heres an article from macworld.com talking about a few issues that have cropped up here in this thread..... just thought i would post it here for anyone interested.

http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/02...rage/index.php

Apple CEO noted last night that the vote isnt in yet with regards to third party apps on the iphone....

"Jobs did acknowledge that the company is still struggling to decide if third-party developers will be able to create software that will run on the iPhone. It’s a decision Apple “is wrestling with,” according to Jobs."

to be honest i am one of those 'can't wait to be released'-people!
i did the simulation on the webpage and it IS intuitive!plus of course i do love the design and i am very happy with my ibook, too!

I am one of those who types who will be amazed if this will be succesful outside the fan boys and girls. I am certain without the Apple hype machine it would not be. I tried out the LG Prada phone which is remarkably similar to the Apple phone and it was very sensitive to finger prints and the touch sensitive screen was fairly poor. Maybe the Apple phone is better but I wish it was offering something new or radical. Really it offers slightly less than my existing phone.

Martin

Well, I guess we needn't care anymore:

News: T-Mobile looks set to win Euro distribution rights for the iPhone - MarketingWeek

if this turns out to be true, the iPhone won't be sold in Switzerland for the foreseeable future.

haha i think we should meet for a drink to bash out our opposing views

lets just say that there are some of us who would say that the lg prada is remarkably similar to the iphone, and that there are some of us who would say that the lg prada is purely the palest possible imitation of the iphone concept.

i think the iphone offers quite a lot that is new or radical.

1. it is a superb music player (100 million ipod users cant be too far wrong... and this brings the music side to way the next level)

2. new technology like multitouch is hugely innovative and has great future potential

3. superb synchonisation with mac computers

4. excellent web browser... nothing like that seen before on any phone.


lg prada ahaha he he hehehe HAHA. hmmmm.

sorry, couldnt resist that last one.

of course, in the end, if you just want a telephone... then the iphone will do the same job as most any other telephone, its just much more expensive. but it does offer a lot of new technology and features, compared to any other phone out there.

krlock
(not employed by apple)

yes, i just saw that, and wondered about it myself.

the article says "He also points out that T-Mobile has little or no presence in Italy, Spain or France" so there would have to be some solution. i do not think that apple will want to exclude such large market areas.

krlock3

For those of us who know nothing about cell phones, and never cared about them until they saw the iPhone, what is the significance of T-Mobile being the European carrier? Does T-Mobile not operate in Switzerland?

seems as though the Chinese have got around the distribution problem :

Another Apple iPhone Clone - From China - IntoMobile

no, and they don't have any partner-networks here, either.

They might have partner networks in these countries, though.
I personally had thought that Vodafone would be Apple's partner of choice given the fact that they're present in some form or another in pretty much every European country. T-Mobile has fewer partner networks and is entirely absent in Switzerland.

Apple will do multiple deals, if you look at the large networks in Europe :

Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange, Telenor, TDC, Telefonica & Mobilkom ... there is not a huge amount of overlap & they also pick up some exotics along thev way.
If Voda can bundle "live" you will see the handset coming up wherever they have licensed their content platform ... which brings us to Switzerland.

Now who promotes the pricey but ultimately crap "Live" content experience & also has the most number of subscribers in Switzerland ???

Guess who will be the sole distributor for these handsets ?

QED

i will second that... happy to see that someone else thinks that vodafone live is a large pile of s***. i actually chose my last few handsets based on the fact that they didnt have live on them...

a) completely rubbish worthless useless service

b) seems like half of the free keys on my handset sent me pointlessly to live without me wanting it.

as a swisscom payer-through-the-noser already, i will at least be happy if apple offer the iphone through them, and will be completely gutted if i cant get the iphone here as soon as possible. but apple have repeatedly said that they are looking for one partner. the concept of using a content provider is an interesting one though.

[quote=krlock3;61144]i will second that... happy to see that someone else thinks that vodafone live is a large pile of s***. i actually chose my last few handsets based on the fact that they didnt have live on them...quote]

am currently dealing with a large Vodafone partner at the moment that is keener than English mustard to drop the platform & also the $13M annual licence .....

Maybe Vodafone insisted on excessive branding? With only one button on the entire iPhone, this would be a fatal error...

Vodafone got uppitty with Nokia a few years back, anyone remember Club Nokia ?
They also tried to get Nokia to drop their branding from Vodafone supplied handsets .... cheeky feckers ....

stupid vodafone
stupid swisscom
stupid cablecom.
stupid any company with 5 tone brand recognition in adverts.

rant over.

However they're friends now... Nokia criples its firmware installers to prevent the debranding of Vodafone cells.

Indeed, although I think that will change :

Vodafone explains N95 crippling | The Register

the comments are enlightening

Apple's genius is in the interface. If you don't care about such things or are stuck in the Windows way of organization then I'd say don't bother with the iPhone. Otherwise, be ready to think how you ever got along without an iPhone when you've got your grubby mitts on one!