Brussels // R.Bollen // 08-07-2008 // Mobistar Belgium just announced in today’s press conference that the iPhone will be released in Belgium on July 11. The price is 525 Euro for the 8GB version (black only). The 16GB version which also ships in white can be bought for 615 Euro.

180 Mobistar selling points will sell the iPhone as well as 25 premium Apple resellers.

Because of Belgium Law it is not possible to sell a mobile phone linked together with a contract. Mobistar respects the Belgium law and will only sell the SIM-Lock free version. This explains the higher prices compared to other European countries.

4 special iPhone plans have been developed for voice and data. 3 for consumers and 1 for business clients.

The Consumer (incl TVA)
1. 30 Euro for 3 hours talk time, 300 sms and 200MB data
2. 45 Euro for 6 hours talk time, 600 sms and 500MB data
3. 60 Euro for 9 hours talk time, 900 sms and 1 GB data

The business (excl TVA)
4. 25 Euro for 1 hour and 1 GB data

Visual voicemail is not active at the time of the launch but will be actived in the coming weeks / months. Mobistar’s 3G HSDPA network covers 85% of the country at the end of this year. However EDGE is still available for 99% of the population.

Note that SIM locking is not forbidden in Belgium but it was done on request of Apple to reach as much clients as possible.

Brussels // R.Bollen // 08-07-2008 // Today the Gazet van Antwerpen announced that there is a press conference with Mobistar CEO, Benoit Scheen about the release of the new iPhone 3G in Belgium.

We are very exited and cannot wait to get our hands on the first one.

You can follow the Press Conference live here www.gva.be/iphone

The nice thing about those Scandinavian telecoms: when their customers complain, the companies listen. Just as Sweden’s TeliaSonera reevaluated its iPhone offerings after customers launched a petition, similar efforts in Norway have now borne fruit as well.

read it here www.macworld.com

This is iWeek - The iPhone 3G will go on sale this coming Friday in lots of markets world-wide. T-Mobile just announced today that the iPhone 3G will be available in 1,800 retail location throughout Germany on July 11th.

read it here www.i4u.com

I visited this page which lets people give their details to Telefonica Movistar, and supposedly be sent information about the upcoming July 11th iPhone 3G release in Spain, for which they have exclusivity with Apple.

read it here tech.am

While O2’s iPhone 3G pre-order plans are uncertain, with the online shop going live and then apparently crumbling under demand, the Carphone Warehouse has announced it has started taking online orders for device.

Customers can order the iPhone 3G at http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/iphone but only “for a limited time”, which is basically, while stocks last.

read it here www.pocket-lint.co.uk

O2 has confirmed that it will begin selling Apple’s 3G iPhone this Friday, and said it is to offer the device as part of its business handset portfolio for the first time.

Announced last month, the updated iPhone adds key features such as support for 3G wireless networks, a client for Microsoft Exchange email servers, a Cisco-compatible VPN and built-in GPS. These make it suitable even for enterprise customers, according to O2 business sales director Ben Dowd.

read it here www.itweek.co.uk

Brussels // R.Bollen // 03-07-2008 // Everyone who has been eagerly waiting, to know everything about the iPhone tomorrow, will be disappointed. Mobistar, the operator which brings Apple’s iPhone to the Belgium market, has postponed the launch of the technical gadget.

“Mobistar has to postpone the press conference of July 4, to a later date”, the operator confirmed.

Not ready.
The official reason is that the preparation of the commercializing is not yet fully ready. Nobody at Mobistar was reachable for comments this evening.

On June 25 Mobistar, the Belgium branch of Orange, announced that it will bring the iPhone3G exclusively to the Belgium market.

read it here in Dutch hln.be

The hotly anticipated iPhone 3G is to be limited to just one per UK customer, according to communication from O2.

Apple is to launch its next generation handset on July 11 and the exact details of the release have been shrouded in secrecy.

read it here www.metro.co.uk

During the WWDC keynote, Steve Jobs boasted that 22 countries would be getting the iPhone simultaneously on July 11th: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the US.

Unfortunately, it appears that one of those countries is not like the other, and won’t quite be making the cut for that first round of availability.

read it here www.macworld.com

FRANKFURT (Thomson Financial) - Metro AG.’s Media Markt and Saturn consumer electronics chains as well as Debitel AG.’s Dug outlets will carry Apple Inc.’s new iPhone when the handheld device goes on sale in Germany on July 11, Die Welt newspaper reported, citing sources close to Debitel.

read it here www.forbes.com

On Tuesday, T-Mobile Netherlands sent out a third e-mail to those signed up for iPhone updates, this time announcing plans and prices for the iPhone 3G. There are three plans that cost €29.95, €44.95, and €64.95, respectively—US$47, $71, and $102 at today’s exchange rates. The plans come with 150, 300, or 500 minutes and the same number of SMSes.

read it here arstechnica.com

Brussels // R.Bollen // 30-06-2008 // The telephone gadget has been packed in foamed paper, made of potato starch that has been enriched with binders and fibres.

