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Monday October 8, 2007
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Welcome to Europe, land of the unlocked phone, Apple. According to several stories in the French press, Apple's deal with Orange to sell iPhones in France has run up against a little legal problem: Orange is required to sell iPhones both with and without contract. Paraphrasing the French paper Les Echos, this is a big problem for Apple, because their business model is based on getting kickbacks from monthly subscriptions. No subscriptions, no monthly vig going to La Casa Cupertinostra.
Things get even thornier for Apple depending on how you interpret France's mobile phone law. There's a bit at the end of Chapter 2.3 of the law that supposedly says that carriers must unlock phones for free after six months of use. That means in about six months, France could flood the world with unlocked iPhones.
If you've wondered why there are no iPhones in Belgium, Italy or Spain, this is why: Apple hasn't released phones in any countries with strong unlocking laws. (If you've wondered why there are no iPhones in Canada, there's no good reason.)
Click through to find out how we think Apple will solve this dilemma.
I was talking to my fellow analyst Joel Santo Domingo about this, and he came up with a great theory of what Apple is going to do. They're going to let users unlock phones in accordance with French law - but the phones sold in France will only have French language resources on board. Each firmware update, meanwhile, will wipe any non-French languages added.
This will send people in Quebec into a thrill of gloating hilarity, but it will safely keep the unlocked phones out of les mains of Apple's core English-and-Spanish-speaking clientele. And the French government will love it - if people want to buy unlocked iPhones, they'll have to learn French.
Heck, I see the same thing happening in Belgium and the Netherlands with Flemish-only and Dutch-only phones. Spain is probably still shafted, though - Spanish-only iPhones would be too tempting to both all of Latin America and to Spanish-speakers here in the US.
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October 8, 2007 3:37 PM
The iPhone should be sold globally, multilingual and UNLOCKED !!!
October 8, 2007 5:59 PM
iPhones should all be burned. Mac took care of burning the users, so no need to burn them again. Unless, they refuse to learn the lesson. And I know they won't.
October 8, 2007 8:10 PM
who cares?
iphone is crappy phone, mediocre PDA (or PDA-wanna-be), its just an iPod with cellphone.
There are plenty of better cellphones with media players for years around, so who really cares about iPhone?
News schmucks create such hoopla about it and iDiots believe in it, thats all what it is.
October 8, 2007 9:06 PM
There are several reasons why Apple is not bringing the iPhone to Canada.
For one thing... Rogers Communications (also the owner of the Fido brand) is the only GSM provider in Canada. The rates they charge for wireless data is nothing short of rape (10 times more expensive as the U.S.). All the Canadian wireless companies (Bell and Telus) are charging these same high rates. This could be a hurdle for Apple.
Secondly a telephone company called Comwave owns the rights to the name iPhone (in Canada)... and has been using it for several years www.comwave.net . Apple is going to have to make some deal with Comwave about this issue before iPhones can be sold in Canada.
October 9, 2007 1:12 PM
Ca marche pour moi!
The trouble with the iPhone is that it's locked down. This means that Apple can't depend on 3rd parties to bring up the level of apps for the unit. So we're stuck with Apple's limited "vision" of what this hardware can do, which is unfortunately far, far less than what it can actually do.
The iPhone will continue to suck for apps until it is reliably unlocked and people with imagination start coding apps for it. Then, oh my! It's a lovely hardware package, lots of potential, but it's being deliberately crippled by a company that is more about design and ego than about creativity (witness the debacle with their movie software, or their locking down of the iPod which could really be so much more).
Apple is the only company I know that has excellent hardware and deliberately cripples it. Other manufacturers are busy trying to squeeze the most out of their hardware, but Apple takes great hardware and makes it deliberately mediocre. It might be working for them financially at the moment, but damn it's annoying!