International Archives

Monday, August 25, 2008 -- 11:39 p.m. -- at my desk

3.5 million iPhones sold in Russia over the next 2 years.

OK, makes sense, right? We already know how hot the iPhone has been on the black market over there, so why not a lofty goal like that?

Ummm, maybe because the average sale price for an iPhone in Russia is expected to be $24,000 roubles? That's $990 in American dollars.

And that, callers, is a LOT of money.

Now keep in mind, these numbers aren't Apple's estimates. They are simply market sources who spoke with Reuters. But will that many people spend that much money on an iPhone? Apparently, according to these market sources ... the must-have status symbol that's making its march around the world isn't going to skip over Russia.

Here's a link to the complete article. Very interesting reading.

What do you think? Any Russian callers out there who can shed some light on spending that much for an iPhone. Apparently, the market sources aren't even concerned about the black market. Fascinating.

Thanks for calling.

Sunday, August 24, 2008 -- 3:12 p.m. -- at my desk

Just as Apple promised, the iPhone 3G is now available in 22 more countries effective this past Friday.

More bars, more places indeed. And while that's technically just AT&T, I'm going to borrow it.

Here's where:

Twenty-two additional countries join the list of places where you can buy the iPhone 3G. They include:

Argentina
Chile
Colombia
Czech Republic
Ecuador
El Salvador
Estonia
Greece
Guatemala
Honduras
Hungary
India
Liechtenstein
Macau
Paraguay
Peru
the Philippines
Poland
Romania
Singapore
Slovakia
Uruguay

Obviously, with each country being different, if you go to this section of the Apple Web site, you'll find a list of all the countries and a Web page with information specific to that country. You'll also find a list of where the iPhone is still to come, and that list features:

Botswana
Brazil
Cameroon
C. African Republic
Croatia
Dominican Republic
Egypt
Equatorial Guinea
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Ivory Coast
Jamaica
Jordan
Kenya
Latvia
Lithuania
Madagascar
Mali
Malta
Mauritius
Nicaragua
Niger
Panama
Qatar
Senegal
South Africa
Turkey
Venezuela

And it was rumored the other day that Russia is getting on board soon. The amazing march around the world continues.

If you are in any of these countries, I would love to hear from you ... and I know that the strong international community we have now (57 countries and counting, which actually includes countries that are not on either list) would love to hear your perspective as well.

Thanks for calling.

Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008 -- 3 p.m. -- at my desk

Just a quick reminder to anyone out there in countries currently without iPhones.

50 countries are soon to join the iPhone club, including a large portion of Latin and South America and India ... and I want to make sure that everyone knows that I'll be covering your countries just as I cover all the other ones.

So if you know someone in those countries or if you are reading from one, please check in here at iPTIB ... get to know the community and ask any questions you might have. Remember, I answer all the comments and we always all have a say.

Plus, this is a great time to sign up for iPTIB on Twitter -- we're closing in on an amazing 400 followers, so sign up now at www.twitter.com/iptib.

Thanks for calling.

Please show your support for iPTIB's petition to Steve Jobs and help spread the word so we can have maximum reach. Click here and take a moment to Digg. Thank you.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008 -- 2:39 p.m. -- at my desk

While perusing the AP wires today doing my "other job" I came across this interesting story titled "Japan cautious in iPhone's bid for world dominance."

And basically, it's what it sounds like ... Japan, long known for its advanced place in all things electronics and gadgets is taking a careful approach when it comes to the excitement of the iPhone.

Here are some highlights from the story:

* Young people in Japan take for granted the ability to share phone numbers, e-mail addresses and other contact information by beaming it from one phone to another over infrared connections. Being without those instantaneous exchanges would be the death knell on the Japanese dating circuit (iPhone has bluetooth, but no infared).

* The iPhone lacks other technology long available on Japanese cell phones, such as digital TV broadcasts, a built-in camcorder, voice recognition and an "electronic wallet" function.

* Japanese cell phone customers also might struggle with the fact that using the iPhone requires both hands. The Japanese style of texting relies mainly on a thumb—so much so that experienced users are dubbed "oyayubi zoku" or "thumb tribe."

* Also missing from Steve Jobs' much-praised design: a hole in the handset for hanging trinkets. Westerners may scoff at them as childish, but having them is a common social practice in Japan.

* For all these reasons, analysts say it's unclear whether the iPhone will catch on with the masses in Japan or end up a fad with the computer-savvy niche.

* Softbank Corp., the Japanese carrier of the iPhone, said it sold out of the devices on the first day. But it did not reveal how many had been available. One clue comes from GfK Marketing Services Japan Ltd., which said Softbank sold half of all mobile phones in Japan that day, up from a typical 19 percent.

