iPhone Heading to Europe

Following the American June release of Apple's new iPhone, Apple has now begun to finalize deals with European carriers that will bring the phone to the European market. Apple has currently finalized three deals in Europe; in the UK, France, and Germany. The carriers they have negotiated with are O2 in the UK, Orange in France, and T-Mobile in Germany, so these countries can expect iPhone service soon.

The unique thing about these negotiations, however, are the terms of the agreement. Similarly to the American-Apple/AT&T relationship, Apple had the upper-hand in the negotiations. As a result, they have created a deal with these European carriers where they are actually receiving 10% of revenues from data and voice transfers. This type of agreement is new to the industry, and people are expecting more of these kinds of deals for the future.

Apple iPhone released!

So the time has come when we all have the ability to walk down to our nearest Apple or Cingular store and purchase an iPhone. The Apple iPhone was released last Friday and boy did it receive red carpet attention with all the news coverage and T.V specials that were set aside for the iPhone. The phone did have its problems however, as it seems At&t thought that only a limited amount of people would actually try to activate the iPhone thus resulting in them not bulking up the system. The outcome of this mistake was an activation time of about 39 hours for some, about an hour or so what anyone who bought a $600 phone would want to wait. The reviews as expected were positive with the only bad review steaming from the activation issue that some had experienced. Overall I'm excited that the iPhone was released since it'll probably raise the bar on what is expected and will drive other phone carriers and manufacturers to up the bar in their production.

Cheers,

John

T-Mobile Launches HotSpot@home with Nokia 6086.

T-mobile has launced hotspot @ Home in an effort to promote Wifi/GSM handoffs. What this system basically does is allows users to utilize a Wifi network, via a router, in their own household while saving on voice minutes and actually only using data. This is a neat feature since some of us complain about the reception that T-Mobile offers at our homes or work, we now have a solution. The system works off of a WiFi router and while you're in the area of the router you'll be able to use data rather then voice and when you get out of the area it automatically changes over to GSM without actually charging you for the GSM use. This is the first time a company successfully launched such a service and I'm glad it's T-Mobile since I am one of the few that suffer from poor coverage in house. Great job T-Mobile and keep up the good work.

Cheers,

John

HTC Touch launced in Germany.

The much anticipated HTC Touch has been released in Germany and to everyone's surprise it's not carrier specific. It seems as though the top three European carriers ( Vodafone, O2, and T-Mobile) will all their shot at the HTC touch. The Touch is stated to be HTC's answer to the anticipated Apple iPhone and it seems as though it has a pretty solid chance given the fact that Apple is excluding some applications on their iPhone such as instant messaging. I'm really excited for this phone's release because I've always been a fan of all HTC products and I really do hope this phone is the iPhone "killer". The phone is available now for about $600 without a contract and about $65 dollars with a contract and we're not quite sure if the jump in price between the two is justified but we'll just have to wait and see if this phone lives up to expectations or not.

Cheers,

John

Wireless Motorola Razr V3 Chargers ?

So I've recently read somewhere that a company based out of Arizona has plans on releasing a wireless charger that will charge our phones without the hassles of using a cord. The product that WildCharge is planning on releasing is a small matt that will plug into the wall and when a phone is placed on top of it it'll charge. Now the only catch to this wonderful product is that your phone must have an adapter that will allow the charge to even take place. The pricing for the product hasn't been released but by looking at the pictures and reading more about the product I wouldn't mind to have one for my Motorola Razr V3 myself. Check AccessoryGeeks.com in the near future, as I'm sure they will stock this soon to be innovative device.
Cheers,
John

Thoughts on the iPHONE.

It's not a big surprise that everyone is anticipating the launch of the Apple iPhone for Cingular / At&t on June 29th. On this particular day, the mobile phone industry will be flipped on its head and we'll all bow down to a new age of cell phones. I'm anticipating the phone's release because I really want to see if it lives up to the hype that has surrounded the phone since its announcement or it bombs due to technical glitches that are almost always present when new innovative products are released to the market. The release of the iPhone is something the cell phone industry has been needing for a while since the only news we're offered is X company is buying out Y company and this and that. With this launch we can see a new age in phones as the bar will be raised and the new King will be Apple prompting other companies to step up their game or face elimination, similar to what happened when the Ipod was released. I can only hope and wait for the release of the much anticipated iPhone and I do hope it lives up to all of our expectations.

Cheers,

John

T-Mobile is Great!!

So being a Nextel customer for the past two years has really limited my views on the wireless industry. Till recently, I thought all phones were suppose to featureless and bulky, since I had become so use to Nextel's lineup of hideous and bland phones, I then switched my network over to T-Mobile and since then I haven't looked back. T-Mobile is way ahead of Nextel for many reasons and the fact that they actually care about how their phones look and function is a huge plus. The customer service on Nextel was "OK" if you liked being outsourced, but once on T-Mobile their customer service was at my disposal and proved far more superior to Nextel's. Another notable change for me was the fact that I now have a phone (T-Mobile Dash) that can do more than just make a phone call such as listening to music, watching video playback, and chatting on the instant messenger. So far so good with T-Mobile and I just had to share my experience with you all.

Cheers,

John