European iPhone News debuts with an article about rumors that the iPhone’s european launch will be announced on monday, and ship by the end of the year with 3G connectivity and a choice of carriers. to be Announced in Europe on Monday.
Monthly Archive for June, 2007Page 3 of 4
Rumors are spreading like crazy that a European version of the iPhone will be announced on Monday and it will overshadow the US iPhone in many ways
- three carriers at launch, rather than the one (AT&T/Cingular) in the US
- True 3G data network support
- stimulates natural breast or penis enlargement
Ok, I made that last one up.
It starts with Guy J Kewney at newswireless.net. He reports that the launch will include both Vodafone and T-mobile and possible French Telecom, rather than just the single carrier in the US.
Moving on, he claims that it’s going to be a 3G phone.
Both would be cool if they were true. Steve Jobs said that they didn’t release a 3G iPhone in the US because the chips were too power hungry when they started to design it. The European launch may be as much as 6 months later, which might provide enough opportunity to improve power consumption. It’s also quite likely that Apple’s European launch partners, who have invested a lot in 3G couldn’t support the EDGE technology used in the US if they wanted to.
More speculation:
We’ll have to see what this means for the US market. It may be that we get some choice of carriers in less than the year that many have estimated.
Lots of people writing about the iPhone today:
Some Highlight:
Over at the Unofficial Apple Weblog, David Chartier tore himself away from his new toy long enough to write up his first impressions. I’m not sure, but I think he likes it.
I just need to get it out of the way: Words cannot describe how incredibly wonderful this thing feels to touch and hold. It is an absolute marvel of engineering. Gorgeous in every way.
Engadget had multi-city coverage, a HiDef video intro and reported that pretty much every Apple store still had stock late in the evening and lots lots more.
Fixit.com discects a poor little fledgling iPhone.
Cnet also reports that iPhones are still in stock.
Someone I’ve never heard of claims that Apple will be launching an iPhone in europe on Monday. I’ll have more to say about that one in another article.
Cnet also reports that the speedups some existing AT&T customers have been reporting with the EDGE service that the iPhone uses for internet access are smoke and mirrors. However it’s been achieved, if it actually means generally snappier performance, that can only be a goodthing. If it’s just a trick, and things slow down again, I hope people get plenty pissed.
When I drove by the Apple Store in Seattle at ~8:30pm tonight, the crowds were largely gone, and there were plenty of idle Apple employees lined up inside the door, waiting to help the next customer to walk by. The scene didn’t suggest to me that they had sold out of iPhones. I assume there were still plenty of iPhones in stock.
When I got home, I checked e-bay, and found that people were bidding up iPhone auctions to nearly $1,000, if not more.
It’s now after midnight, which means the Apple Store just closed. I wonder if I should have hurried back to the store to buy a phone or two and list them on eBay, rather than work on setting this blog. I might have easily pocketed $800 or more. Of course, I might also have been stuck with an iPhone of my own. Wouldn’t that have sucked.
Earlier today, Glenn Fleishman took photos of the crowds outside the Seattle Apple Store.
It looks like there were at least a hundred people or more lined up (the line eventually snaked stretched to 25th av):
And there were people anxiously awaiting the opening:
By the time I drove by at 8:30pm, the line was gone. A few people were milling about in front, and the Apple employees were lined up inside the door waiting for customers, so I’m guessing there were still phones in stock.
