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Apple Ad Banned in Britain, Black Friday Sales Have Begun

Aviv — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:54:08 +0000

UK Bans Another Apple iPhone 3G Commercial

While not the first time, another iPhone 3G commercial has been banned from ever airing in Britain because of misleading claims about network speed and performance. Back in August the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) of the UK pulled an Apple iPhone 3G add claiming it “over-hyped the Internet capabilities of the smart phone.” Similarly, UK’s ASU has pulled this one as well. Apple UK has defended their commercial by claiming the commercial to be “relative rather than absolute in nature,” while explaining that they had “clearly positioned the content of the ad as a comparison of the new 3G iPhone with its 2G predecessor.”

“Apple also added that “the average viewer was a mobile phone user and would have understood that a device’s performance varied due to several factors.” Plus, they included the disclaimer “network performance will vary by location,” which the company said underlined the potential for performance variations.” (via paidContent.org)

Black Friday Deals Have Begun

MacRumors explains how to sift through the mountain of Black Friday deals and rebates. Apple has not officially begun offering discounted products, though historically not much more than a $100 discount has been given on a few certain models.

MacMall has announced their Black Friday sale which will runs from now until midnight P.T. on Friday, November 28th. Last year’s MacMall sale delivered some of the largest discounts available online. This year, however, MacMall faces stiff competition from BestBuy who is offering a number of $100-$150 instant discounts on Macs. This compares favorably to MacMall which tends to combine both instant discounts and rebates.

iPhone 3G Comes Equipped With Photos of Factory Worker

Dave — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 23:57:42 +0000

While we have previously covered a story that depicted photographs of the factory assembly line already loaded onto an out of the box iPhone 3G, it seems as though it has happened again. Only this time there’s a twist.

After bringing home the new device, a UK iPhone customer was shocked to find pictures, that appear to be intentionally taken, of a female factory worker. One of the photographs had even been set as the wallpaper on the device’s home screen.

MacRumors forum user, markm49uk, was the lucky recipient of the ‘deluxe’ edition iPhone 3G saying, “Not sure if this is or is not the ‘norm’ but I just received my brand new iPhone here in the UK and once it had been activated on iTunes I found that the home screen (the screen you can personalise with a photo) already had a photo set against it !!!! It would appear that someone on the production line was having a bit of fun.”

O2 may soon lose UK exclusivity to Orange

Dave — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:04:39 +0000

Reports have been coming in that O2 may loose their exclusivity as the UK’s sole iPhone 3G provider. So who is set to steal their thunder?

The folks at Omio are citing word from a “very, VERY credible source” that French operator Orange may soon take the reigns as early as October. While O2 did win out the original deal for the UK, Orange managed to snag up a few countries of their own, proving that future deals with Apple should not be difficult. And as we all know, single carrier exclusivity has not been mandated.

“The possibility of o2/Apple exclusivity being a limited time offer due to lackluster sales of the first iPhone in the UK. Apple playing so nice and o2 giving phones out for free is a far cry from £269 for an 8GB a year ago, there had to be a catch to them delivering arguably the best value iPhone 3G deals in the world. Three months for o2 as the sole vendor, then all bets are off? Apple wants to sell as many phones as possible, an exclusive carrier is not in their best interests.”

While O2’s iPhone 3G launch was seen as a great success, the past few weeks have proved to be a strain as stock has remained scarce…at best. Yet we know that supplies will increase, eventually, and O2 will most certainly need to focus all of their efforts on maintaining an adequate cache as there exclusivity may soon cease to exist. Although, if everyone that wants an iPhone 3G, has one by October, O2 will still come out on top, right? We’ll see.

[Update] O2 website hit with 13,000 orders per second.

Dave — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:30:15 +0000

While the O2 website crash has made recent headlines, details have finally emerged surrounding the cause of the meltdown. In an official reply from O2, the carrier noted that “Demand for the iPhone 3G is staggering…we were experiencing 13,000 orders per second being placed.”

