Fone Forum

For the first time ever, Apple is going to sell an unlocked iPhone from the first day, at least in the UK and France.  This means that anybody will be able to get a SIM Free iPhone 4 without having to care about whether or not they need to unlock it.

And at £499 for the 16GB and the £599 for the 32GB version, the iPhone 4 is not obscenely expensive, especially when you know Apple's propensity to overprice its products compare to the competition.  The unlocked version popular HTC Desire currently costs £387 (at Amazon (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0035ER8OY)) and was launched with a SRP of £440.  Add around £30 for a 16GB microSD card and suddenly the price difference between the two, at launch, shrink to £30.

Apple's decision to sell SIM Free iPhone could have some significant outcome for mobile phone networks if it allows users to use its own Apple Financial Services to buy a phone.  AFS appears to be limited to computers but we will get in touch with Apple's PR to find out more.

This little known possibility could encourage more customers to buy a SIM free phone outright and then buy a cheap SIM-only deal from the mobile phone operators, something that could significantly hamper the sales of iPhone 4 handsets via the likes of O2 or Vodafone.

Given that the cheapest monthly total cost of ownership for an iPhone 4 is at least £41.61 (O2 on 18 months contract) and tie you with a single operator for a long period, it makes sense for users to explore alternative ways to acquire an iPhone 4.

The bottom line is, if you have the cash, buy the iPhone 4 from Apple and get a SIM-only deal.  We will be providing you shortly with an updated guide of the best SIM-free deals in the country as well as the complete round up of pay monthly prices when the last three operators - T-mobile, Tesco and 3 UK - publish theirs.

Source:-   ITProPortal (http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/6/19/apple-iphone-4-payg-vs-contract-options/#1).

This is an interesting development. I think the prices will also quite quickly come down from those listed.

I do not believe that there would be drastic reduction in the tariff price at all because already they are offering the 3GS handset with pay monthly tariffs nearly at about 35£/month, 45£, 75£ etc so when coming to iphone4 if they reduce the prices some customers might be inclined to change their tariff.

Also would it be not too much to expect these greedy operators to bring down the costs of the tariffs even though there will be a fierce competition if Apple decided to sell sim free handsets?

It is interesting! No doubt! MH if you remember I asked you about the price difference in UK and America in last thread, that was about launching iphone4. As I could remember it was $350/- in America and its starting from £499/- in UK. Why this is always high in UK?

Perhaps there are more idiots over here who will pay that sort of price for Apple's highly hyped products ?        :-\

am I missing something here? According to apple you can not buy an Iphone without AT&T contract in US!!

Maybe the opening sentence ?        :-\

MH I did get that UK France bit but I was confused about the comparison among the most idiot people living in UK and US.As they(US) cant buy Iphone without contract, we can not be sure that people over here are more idiots :) 

I think we are talking at cross purposes. Apple always hype their products, charge well over the odds for them, and rely on the stupidity of then 'fanbois' to buy whatever price they charge.  However, they also charge UK customers more for theirs than they can get away with in their own back yard.  I believe that this applies to contract with contract comparisons, as well as with 'SIM Only' sales.        ;)

There is a small justification for this, because of shipping costs, but the discrepancies point to far more being accounted for by basic greed in my opinion.        ???

I'd be very temperate in making such comments. The prices will obviously come down but it will take a good while. Apple has already showed us how confident it is with their products. Apple fanatics (with all respect to them - friends of mine amongst them) will go over the financial limits or sacrifice other needs in order to obtain their beloved gizmo.

I'd be tempted to agree with mh in his reply 4# (http://www.foneforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,1511.msg7850.html#msg7850) but I wouldn't use as strong word as he did ;)

Surely you must be certifyably deranged to buy Apples' over hyped and over priced products!

Tell it how it is mh!