This morning, I got a comment from the first person that I know of from Japan, so if you are out there ... or if there are other Japanese callers here ... please leave a comment. I would love to hear more about your thoughts regarding the iPhone. Of course, you don't have to be from Japan to share your thoughts.

Thanks for calling.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008 -- 9 a.m. -- at my desk

Yesterday, I received a great comment from caller Maique from Portugal, who sent me the story of purchasing an iPhone in Portugal.

I thought it would make for an interesting post.

So here's what Maique had to say. I think it's really nicely done and it shows that the problems we all had here in the States were the same across the pond.

There's even a photo that shows a store in Portugal, courtesy of ricardo and zone41.net

Thanks so much for taking the time to post this ... and please, continue to share your thoughts about your experiences.

Thanks for calling.

-------------------------------------------------
I'm following your blog for a little while, enjoying it immensely. If i may, i will shortly describe my experience getting the iphone in portugal, on one of the dealers stores (still no physical space in portugal, just the online version).

i arrived at the store about 30 mins after it opened, and there was only one other person inside, an elder man, trying to sort some issue with calls being diverted when he tried calling his wife...

this took around five minutes to sort, and i was ready to get my iphone. the salesperson was very nice, but clearly had no clue. a lot of boxes, cardboard ones, unmarked, were still lying around, and they had another load stored in closed shelves.

on this particular operator, you had to pay a fee (50 euros) to have your phone placed on-hold, and we got a call confirming the delivery of the iphone on the store we chose.

she proceeded to find mine, and she did, but i wondered about the ones on the floor, and the rest, still on the way... after that i signed a paper where i said i had got it, paid what was left to pay (a lot - 16GB black sells for 609 euros - around 968 usd) and she tried to activate it.

the store's itunes was not updated so, after asking if i had it installed at home, she said i could go home and activate there, instead of waiting there.

there were five people waiting behind me, only this one person in charge of the whole thing, on the 11th! truth be told, only one was waiting for some info on the iphone, and there was none around. the nice lady printed three pages on the store's printer, basically the operator's website, and handed them over, after carefully stapling them together, maybe trying to make them look a bit more 'professional'.

i went home, activated, used it and fell in love.

i then tried to update but it was getting a bit late for us, and i had the issues everyone talked about for hours, after the shops opened on your side of the ocean. bricked for some hours, mobileme issues, the whole thing. i suffered along with everybody else..

this is getting long (sorry) so i'll just end by saying that, for me, i was the only excited person in there: i was first in line to get the iphone, on the day it was being released!

and there was no line, no waiting, no tv crew, no party, no one was twitting about it, or anything like that... just a regular person, getting a not-so-regular phone.

Thursday, July 3, 2008 -- 12:30 p.m. -- on my couch

I don't know how to say city hall in Swedish, but the Swedes were successful in fighting it, according to MacWorld's iPhone Central blog.

Telia Sonera's plans weren't exactly getting rave reviews -- I mean one of them costs $145 a month and comes with 1,000 minutes, 1,000 text messages and just shy of 1GB of data.

So because of complaints aplenty, Telia Sonera is letting Swedish consumers keep their existing cell plans and still use it for a new iPhone 3G. And then you can spend a little more and add unlimited data.

Here's a link to MacWorld's entry.

And, apparently, consumers next door in Norway aren't taking their iPhone 3G rules sitting down and they are also fighting back.

Suck on that, Rogers. You're next.

Thanks for calling.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008 -- 8:30 p.m. -- at my desk

Boy, that headline's a stretch. I realize that. I want to change it. Nahhhh. I'm keeping it :-D

It's tough to keep up these days ... looks like the iPhone is heading to even more countries.

Here's the shortest and simplest press release ever from TeliaSonera:

TeliaSonera today announced it has signed an agreement with Apple to bring the iPhone to Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia later this year.

There you have it. 7 more countries. What's that now, like 300? It seems that way, anyhow.

Anyone in these countries out there and on the blog? Please write to me.

Thanks for calling.

Monday, May 12, 2008 -- 1:32 a.m. -- on my couch

According to Reuters, Singapore Telecommunications and associates will bring the iPhone to Singapore, India, Australia and the Philippines later this year. According to an announcement Monday by SingTel, Southeast Asia's largest phone company, it, Bharti Airtel, Globe Telecom and Australia's Optus have already signed the agreement with Apple.

There are still some big countries left to announce, but soon the iPhone will have a legitimate home around the world.

I know we have at least one regular contributor here from Singapore who is going to be pumped beyond belief about this news. You know who you are.

If you are from any of these areas -- or if you aren't -- I have just signed an agreement with my comments area and it's open for business now.

Thanks for calling.

Saturday, May 10, 2008 -- 1:26 a.m. -- on my couch

Good news for folks in Ireland who want an 8GB iPhone right now ... following in the footsteps of O2 UK, O2 Ireland is dropping the price €100 from €399 to €299.