Now that is demand on an unprecedented scale. If we do the math on that, it would be 780,000 orders per minute. While the subsidized cost for the iPhone 3G can be as little as free with select O2 plans, if we average the cost at $200, that would be $156 million in iPhone sales per minute. Simply unbelievable.

If the estimate of 500,000 iPhones being shipped to the UK for Friday’s launch is accurate, that would equate to a sellout in about 38 seconds. Some believe that O2 may have handled the buying process improperly, but it looks like both O2 and Apple will undeniably come out on top, as they have already sold out.

O2 website crashes due to high demand.

Craig — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:32:12 +0000

“O2 customers determined to get their hands on Apple’s new 3G iPhone caused the network’s website to crash this morning as they rushed to pre-order the new device. ”

“Pre-orders opened at 8am this morning, and within an hour the website had buckled under what an O2 spokesman described as phenomenal demand for the new iPhone, which goes on sale on Friday. ”

“O2 said that 200,000 people had already registered their interest in the device online, but when pre-ordering – which will allow applicants to have the device delivered – began this morning, the site experienced some difficulties.”

“Unfortunately we have had a few problems this morning – there was an unprecedented demand at 8am when the pre-ordering went live, but the site is working again now,” an O2 spokesman said at lunchtime. ”

“O2, which is the sole network on which the iPhone is available in the UK, said that the initial order of new iPhones had been split roughly in half between pre-orders, which can only be made online, and stores, which will begin selling the device on Friday. The company declined to specify how many phones it had ordered.”

“Separately, Carphone Warehouse, which also began taking pre-orders on its website today, said that the number of people who had registered their interest in the 3G iPhone prior to release was ten times greater than for the old device. It declined to release details of the number of applicants. ”

Additional Thoughts: If there was any possibility of being able to pre-register through AT&T for the iPhone 3G, I would have signed up immediately. Unfortunately, we Americans have not been graced with this luxury, so I would suggest that if you do have this option, take them up on it ASAP.

Full article here.

Apple may be limiting the UK’s iPhone 3G supply.

Dave — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:24:06 +0000

According to ElectricPig, inside sources may be suggesting that Apple will be limiting the supply of iPhone 3Gs to the UK, as their reputation for cracking the device increases.

An official iPhone retailer has informed the site that less than 15% of iPhones sold after the most recent price drop that had appeared on O2’s network, the majority of which had been hacked for use with rival carriers or sold abroad.

“According to our source, the UK will receive a very limited stock of the iPhone 3G as a result, especially in its 16GB guise, which explains O2’s rationing of the next-gen handsets. We’re also told the white version may not make it to the UK at all, as Apple chooses to send its stock to less risky nations.”

There may be further bad news for the people of the UK, as the 8GB may now be priced at £349 for a pay as you go plan, which would be disappointingly more expensive than O2’s previously leaked price.

UK iPhone interest soars.

Dave — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:13:05 +0000

Telegraph UK reports that consumer interest in the next-gen iPhone has nearly quadrupled since the release of its 2G predecessor. With all of the hype and anticipation surrounding it, it is certainly not hard to see why.

According to O2, Apple’s exclusive UK iPhone provider, more than 130,000 people have pre-registered their interest in the device. This is up from 35,000 who pre-registered their interest in the device between the time of its unveiling on September 18 last year and November 9, when it went on sale in the UK.

“Many consumers were put off by the £269 initial price for the first iPhone, so Apple has allowed O2 to heavily subsidize the new handset for contract customers, giving it away free on some contracts when it goes on sale on July 11.” via Telegraph.

O2 chief exec, Ronan Dunne, noted that the price of the original iPhone had been “an issue for some segments of the market,” which may very well have been the case globally. The price drop will be perhaps the most important enticement for many, as a number of international carriers have announced further subsidies bringing the price down even more with contractual service plans.