key said "We're investing in EDGE. As many people have noticed, hey I have EDGE! By launch we'll be north of 30% and build from there."

...only 30%?! So you have a slow service that's capped to 1400 web pages that only 30% of the country can use! And forget about trying to use it across the rest of Europe, as most other European countries don't support EDGE either.

So, O2 have secured themselves a 3 year contract with Apple to sell a phone with three year old features that won't be sold for free, with an unlimited data download rate that isn't, that has no 3G, an EDGE service that will only work across a third of the country, and for that they're prepared to give Apple 40% of all network revenues from the iPhone, plus Carphone Warehouse a cut for selling it through their stores.

Combine this with the fact that the iPhone now has a competitor in the shape of the Apple iPod Touch (same device, but without the phone), and you really have to question the logic of this deal. I can see people queuing up to buy it for Christmas, but after that, it'll be as cool as the Motorola RAZR now isn't.

Steve Jobs is one bad ass negotiator! Either that or O2 are simply one bad negotiator!!