Sure, the iPhone is expensive, everyone knows that. I actually paid a significant premium to be one of the first few iPhone adopters, and I’m sure there are a lot of people in Ireland that will be just as eager to own an iPhone.
However, the problem with the iPhone plans on O2 Ireland are that they’re ridiculously expensive for what you get. On top of the price of the iPhone itself – €399 for the 8GB model ($605) or €499 for the 16GB model ($757) – O2 Ireland will require at least an 18 month contract for a plan that offers only 175 minutes, 1GB of data, and no Visual Voicemail. There are bound to be people that have a problem with that ridiculous pricing schedule, but, as O2 Ireland’s Ireland’s CEO Danuta Gray put it, ”
“You can’t compare it with other products. Comparing it with a standard handset is just not like-for-like. I have music on it, videos on it, DVDs, photo albums, camera. To me it’s just an amazing device and I think the type of price here compared with this type of functionality is where the value should be judged.”
The problem is (well, it’s actually a boon for O2 Ireland), that while the iPhone is expensive and the iPhone plans are unfairy expensive, there will be a good number of people that will wait in line to own the iconic handset. Come March 14th, “I’d say your Apple freaks will be queuing out the door when we launch,” says Gray.
Such is the power of Apple hardware.
I don’t know what would make me angrier – buying an iPhone on day-one and getting shafted for $200 soon thereafter, or buying a first-generation iPhone only to find the new 3G iPhone launched a few months afterwards.
[Via: MacNN]