Deliver Us From Swedish Furniture

Apple iPhone launches in the UK

Well my contract ran out this month so it’s time to ring around and find a new deal…and today is the day that the Apple iPhone launched in the UK….at 6:02pm. So I think that deserves a Woo Hoo for the launch and an ‘eh?’ for the 6:02 launch time. Anyway I’ve written before about the Apple iPhone and now we get a chance to see just how much it costs you to own one of these little beauties…

So, using Carphone Warehouse as the provider of choice and then comparing the Apple iPhone with the Nokia N95 on O2 (it’s actually cheaper on Orange in case you were wondering) on an 18 month contract we get -

Apple iPhone = Cost of Handset (£269) + Cost of Contract (£35 per month over 18 months = £630) = £899

Nokia N95 = Cost of Handset (£0) + Cost of Contract (£30 per month over 18 months = £540) = £540

On top of that, the tariff for the Nokia N95 gives you 400 minutes and 500 text messages, whereas the Apple iPhone’s tariff is a mere 200 minutes and 200 texts. The next tariff up for the Apple iPhone gives you 600 minutes and 500 texts, but that costs £45 per month which means that your cost of ownership for the 18 months goes to £1079, almost double the Nokia N95.

I look at this and think to myself, the Nokia N95 also has 3G, GPS and the camera is a 5 Mega Pixel thing with a decent lens in it (I’m not sure what the Apple iPhone’s one is like, but I have seen photos from the Nokia and they are as good as most sub £100 digital cameras I have seen) surely it’s a no brainer? Then again, the Apple iPhone does look cool, it’s battery life is far better than the paltry 4 hours talk time of the Nokia N95 and have you seen the demos of that interface….but then there is that sneaky feeling they are going to drop the prices like they did in the US…