3DGalaxy

Because the latest rumour to hit the digg homepage states a much higher price, up to $599 and $649 for the 4GB and 8GB models respectively. Kevin Rose previously stated that they would be launched for $249 and $449 for the respective versions. Sorry Apple but if it does cost this much which could be possible for an unlocked version, I’m probably not buying. I have to say the chance of Apple selling the thing unlocked for you to put your own sim in is looking unlikely. This is a real shame because no one else really does this and it would definitely be a big money spinner for Apple.

The problem is, this method only really works when the phone is affordable to buy unlocked. If these prices are true, the only real option for Apple would be to shove it on most likely Cingular in the US on a contract. Who would carry it in the UK though? That’s an interesting question because I can’t think of any network that stands out as the obvious choice. It could even do a Zune and not release here which may be a big mistake.

The whole problem with the mobile phone industry is the complexity of the packages. I don’t use my phone enough to justify a contract, nor do I want to be tied down to a year or two year contract. The iPhone would do nothing to rhemedy this issue.

So is it going to be worthit? Well, seing as Apple still havn’t commented on it, who knows. There may not even be one but on the other hand it seems certain now from the reports of asian hardware makers being hired to make them. So asuming that they are making them, the advantages of these over other phones will be Apple’s design skill coming to the table and guarunteed seamless integration with Mac OS X (iPhoto, iCal, Contacts synching etc). I almost forgot iTunes.

So the phone will be cool, whether I’m interested or not will entirely depend on the price. I suppose when you think about the features they are lumping into the phone (supposedly), you end up with a figure around £250 - £300 which is almost double in dollars, but everything is cheaper over there so don’t sweat it too much. I mean I paid £200 for my O2 X 3 (made by Benq Siemens) which has a few hundred mb’s of memory, 1.3 megapixel cam, no mac support except with a card reader (pretty lame). The prices have clearly come down since then but the phone will still be essentially an iPod nano with phone features. So if you take the iPod nano price for 4GB (£140) and add maybe £110 to that for the rest of the features, you probably end up with something plausable as a price. £250 isn’t cheap, certainly not in the US but it seems like a fair price to me seing as we generally get ripped off over here.

Although saying that Apple are making a huge profit on each of the nano’s. I think it’s about 40% profit on each one. Ok so that means they probably could shave off a little more off the price if they want to sell more of these things, which of course they want to do. I think £250 is a fairly attractive price point but of course that’s only the 4GB. By my poor calculations, the 8GB would end up closer to £300, maybe even up to £325 - £350 due to adding more features to that version than simply more storage. This is how much I would guess for both but I’m no phone expert. The phone components could end up being double the cost of the ipod nano type parts, plus more besides to boost the price up.

Personally I’m more excited about the iPod video everyone has been mentioning for ages, plus I’d like to know what’s up with my MacBook’s battery which isn’t working right now which is rendering my laptop a desktop. I don’t mind too much because I don’t take it out the house much. I’m more worried about whether this will turn into another huge battery recall as with the sony catastrophe.

I guess it’s only 3 weeks or so until we find out what the deal is and I can stop speculating about both highly rumoured products.