Ok it is official.

Here are the prices for the German T-Mobile iPhone, from what you get they are quite similar to other service providers, but the price is really steep:

Complete M:

• €49 per month
• 100 minutes
• 40 SMS
• data flatrate for EDGE (speed drop to 64 kBit/s after 200 MB of usage)
• use the T-Mobile Wi-Fi hotspot network for free

Complete L:

• €69 per month
• 200 minutes
• 150 SMS
• data flatrate for EDGE (speed drop to 64 kBit/s after 2 GB of usage)
• use the T-Mobile Wi-Fi hotspot network for free

Complete XL:

• €89 per month
• 1000 minutes
• 300 SMS
• data flatrate for EDGE (speed drop to 64 kBit/s after 5 GB of usage)
• use the T-Mobile Wi-Fi hotspot network for free

Although they are named “complete” they are totally not! There is some very expensive pricing going on at T-Mobile. All other minutes exceeding the included minutes are billed at € 0,39 which is also a lot considering the fact that there are prepaid services in Germany that offer the minute at €0,09. When you don’t use all of your free minutes these are dropped at the end of the month.

I have also added these to the international iPhone price comparison chart.

Just like in the regular iTunes store you can use your iPhone to buy music. Do do this you will have to setup your existing iTunes music store account on the iPhone. After that you can browse through albums and songs. Like other music store purchases each songs costs 99 cents. Before you buy Apple allows you to listen to 30 seconds of the song to make sure it is the song you want to pay for.

After you have bought the music on the iPhone itself you can synch the music files back to your computer and they are available in iTunes.

The only big complaint I have is that I cannot imagine downloading music over a crappy and slow 2G Internet connection on a phone. This will take forever, I’m telling you!

Apart from the network speed connection the build in speakers sound rather rickety and loud, so it is no fun sharing your music with your friends through the iPhone.

This has been around the block since the first introduction of the iPhone. It does not offer UMTS support. Although users are encouraged to use applications like Google Maps that are based on network connection there is not the latest standard in data connection implemented in the phone! iPhone users have to stick with the slower rather old GPRS connection that is really outdated since years.

Rumors say that UMTS will be available on the iPhone that is introduced in Europe later on this year. This might be true as the network coverage for UMTS connection is better than in the US.

We had the discussion regarding the use of the iPhone as as smart-phone. One of the major features of a full fledged smart-phone is document editing. You can receive emails from you corporate network that contain documents like .doc word files or .pdf files that you are supposed to check out. Through integrated software like Pocket Office from Microsoft or Quick Office for Symbian OS you can even create new Word files, Excel sheets or Power Point presentation when you are on the go.

Unfortunately Apple has not implemented their Office Suite that is available for Mac OSX in the iPhone. You can’t deal with all your favorite file types and really do something useful work related on the go.
This can really be a killer application on a device with the many connectivity options like the iPhone. With the nice virtual keyboard you could easily process Word files, Spreadsheets and other work related files.

Do you think the iPhone is an alternative to the Blackberry/Crackberry or other smart-phones?

As the iPhone will be available in Europe from November 9th on and T-mobile and O² have been announced as the “official” partners for Germany and Great Britain I looked into the prices a little deeper and created a comparison page for different European countries.

It is based on US-Dollar as the iPhone’s and Apple’s “home market” is the US, I converted the other currencies to US-Dollar so it will be easier to compare.

The most obvious difference that spots the readers eye will be the initial price for the iPhone, in Great Britain people have to pay 34% more than in the US! In Germany it is even 38%!!

I will keep updating this page as soon as there are other prices throughout Europe available.

Apple has setup a special page for all those early iPhone buyers that complained about the $200 price drop. You will have to enter your serial number and phone number and they will SMS you an access code to redeem your $100 coupon.

It’s good that Apple comes up with this sollution that quick, but I would have rather not seen image of Apple kicking their true fans and early adopters in the nuts by the big price drop. Or give a $200 rebate to make everybody happy.

We are all used to custom ring tones on our phones. Although they are sometimes very annoying it is a feature that every modern phone has today.
With the first release of the iPhone and the corresponding iTunes version there was no way to grab your favorite piece of music from iTunes and set it as a ring tone.

Now there is a new version of iTunes on the market where you can select a song you have bought through the iTunes music store and cut 30 seconds out of the song to use it as a ring tone? Sounds good! Well, we have forgotten to mention that you will have to pay an extra 99 Cents to do this! What? It’s only a software thing, select 30 seconds, crop the rest of the song and save it as an extra file. Why does Apple charge for this service? It can be done with any mp3 file within 1 minute!

The iPhone is a smart-phone. Like other smart-phone devices it does calendar, email and other PIM applications. It has Wi-Fi and other network connection options. Apart from the features its price tag is close to other smart-phones from Nokia, Sony Ericcsson or a Blackberry. With these features and the expensive price one could expect that the target audience of the iPhone is not only the casual iPod user but also the business user that needs the PIM stuff to work on the go.

There is one major issue regarding the business user and their iPhone complaints. Most business users are connected to a corporate network. They use combinations of hard and software to run their services like Microsoft Exchange servers or Lotus Notes. These networks have standardized interface for mobile devices so you are able to connect to your corporate network while on the go. Access files, your personal calendar, your contacts and so on. Just like you were at your desk in the office.

Unfortunately the iPhone is not able to do that. We can all understand how business user will complain about the iPhone when they are getting addicted by the nice phone but are not able to use all its data connection features because Apple is crippling its functionality and not opening the operating system (Link to other post) to other manufacturer to program software or plug ins.

To come up with this iPhone complaint we have to look left and right. Ask all the existing phone manufacturers: Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericcsson and all the other it is easier to build up a good framework/system and then settle your applications on top of this.
We have the Nokia has the Symbian Operating System, Motorola has their own and SE as well. They all first established an Operating System and then gradually applied software to it. Symbian even goes one step further, they encourage 3rd party developers to produce software that can be installed on the system. A good way to establish an Operating System in a highly competitive market.

Apple thinks different.
They punch out a phone with all kinds of features and software pre-installed with no real intention to open themselves for 3rd party application developers. The phone features them self are really going to the background on the iPhone, its more the gadget features that promote the phone, that might be one of the reasons there are so many iPhone complaints.

What do you think: should the phone be the focus or the features around it?

How could Apple drop the price for the top 8GB model of the iPhone by $200?
What about the true fans? Apple had always the myth to it that it was a step ahead of the competition, which is in some respect true. That means that there must and will be always people that are willing to pay for this as most of the times being faster than the competition also means you are more expensive.

These early adopters get a kick in the ass by the price drop of the iPhone and they will complain, which is fine.
Ok, there is this offer that you will get a $100 coupon that you can use in the Apple stores, but is that a compensation? No! $100 will never compensate the frustration and disregard these early adopters will feel by getting kicked in the ass by a company they truly love.

Do you agree Are you one of those early adopter? Let me know and share your thoughts!