Vodafone: “iPhone exclusive? No fair!”
Today’s latest legal challenge to the iPhone comes from the far off land of Germany (well, farther for some than others, I guess, if you happen to be in Germany). But for once, the charge is leveled not against Apple, but against the iPhone’s German carrier, T-Mobile. Rival provider Vodafone has gotten an injunction against T-Mobile, after alleging that selling an exclusive handset with a 24-month contract violates German law.
Now, somewhat bizarrely, the injunction does not prevent T-Mobile from stopping sales of the iPhone. T-Mobile has responded to the court order, saying:
“We have an exclusive device in our portfolio, but if you look at the market, that’s normal,” said a T-Mobile spokesman in Germany. “The main thing is we will sell the iPhone. There is no stop to selling the iPhone.”That’s right: you can’t stop the signal, folks (unless you happen to be far, far underground, or out in the wilderness, where you don’t get reception).
Vodafone’s goal is to force a second injunction which would force T-Mobile to sell an unlocked version of the iPhone as well—there’s a similar situation in France, where the iPhone launches next week, though it’s still unknown just how much that will cost consumers. Meanwhile, we’ll keep tabs on the case of the jealous German rival carrier and see just what Vodafone gets out of the whole deal.
Category: News
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Comments (4)
I think Apple should charge for software updates for unlocked iPhones. It would be easy to tell - the unlocked iPhone won't have an account with the mobile carrier that has signed up with Apple. This information would be held through the iTunes music store - where activation occurs - thus Apple has a list of certified users.
Apple can set it such that the iPhone user has to have an iTunes account to use the phone. Apple can then just charge for the software update download to unlocked users. The updates would be free (since they are also paid for by service charges) for unlocked phone users.
Thus Apple can be happy - it will garner additional income from software updates to the iPhone. Apple will also force software uploads to be signed software - thus reducing Malware and Viruses and improving security - that goes through iTunes to users with an official iTunes account. Thus, unlocked phones won't be able to load software unless the users have an account with Apple - and thus also have to pay for software upgrades.
Unlocked phones = paying for software upgrades. This is only fair since Apple spends a lot of money developing the software upgrades.
Posted by James Katt![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://iphone.macworld.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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November 20, 2007 1:03 PM
James,
I think the issue is more w/ T-Mobile than Apple. Apple is not going to lose money, either way, since it's the hardware mfg. But for T-Mobile to sell unlocked iPhones that can be used on a competitor's network is a situation not likely to continue long.
Posted by D9 | November 20, 2007 4:20 PM
Apple cannot charge for software updates. Some of the updates are for security holes they did not patch when they released the iPhone.
"Sure it's our fault your phone in not secure but you have to pay us to fix it!" How well would that go over?
Posted by g0097 | November 20, 2007 11:37 PM
The only problem with that idea is that Apple has entered into exclusive agreements with mobile carriers. Yes, France is an exeption, but I'm sure that Orange in France will be getting a chunk of the unlocked iPhone sales to compensate. Also, who in their right mind would pay to update to 1.1.2 when all that is added is international language support? Your idea would only work for the major software updates, which don't happen too often. I don't think I'd pay much at all to add the iTunes wifi store to my phone, so it doesn't seem to stand to gain them much revenue.
Posted by Nate | November 21, 2007 3:02 AM