Steff.me

This is a quick 3G iPhone post… bare with me and I’m sure we’ll all move on to bigger and better tech news soon.

“The Text” from O2

I received this rather interesting text message the day after the keynote speech; for the sake of clarity, I have interjected my own thoughts here and there between the quotes:

The only thing better than your iPhone.

The new 3G iPhone for free*. Only on O2.

Yes, I’m sure it is. Why didn’t you tell me this two months ago when I bought it, oh O2 sales person? In fact, one of your sales pitches was that the iPhone was constantly being updated and upgraded, and that I could “download the new 3G update via iTunes”. Despite me insisting that, even though (fanboy alert) Steve Jobs is somewhat of a God and that Apple are amazing, it wasn’t possible to download hardware and have that somehow magically install into the phone, you were persistent in your pitch and continued to rave about a new 3G update that I would receive through iTunes.

I overlooked your idiocy and bought the phone anyway. Why? Because I couldn’t stop drooling over it and figured you’d say, “you break it, you bought it” due to water damage, if I didn’t stop slobbering.

To thank you for being an iPhone fan, we’re offering you an early upgrade to the brand new version when it launches on 11th July 2008. You won’t have to wait until the end of your existing contract either, all you’ll need to do is agree to a new 18-month contract.

Why do you make this offer sound like I’m selling my soul to the devil? “all you’ll need to do is agree to a new 18-month contract and we gouge you for more money and your soul becomes ours and we will own you forever and make you sell phones in hell..”

*Best of all, the new 8GB iPhone won’t cost you a penny on our £45 and £75 tariffs. And it’s just £99 on our £35 tariff and new £30 tariff. This special early upgrade offer is only available online at o2.co.uk anytime from early July until 11th October 2008.

For now, please just register your interest by clicking on <link removed> and we’ll reserve a new iPhone for you. If you do register, we’ll then drop you a line in early July to tell you what you need to do to be one of the first to get your hands on the new iPhone.

Subject to availability. Connection subject to status, 18 month minimum term contract, credit check & direct debit. Terms apply. See o2.co.uk.

Yada, yada, yada. Ignoring the terms and conditions (because, let’s face it… who ever reads those? They are too long and boring…), all I see in that are numbers that are less than what I paid a couple of months back. While I expect to be defecated on by all product updates, I’d rather you not throw it in my face.

I gave you £270 of my hard-earned money (inside joke there for anyone who knows me), and now you’re saying I’d have to give you another 18 months of my life stuck on your damn network and an extra £99. Hmm…

Bitterness aside; I’m very tempted to be your bitch, O2.

My thoughts on the 3G iPhone

• Plastic - no thank you. I don’t care if it offers better reception due to the antenna struggling with the metallic back; I want the device to look sexy, not cheap! While I wouldn’t argue for style over substance, I was happy with a small plastic area for the antenna in the 1st generation but a full plastic thing just looks nasty.
• 3G - I’ve had a phone with this capability before… and I’ve never used it. Granted, that was on some fiddly, crappy pseudo-”browser” that didn’t have half the features of the iPhone, but I’m still not a power-user that would require things to be that snappy. I tend to have a laptop with me and when I don’t, I wouldn’t need an Internet connection to do anything other than check my e-mail or to entertain myself for five minutes waiting for someone.
• GPS - I think I would be sold on this as soon as TomTom or someone release an app that allows me to use this in my car, with a sexy voice saying “Make a U-Turn!” as soon as I screw up on the road.
• 8/16GB - Clearly the iPhone needed to have a capacity upgrade, to 32GB or 64GB. With the new legitimate apps coming for the iPhone, I’m going to want to download and play with quite a few; I can quickly see me running out of space. The “free” version I’d get from an upgrade from O2 would be a downgrade from my current 16GB to 8GB. I’m not sure if I want to be doing that.
• …Oh, wait… that’s it.

I’m continuing to debate as to whether it’s worth it for first generation owners to actually make the switch. If any of you out there are, let me know… I’d be interested to know what sold you on it (”it’s new!”, isn’t a compelling argument).