Greetings from iPhone Hell (European Edition)

[Broomjockey]

Nah, MacOS is pefectly safe. No one wants to be laughed out of the hacker black-sites for being the person who wrote the great Mac virus.

See, that's the trick now. Is MacOS really safe? Or is it only safe because no one's bother to do anything to it? Eh, either way, it'll probably have a place for quite a while. I don't see Apple abandoning their computer division any time soon.

[Geek King]

Which is beside the point, because Apple's nearly out of the hardware market and the only thing they're truely going to be providing anymore is an antiquated look and feel for the least secure commercial OS on the market.

Nah, MacOS is pefectly safe. No one wants to be laughed out of the hacker black-sites for being the person who wrote the great Mac virus.

[Knifeman]

I'm fairly positive that the exclusive thing with the iPhone has some basis other than just an artificial scarcity. Apple is pretty big on getting their product to as many people as possible.

I suspect it has more to do with network connectivity, design, and security than anything else.

^-.-^

Umm, wrong.

the Iphone can be made to work with any other network. And such mods could have just as easily been made right in the initial design stages.

Apple's been pretty big on providing expensive toys for three times what the hardware should be worth, just because they slap it in a white case with an apple logo on it.

Which is beside the point, because Apple's nearly out of the hardware market and the only thing they're truely going to be providing anymore is an antiquated look and feel for the least secure commercial OS on the market.

[Andara Bledin]

I'm fairly positive that the exclusive thing with the iPhone has some basis other than just an artificial scarcity. Apple is pretty big on getting their product to as many people as possible.

I suspect it has more to do with network connectivity, design, and security than anything else.

^-.-^

[Gurndigarn]

If it makes sense it's not allowed.

Normally I would say that. But we're talking about Steve Jobs here. Whether you like him and his company's products or not, you have to admit that he doesn't run shows the way most corporations do, and he's got a real good knack for spotting opportunities and how to play people. So I'm wondering if there was some essential part of the business that I missed.

[Casino Jockey]

i brought an iphone the other night, and is currently winging it's way all the way from LA to my house here in melbourne, australia and i can tell you when i get that baby there is no way in hell i'll be pulling it out on public transport.

[queenbb]

my phone was under warranty. actually i have been through 9 replacement phones in the last year and a half, and 4 different models. (hence the reason i was a sc. i wanted them to give me a new phone because they were sending me replacement phones that were referbished and not working properly)

they told me the pda phone i had wasnt under insurance at that time for an unrelated question. i got madder cause i had been paying the insurance for that phone for a few months (i had been through 2 of them at that point) i asked them if i could be reimbursed for all of the time i had on that phone, they said they would let me keep the insurance on there and when if something happend they would stop the insurance at the time. the whole time im thinking wtf why would you tell me that. i would probably have trouble getting them to cover the insrance if that were the case. but i didnt need it, and when i turned in that phone they offered me another model for replacement which was a normal phone so i kept it on. (i had to return that one 2 times too.)

[Andara Bledin]

(i was mad cause they gave me a pda phone as a replacement and later on told me that it wasnt covered under the insurance plan this among other things made me a sc)

I don't know what you did, but if I received a replacement phone different from my original and learned after-the-fact that it wasn't covered by insurance, I'd be pissed.

^-.-^

[queenbb]

it amazes me that people are buying it in a futile attempt to hope that it will work on their carrier (aside from the guy who hacked it)

what sucks is that, i know the phone will not be covered by att's insurance, as i had a talk with the customer service there (a day i was a very sucky customer) they informed me that pda phones are not covered because of the high instance of theft and damage they get. (i was mad cause they gave me a pda phone as a replacement and later on told me that it wasnt covered under the insurance plan this among other things made me a sc)

[Broomjockey]

We don't get the Iphone because Rogers refuses to give Apple rights to their technology I think, and none of the other companies use the technology.

Huh, I'd heard that part of the problem was Rogers simply was using older tech that the other carriers had moved past, and the iphone wasn't capable of running on the newer stuff (mostly data network side). I'll see if I can find the article again, but it was a while ago, so I'm not holding my breath

[yomiko]

Wouldn't it make sense to try to sell to all four?

Nope, they're creating artificial scarcity. When it's rare, people WANT it. It's why diamonds are expensive. I mean, think about it, $600 for a phone? If someone just presented it to you like that, you'd rupture your internal organs you'd be laughing so hard. But 'gimmicks' such as 'oh look it's sooooooooooo cool' and 'only available here' make people lust after it.

Personally, I'm just sitting back and shaking my head (and kinda laughing) at the early adopters (after the price cut, they got back $100 that they could only spend at Apple. Yeah, that'll pay the bills)

[deafcat24]

My sister works for an Apple Customer Service call-center. Fortunately she went on maternity leave right before the IPhone came out in the US (she had a little girl on Wednesday btw, with my cousin's daughter born in December, they become the first pair of girls in a row for over 20 years on my dad's side.)

Now I don't know if she would be taking any calls for the Iphone becuase she was on the Canadian side of the call-centre. They take both. But I wonder how the call-center has handled it so far. We don't get the Iphone because Rogers refuses to give Apple rights to their technology I think, and none of the other companies use the technology.

Although she has talked to some of her co-workers, and they have lots of complaints about the customers with the Iphone.

[ArenaBoy]

Wouldn't it make sense to try to sell to all four?

If it makes sense it's not allowed.

Interesting facts for fellow Americans: O2 was Arsenal's shirt sponsor for a while and Vodafone was Manchester United's shirt sponsor. O2 is also England's rugby sponsor too I think.

[Gurndigarn]

What I would like to know... why did Apple decide to go with just one company for their phone? That had to have been one hell of a bribe... er, "partnership contract". I mean, the US has four major carriers, and a number of surviving small regional ones, too. Wouldn't it make sense to try to sell to all four?

[Barefootgirl]

[quote=Fraggleif these people have a problem they should be contacting their network and bugging them about not paying out enough. But then, as we all know the logic of an SC, they probably are. [/quote]

Yes, they are. Vodafone reps particularly, are getting it in the neck both on the phone and in the shops. I was in Carphone Warehouse the other day and I think every other person asked the assistant some variant on "will the iPhone be available on Orange/Vodafone/T-Mobile/can i buy one today?" I felt so sorry for the poor girl.