Of course, the 3G iPhone is coming very, very soon ... presumably to Ireland, but that's not known for sure. So the question is a hard one ... pay a little less for some iPhone love now or wait patiently for what should be the 3G iPhone and pay an unknown price.

It's not an easy decision to make, but at least know that there's some good news for the current crop of 8GB iPhones.

Thanks for calling.

Friday, March 14, 2008 -- 12:03 p.m. -- on my couch

Typing that headline made me crave buttermilk pancakes and strawberry syrup.

Hmmm. Strange.

Anyhow, as reported earlier, today is iPhone launch day in Ireland and Austria.

So welcome Ireland and welcome Austria to an incredible club. Welcome to club iPhone.

Each country is a little different. Here's a quick overview and links to the respective Web sites for more information.

Ireland (o2)
TARIFF: €45 to €100
MINUTES: 175 to 700
SMS: 100 to 250
DATA CAP: 1GB
PLAN: 18-month plan required
WEBSITE: www.o2.ie

Austria (T-Mobile)
TARIFF: €39 (classic) to €55 (supreme)
MINUTES: 1,000 to 4,000
SMS: Varies according to plan - up to 1,000 included
DATA CAP: 3GB
PLAN: 24-month plan required
WEBSITE: http://iphone.t-mobile.at/

Definite differences between the two countries.

I know we already have Irish readers, and I thank you. And I welcome anyone else from Ireland and Austria that wants to become part of the strongest international iPhone community in the world. That's right here at iPTIB. Feel free to contact me via any of the methods on the right rail for more information, or just leave a comment here. Remember, I respond to EVERY SINGLE COMMENT so if you say something, check back because I will definitely answer you.

Unfortunately, SMS alerts are not currently available outside of the United States.

Thanks for calling.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008 -- 1:28 p.m. -- at my desk

According to Dow Jones and Austrian newspaper Der Standard on Wednesday, the iPhone will be introduced in Austria by T-Mobile on Friday.

T-Mobile Austria wouldn't comment on the story, but Der Standard reports that there will be two models -- 8GB and 16GB and that the prices will be EUR399 and EUR499 respectively. Each require a 2-year contract and the minimum monthly fee will be somewhere between EUR50 and EUR60.

So we'll see whether or not this report is accurate, but of course Dow Jones has a good record.

I'll keep you posted. I'm not sure if we have any Austrian callers, but I'd love to.

Thanks for calling.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007 -- 6:29 p.m. -- at my desk

This whole thing with the big o2 outage in the U.K. today got me thinking about all my international callers. Apparently, we have a lot of them.

And if you read through the posts on the U.K. outage you'll see that thousands of miles and an ocean can't stop the lines of iPhone communication here at iPhone, Therefore I Blog.

So whether you are in the U.K. or France or Germany -- heck, even if you are in New Zealand and are wishing for an iPhone -- there's a place for you here at iPTIB.

Please let me know if there's anything I can do for you.

Thanks for calling.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007 -- 5:27 p.m. -- at my desk

I have just been informed that visual voicemail will not be immediately available on the iPhone in France.

According to Orange, the feature won' t be implemented until January. No word on why the feature isn't ready, but for now it's regular old voicemail for French iPhone users.

As you can see from the picture, it exists.

I'll let you know if I hear anything different or updated, of course.

Thanks for calling.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007 -- 2:30 a.m. -- on my couch

Thursday's iPhone day in France. And sacre bleu, there will be locked and unlocked versions.

The price for the locked version and 2 year contract will be the usual 399 euros (about $594). But like in Germany, Orange has to sell an unlocked version. While the cost is still a mystery, Orange's head honcho Didier Lombard told Europe 1 radio that the amount will be "significantly lower than 999 euros (about $1,486). T-Mobile charges 999 euros for an unlocked iPhone.

So we'll see if the French will open their arms to the iPhone ... it hasn't been going over as well as Apple would like in the UK and Germany is selling an average amount, but certainly far from spectacular.

Me? I'd love nothing more than to be in Paris on Thursday, cappuccino in one hand, iPhone in the other and croissant in my mouth.

Anyone from France reading that plans to buy an iPhone? Or pass it up? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks for calling.

Thursday, November 8, 2007 -- 11:02 a.m. -- on my couch

Attention iPhone fans in the U.K. and Germany: If you are going to the launch in your country, please e-mail us photos at skleinberg@tribune.com

iPhone, Therefore I Blog has one of the most popular iPhone galleries in America and we'd like to extend that to you. So send us a photo of you in line, or a photo of you with your brand new iPhone. Or, just send us a photo of anything and a few words about it to the above e-mail address and I'll get it posted in our gallery for the world to see.

Looking forward to meeting you ... and seeing you ... even if it's not in person.

