Dave Thorp's Blog

Apple today announced a new version of the iPhone 3G. As soon as it was announced, I wanted one. However now the hype has settled down a bit and O2 have updated their prices, I’m not so sure.

The new model boasts the following improved features

• A compass so maps knows which way you are facing
• An improved 3MP camera with auto focus and video capabilities
• A faster processor so some tasks and launching apps should be faster
• More storage
• HSDPA
• Voice dialling and commands

All in all it’s not a great improvement over what the iPhone 3G can do once OS 3.0 comes out on June 17th and one of the features is available on a jailbroken iPhone 3G so clearly Apple are blocking current iPhone 3Gs from using it. Much more offputing is O2′s new crazy pricing which means the device will only be free if you agree to a 24 month contract or a £75 a month contract or the device will be approx £450 on PAYG for the 16Gb version and £550 on PAYG for the 32Gb version. Not exactly the cheaper prices making the device available to more mentioned at the keynote.

Even worse is the fact that last time a new model came out customers could upgrade for free. This time customers either have to wait for their upgrade date (for most early adopters this is January 2010) or pay to end their contracts early (again for early adopters that will be approx 7 months at your monthly rate so in my case approx £245), and then agree to a new 18 or more likely 24 month contract.

Madness in my view as given Apple’s habbit of releasing a new model every year who on earth is going to want to agree to a new contract which will likely make the customer miss the model that will be inevitably released in 2010. Not me thats for sure and frankly unless O2 change their upgrade policy and prices fast, I may be looking elsewhere come my contract expiry

EDIT Full details of the ludicrous pricing HERE

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

This entry was posted on Monday, June 8th, 2009 at 9:57 pm and is filed under Handsets, Mobiles, Networks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.