Why the iPhone Will Disappoint in the UK

The first reactions on the iPhone's release in the UK have already started appearing and show a rather gloomy perspective for Apple. Ovum analysts consider that the iPhone is "simply inadequate" for the UK market and give some strong reasons for why things stand this way.

The European iPhone is just the same as that released in the US, although everybody was expecting a 3G enabled one, even a 16 GB memory by the more optimistic ones. O2 is currently working on ways to upgrade its GSM network with EDGE and promised a 30 percent coverage of this service on the handset's launch, with hopes of growth in the future. that's an incredibly low figure that will surely prove to be a problem especially for the new iPhone owners that live in the rural areas.

WiFi could compensate for the lack of EDGE in many areas, considering the fact that O2 provides this service at a larger scale, but will still manage to be a solution only for those living in urban areas. "We think that this is simply inadequate and will frustrate a lot of users who take their iPhone to their parents' house in, for example Cornwall, at Christmas and say "look how great this is for web browsing", said Ovum's director of wireless intelligence, Martin Garner.

Apple has just released the iPhone in the UK too during a London event that had only a slight impact. The handset will be available from now on in this country too, for the price of 269 pounds on 3 new O2 tariff plans set at GBP35, GBP45 and GBP55 per month over a minimum 18-month contract. All plans include unlimited data and will also include use of 7,500 WiFi hotspots from Cloud with seamless hand-over. The iPhone will be available for purchase starting with the 9th of November.