Thanks for calling.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007 -- 7:44 p.m. -- at my desk

**UPDATE: If anyone knows of any hugely popular mobile phone sites in Europe, could you pass that info along? I'd love to contact them about linking to us. Any help I can get to spread the word over there would be most helpful. Thanks!**

Friday is a huge day for our friends in Germany and England. The iPhone goes on sale at just after 6 p.m. local time.

I wanted to take this opportunity to let all of our international readers know (we have many) that you'll be very well represented from this side of the pond.

This is a global iPhone community, so if news breaks that's specific to iPhones in Europe, you'll read about it here just like you'll read about everything happen stateside. I don't want anyone to think that this site is skewed toward America, because it really isn't. I'll provide information useful to everyone, no matter where you are logging on from.

So if you are in Europe, or in a country that doesn't yet have an iPhone, feel free to tell your friends about this site and get them in the habit of checking here early and often for the latest iPhone news. You won't find more up-to-date news on any other site, and you won't find my brand of opinion, humor and insight anywhere else.

And, we already have one of the best iPhone photo galleries in the world. Let's make it better with photos from across the ocean.

And as always, I want to know your thoughts ... what do you like and what don't you like? What do you want to see more of? Less of?

Thanks for calling.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007 -- 2:33 p.m. -- at my desk

If you live in France, you won't have to hack and jailbreak your way to an unlocked iPhone.

Orange will include the key if you pay a premium.

Apparently, French law doesn't allow mobile phones to be sold solely by contract. So locked and unlocked phones are required. You can pay less and get a locked phone or pay more to get the whole shebang.

There's been no details yet on any pricing in France other than the price of the locked version (399 Euros/$565). It will be interesting to see how the price of an unlocked phone plays into the monthly fees for cellular and data service.

Merci for calling.

Friday, October 5, 2007 -- 4:27 p.m. -- on my couch

Sounds good, doesn't it? Well, only the latter one is good and it depends on your point of view.

According to Marketwatch.com, which cites French daily Les Echos, disagreement between Apple and Orange, the company poised to score the exclusive contract in France for the iPhone, could prevent the iPhone from connecting with French customers this year.

"The risk we're evaluating this week is that Apple crosses France off," Les Echos quotes a source at Orange as saying.

Les Echos says the sticking point is a French law that would require the iPhone to be sold with and without contracts. While there is an option in the states for a pay as you go plan with the iPhone, apparently it's not that cut and dry on that side of the Atlantic.

Meanwhile, BlackBerry sales aren't being soured by the iPhone's success.

Research in Motion said Thursday night that profits from its smartphones have doubled in the first financial quarter of going head to head with the iPhone. RIM said it had shipped about 3 million BlackBerry units worldwide compared to Apple's claim of 1 million iPhones.

In my mind, this isn't a big deal. BlackBerry users aren't iPhone users. I'll be careful because I know a lot of BlackBerry users ... but those folks could gain one full level of coolness if they upgrade to an iPhone.

What do you think about today's fruit salad? Sound off about Apple, Orange and Blackberrys in the comments.

Thanks for calling.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007 -- 5:39 a.m. -- my couch

This just in from London. And if you are reading this out loud, you should use your best British accent.

Looks like the U.K. gets its turn with iPhone giddyness (the offiical word of today is giddyness) on 9/11 (that's November 9th for all you folks in the states).

Steve Jobs made the announcement this morning at 4 a.m. Central Time live from London. The carrier will be O2.

And while several questions remain unanswered at this early time in the day, a few things of interest to start:

* The movies and photos on apple.com/uk all show O2-UK as the carrier and everything is updated for that side of the pond (as it should be). The phone ringer is distinctively British, and there's no more Johnny Appleseed. He's been replaced by John Anderson and Susan Park.

* This time around, the "finger" hangs up on Yo Sushi in London instead of a San Francisco Starbucks. You'd think someone would talk to those folks!

* And it looks like we'll all be waiting even longer for a 3G (high-speed cell network) iPhone. Jobs said that even the UK iphone will use EDGE and fall back to Wi-Fi where available. Europeans have embraced 3G much faster than we have here stateside, so a slower cellular network could cause an even bigger backlash than it has here. We'll have to watch that ... I can't imagine Londoners using EDGE, so Apple might not start as a favourite right out of the gate.

* Interestingly, folks who sign up for iPhone service will receive free use of Wi-Fi at more than 7,500 hotspots, which will be operated by The Cloud. Obviously, that's in response to EDGE's slowness.

* Monthly O2 service plans will cost £35 ($69), £45 ($89) and £55 ($109) and include unlimited data. Activation will be via iTunes.

I'll update if I get some more useful information. As far as other European countries, announcements are coming soon I'm sure. It will be interesting to see what kinds of roaming agreements are made.

If you have questions, send them my way. If I can answer them, you know I will.

Thanks for calling.