14 DAY TRIAL // O2 Ireland announced that it will officially bring Apple's iPhone for Ireland's mobile users, to offer them one of the best mobile Internet experiences, the famous Multi-touch interface and Apple's pioneering software. The handset will be available across Ireland exclusively via O2 and Carphone Warehouse retail stores, starting March 14, 2008. The 8 GB model will be sold for 399 Euros ($600), while the 16 GB version will cost 499 Euros ($750). O2 will also come with three new iPhone tariffs, starting from 45 Euros, all of which include a 1GB data bundle, anytime minutes and texts.
"The iPhone is changing the way people use their mobiles forever, and we're thrilled to offer it to O2 customers in Ireland," said Danuta Gray, O2 Ireland CEO. "Our strategy in Ireland continues to be to bring our customers the very best innovations and experiences in mobile communications."
The activation process for users who sign up to iPhone tariffs is simple, says O2, as the SIM will be activated immediately in-store. Once at home, customers will have to sync the device to their Mac or PC, download iTunes' latest version, follow the activation steps and the iPhone will be ready to use. Once the handset activated, users can sync all of their phone numbers, contact information, email accounts, web browser bookmarks, calendars, photos, music, podcasts or TV shows, in the same manner they do when they sync their iPods with iTunes.
All in all, iPhone's release is definitely great news for Ireland, and if Jonathan Swift (one of the country's most famous writers) would still be alive today, he would surely re-write Gulliver's Travels to make the iPhone Gulliver's best friend. But old Jonathan has left our world a few centuries ago, so the iPhone will have to be happy with normal Irish users. And, since as of 2005 Ireland has a mobile phone penetration rate of 100%, there are almost 5 million potential iPhone users.
O2 is the second largest carrier in Ireland, with about 1.6 million customers, being behind Vodafone, which managed to attract about 2.1 million subscribers. Most probably, the iPhone release will bring new customers to O2, but it will not be enough to surpass Vodafone's subscribers base. Or will it?