[Graphguy]

It's going to be interesting, no doubt about that.
Personally, I don't think we'll see them before the 3G version is out, probably next year. European consumers are used to better/more featurerich cellphones than Americans, so that cheap EDGE crap isn't going to cut it.

Price will also be interesting. I doubt that they can price it as high as they can in the US, and also, in some european countries 6 months is the longest that you can tie a customer to a service plan.
If Apple want's the phone to suceed here, I reckon that they'll either have to cut the price quite a bit, or increase the amount of revenue that they share with the Telco.

Will it be as big as a success as in America? If it comes in a 3G version possibly, but I doubt it. Europeans use their cellphones differently than Americans (For example, everybody MMSs and SMSs, dozens of times a day).

Unless Apple makes some modifications, I don't see it being a smashhit. Big seller? Sure, but not a smashhit.
Japan on the other hand...

[neiltc13]

Your point about "feature rich cellphones" is interesting because there are many, many phones currently on the market which have more features than iPhone. Look at Sony Ericcson's K800i and even their K750i which is available at less than £100.

The key to many of these phones is Java and while it might not be the quickest or the easiest implementation of anything, there are plenty of people familiar and developing with it.

There's also all of the flaws with iPhone which I have pointed out previously which put it down a peg when you compare it to a video playing device or a phone camera etc, like the fact that it CANNOT do MMS whatsoever and even if it could it lacks the functionality to scale photos to a standard size for transfer. No video capture either will be a huge killer with the YouTube lot.

If this thing isn't on PayGo then the original "iPod market" will remain away - teens and even the wider public in general seem to like that method of payment and people from other countries seem to forget that in the UK plenty of people prepay lots of other things, like electricity, gas and other household things so topping up is not a nuisance at all and is kind of an expectation.

[Graphguy]

Mhmm... You're right on the mark...
I reckon European cellphones are usually a half to a whole year ahead of US phones.
The Iphone isn't as interesting for carriers here either, because they don't have a license to bleed people dry, like they do in America (Therefore less revenue, and an expectation of Apple to share the wealth)
For example, we don't pay for incoming calls (which is utter bullshit), often there are no monthly contract fees, and the lowest pr. minute price that I've seen in Denmark for pay as you go are 3-5 cents a minute. Often, you can get a contract with unlimited calls and minutes for 30-40 dollars.

Also, the market is much more saturated here. All of these should make it a very interesting debut. Which probably won't be untill middle of next year, when they finally make a 3G version (And it is really inexcusable that it hasn't happened yet!)

I don't see a european carrier, who might have spent 5 billion dollars over the last couple of years to upgrade to 3G be in awe of the iphone. Au contraire...

[*Joe*]

I have said all along that in its current form, the iPhone will just not work in Europe, it will be a failure. I have no doubt that Apple will imporve functionality for European customers, but I think it will take a lot to make it here.
As others have mentioned, video clips, MMS and 3G will be killers. But I still think the biggest killer will be when it comes to SMS. It appears that SMS isn't that big in the USA, but it Europe it is huge. You get call plans with 1000,2000,3000 inclusive messages a month. I just got my bill through and I used 1500 inclusinve messages, thats almost 50 a day. Typing out SMS on a touch screen will be a terrible experience, simply because no amount of predictive text can discern 'txt speak'. SMS has a limited number of characters per message, so people rarely want to use full dictionary english! So the iPhone error correction will be useless, it will just be typing on a touchscreen which is always hellish.

The price of the handset will be prohibitive as well, I currently have the SE K800i, it was free on a 12 month contract, costs me £25 a month, I get 1600 inclusive minutes and 2000 inclusive SMS, £5 inclusive downloads and 50 minutes of video calling.
That is a competative package as far as I am concerned. There is no way I would pay ANYTHING for my handset and then be tied in to an 18 or 24 month price plan.
Just take a look at any European cellphone store, you will be hard pressed to find any contract handset that you have to pay for (just look at www.carphonewarehouse.co.uk ). If you google it you can often get a free handset, 12 months half price line rental AND a free XBox 360, or PSP thrown in.

Then there is PayAsYouGo. In Europe prepaid services are much more popular with teens, they are never going to offer a handset like the iPhone on that type of plan because unsubsidised by the network the cost would just be ridiculous.

There are so many things about the iPhone that need to be considered before a European launch will be a success

[digitaldave]

Maybe Apple is doing what it does really well - thinking different.

The lack of MMS is seen to be a problem, mainly for Europeans, but maybe that's because we've all been brainwashed in to thinking 'MMS good'. And why is that? Because the operators get loads of money each time you send an MMS. You don't have to send too many before you are getting to the point where it's costing a similar amount that you could pay for a data package, and with that you could have emailed the full size picture to someone, not some small postage stamp sized picture. And since most 'full featured' phones have email facilities already, the recipient can, if they choose, still receive the pictures whilst they are away from their computers. But I think this is part of where Apple is starting to think different - once people start seeing iPhones and learning that they can send and receive email easily, more people will start looking at using email on a phone - possibly an iPhone. 'Tip of the iceberg' sort of thing. If only we could get unlimited data packages on our contracts like the US has for the iPhone - $20/month for unlimited data (based on upgrading an existing AT&T account)? I'd love that, but then we have a strong £ at the moment .

Also, pictures sent via MMS are relatively low quality - whilst I regularly take pictures of my son on my phone and MMS them to his grandparents, I'd much rather be able to send a 2MP version that they could print out and put in a photo frame.

I wish people would stop using the lack of video recording as a problem - have you ever actually seen a video shot on a mobile phone? I have an SE K800i, and as well as the standard MMS compatible mode, there's a slightly enhanced 'high quality' mode... However, both are absolutely rubbish - the sound is poor, the resolution is even worse, and there's so much compression that you can barely make out any details.

Finally, I do agree somewhat that lack of 3G may be an issue in Europe. The problem here is that AFAIK, there's very little support for EDGE on our networks, probably because after paying billions of £/€ for their 3G licenses, they damn well want to get their money back, so developing and deploying non-3G data systems isn't going to be at the top of their business plans. The main issue is that the iPhone sort of relies on good quality data connections, so if you have lower speed, it's not going to create a good impression with the users. I really hope that they do find a way to introduce 3G support in the European iPhone.

[tsa]

Here in the Netherlands I can use any mobile phone with any provider I want. To an American this may seem strange but here in Europe we are used to that. So I guess many people here won't want the iPhone if they have to switch providers for it. Why doesn't Apple just sell it without a SIM lock and try to convince one or more providers to get the direct voicemail thingy working?

I wouldn't want an iPhone anyway. There is just too much wrong with it: SMS will be a pain, no MMS, bad voice quality, no installing application from third parties (which means no Skype!), the list goes on...

[Squadra T]

Originally Posted by tsa ...bad voice quality...

Is that so?