As we expected, France’s exclusive Apple iPhone carrier will be offering their unlocked iPhone at a price that undercuts its German rival T-Mobile’s price point of 999 Euros. The French wireless carrier will be asking 749 Euros for the unlocked version of the Apple iPhone, a steep discount in comparison to T-Mobile’s unlocked iPhone.
The announcement of a relatively cheap unlocked version of the iPhone on Orange’s network makes sense. With Orange obligated by French telecom regulations, it makes sense for the iPhone operator to attempt to attract as many customers as possible with a lower-priced unlocked iPhone offering. T-Mobile’s unlocked iPhone price of 999 Euro seems to be more of a deterrent – an effort to coax customers into buying a subsidized version of the iPhone, while T-Mobile fights to have the court-order (that forced T-Mobile to offer an unlocked version of the iPhone) overturned.
Orange will be offering four iPhone-specific rate plans when it launches today at 6:30pm local time – all plans are Visual Voicemail-enabled and will include unlimited data. The cheapest plan will cost 49 Euros and include 120 peak minutes, 120 night/weekend minutes, and 50 SMS text messages. The most expensive plan will cost 119 Euros in return for 480 peak minutes, 480 night/weekend minutes, and 1000 SMS text messages.
We’ll have to wait and see if Orange will be able to meet their iPhone sales goal of 100,000 units by year’s end.
[Via: Apple Insider]