It is a complete green alternative for plastic. The technology is a patented invention of Paperfoam from Barneveld. Director Hans Arentsen is not giving much details, but confirms to lifestylemagazine, bright.nl, that the number of packing for the iPhone 3G „runs in the millions”.

read it here in Dutch www.telegraaf.nl

Something I’ve been wondering since the 3G iPhone was announced is this: what will all the people who bought the first model but want to upgrade do with their first-generation iPhones? Will they all just be thrown away?

read it here www.pocketpicks.co.uk

Sweden’s TeliaSonera said Friday that monthly service plans for Apple’s iPhone 3G will start at $50 (299 SEK), while Netcom Norway announced that its own customers will have to pay a minimum of $80 (NOK 399) each month.

read it here www.appleinsider.com

German newspaper Die Welt is reporting in their online version [GER] today that Apple is about to win tens of thousands of new corporate customers for their iPhone.

German mega bank Deutsche Bank and other corporations are apparently willing to add the 3G iPhone to their line-up of cell phones provided to employees. Until now, Blackberry models dominated this market segment in Germany.

read it here www.crunchgear.com

New details for the release of the iPhone 3G have been published in several European countries. French carrier Orange has announced that the 8GB model will cost €149 in tandem with an iPhone-specific contract and high-end options such as Origami, First and Jet. Under the same arrangement, a 16GB phone will cost €199.

read it here www.macnn.com

Orange, the exclusive wireless carrier for the iPhone in France, have released details to French Mac enthusiast site Mac4ever for the upcoming iPhone 3G release.

Will be 149€ ($234 US) for the 8BGB Model with one of the specific iPhone contract or some high end others contract (iPhone Contract + Origami contract + jet contract + First contract). 199€ for the 16GB version.

read it here www.everythingicafe.com

It seems our original source for iPhone 3G PAYG pricing might’ve been a bit extravagant. O2 just let slip pricing details on the web (before shortly taking them back off), revealing the pay as you go iPhone’s price.

read it here www.electricpig.co.uk

MILAN -(Dow Jones)- Italian telecoms operator Telecom Italia SpA (TI) said Tuesday the highly anticipated third-generation version of Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) iPhone will be available at its TIM retail stores July 11.

In a statement, Telecom Italia said that, as of Tuesday, iPhone 3G has been successfully certified to operate on the company’s network.

read it here money.cnn.com

Per MacWereld, Apple’s upcoming iPhone 3G handset may be sold through Apple resellers in the netherlands.

The article cites that several retailers have claimed deals with T-Mobile, which would otherwise be the only legal vendor of the iPhone in the country.

read it here www.iphonealley.com

Consumers in the UK are showing high levels of interest in the iPhone 3G, which bodes well for O2, the exclusive partner operator for the device.

More than 130,000 people have pre-registered their interest in the phone on O2’s website since the phone was launched a week and a half ago.

read it here www.pocket-lint.co.uk

Brussels // R.Bollen // 16-06-2008 // BMW has a specific Web site with its exclusive Internet television channel, BMW TV. By visiting this site, all the users of the iPhone will be able to have content, that offers directly high quality movies.

In Germany, BMW with this exclusive service, belongs to the first offerers at all and continues with it’s existing partnership: All new BMW models are already compatible with iPhone and iPod.

BMW TV is since March 2007 in the air and was the first IPTV offer of a Premium car manufacturer. Recently the Internet appearance was substantially extended.

Up to date news, BMW TV journal “reports and background reports are to be seen additional in the two-weekly magazine broadcast.”




see it here www.bmw-tv.de

O2 has announced a deal with BT allowing iPhone customers to access the internet for free through BT Openzone premier Wi-Fi hotspots from 11 July.

The launch of the partnership coincides with the release of the new iPhone 3G, but will be available to all iPhone customers.

read it here www.vnunet.com

FRANKFURT, June 16 (Reuters) - Deutsche Telekom AG’s (DTEGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) T-Mobile will sell Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) new iPhone for as little as 1 euro ($1.54) for the 8-gigabyte version together with a 69 euro monthly contract, it said on Monday.

Apple is set to reach far more consumers with the launch of the 3G iPhone in 70 countries than it did with the original version a year ago, partly due to having abandoned its insistence that carriers give it a share of call revenue.

read it here in.reuters.com