Well, it’s Tuesday, and you know what that means. That’s right, there was a big ‘ole mysterious announcement to the British press in Apple’s flagship store on Reagent St. It wasn’t too terribly mysterious, though, because pretty much everyone predicted Steve Jobs was there to announce the UK launch of the iPhone.
He totally did.
The UK iPhone launch date is November 9th on the O2network, one of the largest mobile networks in Europe. Much to many Brit’s chagrin, the iPhone will remain largely unchanged for its UK release. There’s no 3G support, but O2 has cobbled together a deal with Cloud (one of the largest wi-fi providers in the UK) for 7,500 free wi-fi spots around UK as well as growing EDGE support (just 30% right now) to make an acceptable mobile web device.
The price for the iPhone in the UK will be £269 or about $537 including UK’s Value Added Tax. In most places the VAT is about 17.5%, so the untaxed price for UK’s iPhone would be about $443 for the 8GB model. Then you have to sign up for an 18 month contract with O2 for monthly tariffs of £35, £45, or £55 depending on the plan you want.
For minute by minute transcriptions and live blogging of the event check out Engadget or TechCrunch UK’s coverage. Both sources have some great quotes and information on the big announcement as well as pages of comments that are always entertaining and informative.
However, folks may want to hold their horses on buying an iPhone straight out of the gate. According to The Street, Apple is planning to release a 3G iPhone sometime next year; possibly as soon as the first quarter. Along with the much faster 3G capability, the new-and-improved iPhone may include GPS capability. Either way, I’d wait a bit before investing in an iPhone, if you haven’t already, at least wait until MacWorld 2008 to see what the Jobster has up his sleeve.