Hopefully they'll have a similiar thing in the US, for $500. Then I can just import it :)

Knirfie

@literato: Same, I believe I read an article about someone playing pay-as-you-go with an iPhone and it turned out horrible.

Metkis

Considering the huge amount of data that an iPhone would transfer through Wi-Fi or 3G (in order to take advantage of all its capability), I don´t want to think about the bills of the italians... I prefer subsidized iPhone with a fixed data plan.

literato

Looks like we will still have to get them from the US... way to go :/

Cookiefox

the UK is getting a pay as you go iPhone, but we dont know what it will cost yet,

when you convert €499 you get £394, so that could mean we will be able to get this iPhone for £399, but the euro pound exchange rate is a bit crazy at the moment, so it would be more realistic to expect it for £299 or £349

thistle.john

From what I've read (so far), there's no chance one can get it from the US - you have to activate the damn thing while purchasing, this will lead to a long queue on July 11.

I'm hoping to get one from Sweden or someplace like that (iPhone 2.0 drops there on July 11)

Sweden cos, if the PirateBay can re-locate itself there, I'm hopeful it will also have a kick ass rule for unlocked iPhones.

kvstud

Expensive or what? I reckon it'll be around £350. Well, i'm annoyed now. Time to churn out some more money for Apple.

Bazil

If this is Vodafone we're talking about it'll surely be locked down.
Otherwise this is sth one can think about. In Europe anyway.

mangochutney

I don't think locked phones are legal here in Italy, although they were a few years ago.

I'm not 100% sure, but if you want unlocked, contract-free phones add Vodafone.it to your bookmarks, because it's likely to be like this.

The phones you get with Vodafone's (or other carriers') contract are totally UNLOCKED (that's what I'm using right now), so I guess SIM-locking is not an option.

The only way to keep users tethered in Italy is to have high fees for early cancellation-but then again, this is only allowed if the user has received a free/subsidized phone as part of the contract. In theory, you can still be in the contract while using your subsidized phone with another carrier.

In the case of pay-as-you-go iPhones, I don't think there's a catch: you pay the full retail price to Vodafone, which in turn pays Apple the full "bulk" price.

Vodafone's take on unlocked iPhones may well be a small percentage on each phone, just as any other retailer would here. When you buy an unlocked phone at a carrier store in Italy, you get a SIM in it. People without a SIM/phone number are likely to start using Vodafone. More are likely to keep that SIM and transfer their phone number on it if Vodafone manages to offer some added goodness such as cheap data plans. In other words, Vodafone (and TIM) will get more customers just by having the iPhone in stores; and in the case of pay-as-you-go iPhones, that won't cost them a cent (in fact, they may very well earn from the hardware alone).

And speaking data plans, they are available for pay-as-you-go SIMs as well.

You pay €10-30, you get xxx MB of data (usually 500 to 2 GB), to be used within a certain amount of time. There are also time-based data plans with N hours per month (totally absurd for iPhones, but possibly useful for laptop connections). At the end of the time period, or if you use up your traffic, you have the option to purchase that plan again, without obligation.

Of course, contracts give you free/cheaper phones and more voice or data for the same cost, but they usually last 1-2 years here.

aside

@literato: @Metkis: For like 10 euro's or so u can get an unlimited data plan here. add another 10 for a normal sim only plan and your good to go.

RED_SIX

@thistle.john: Surely you meant £399 and £449, with O2 taking a chunk of the sale price along the way.
which makes me wonder how much water Job's speech holds when he said:"a max of $199 for the 8gb model."
So its either the £35 contract for me or wait a month or 2 and hope apple store sells it online.

Zeasar

I am shaking my two-year at&t contract in anger

che_leo

Actually I'm using an iphone with prepaid, simply I got a data plan that allow me to transfer 512MB/Month it cost's 20€/Month which it's very expensive, but hey vodafone gave it to me for free to stay with them :-D

I'm looking forward to the 3G contract to see if it's more convenients, or I'll switch to an operator that has edge and has the same plan for 8€/Month (still with prepaid)

luca.c81

iphone (not 3g) is already here on portugal unlocked and official in some stores an websites this is one of them [lojadotelemovel.com]
.........

xicofixas

it wont be unlocked, vodafone always block their phones now...in portugal we wich that the price would be just 199$ (+-130€)....

xicofixas

So much for the "$199 all over the world".

mmhh

@Metkis: Not here, I've got an iPhone v1 on PAYG - specificially, O2's Simplicity plan with their data bolt on. £23 for 200 minutes, 400 texts, and 200MB of EDGE or 3G data per month.

William Hook