Apple’s crappy iPhone is spreading like the Borg and soon Germany will be assimilated. Pretty scary thought actually. T-Mobile is advertising that they are going to sell the iPhone in Germany starting November 9th. From the looks of things T-Mobile is not going to be giving much of a discount on the phone charging €399 for the 8GB version. Oh yeah and I think 399 Euros is much more than 475 Dollars … hmm let me do the calculation with the most recent dollar to euro conversion:
Current (as of the time of this posting) exchange rate is 1 Euro buys 1.4134 Dollars
so we calculate this as 399 Euros X 1.4134 and we get a wopping 564 Dollars. Wow you guys have it easy don’t you.
Now if T-Mobile is going to sell the phones locked then there might be a way to take them to court since they do not provide any assistance in the price. For example, I want a phone and a contract here in Germany, I go to my local T-Punkt (TeleKom’s service center). I choose a phone and pay a fraction of the price as long as I sign a contract to use T-Mobile for the next say two years or so. Great fine I get the phone I want cheaper because I’m actually going to pay for it over time via my contract. Because I’m in a contract with T-Mobile then they will lock my phone for at least the time of my contract. Ok no problem I’ve signed a contract with them anyway why not. Now the thing is I won’t buy a phone with a contract unless I get some discount on the phone. Why would I pay 399 Euros for a phone and then get stuck paying the fees to T-Mobile. If I’m going to buy a phone for 399 Euros I want to use what ever service there is out there.
I really wonder if this will work out for Apple or if they are going to get slammed by the German legal system. I’m hoping the Germans refuse the phone and its really legally gray contract system.
I know I’ll just stick with Nokia. No worries that they will lock up my phone with an update.
