Question And Answer At Apple Event
We have a video of the Q and A, its in processing, we will post it as soon as possible, but for now, we have a text summary below.
First off, the one I, and likely everyone else, was most interested in, Why no 3G? Steve basically said they like their 8 hour battery life with EDGE, 3G drains that too much, so they are going to wait until they can get at least 5 or more hours of battery with a 3G chipset.
Is the wifi free? Yes, its provided by Cloud.
Is the Starbucks deal coming to the UK? Maybe, ask Starbucks.
Will there still be iTunes Activation? Yes, it will work just like in the US, just a different carrier.
Contract length/usage limits? 18 month contracts, and there is a limit, the limit is 1400 pages per day, how a person would go past that I don't know, so I guess it's a fair cap.
Revenue Sharing between Apple and O2? They pled the fifth, they aren't going into that.
Is unlocking a concern? Apparently it's a cat and mouse game, even though they haven't really done anything to stop it, so apparently they aren't all that good of a cat.
What did O2 have to do to prepare for the iPhone? Apparently they are investing in EDGE and have 30% coverage.
Oh snap! The next question was about the iPod Touch and whether O2 new about it when they were making the iPhone deal. The O2 guy answered the question by sidestepping it with some BS about how fast Apple is moving forward. Steve stepped up though, and said the iPod Touch was like training wheels for the iPhone.
How many iPhones before Christmas? Another sidestep from the O2 guy, he simply says some BS about how willing high end customers will be to switch.
What are the iPhone launch plans for the rest of Europe and what about the now angered carriers? Apple said they'd be in a few countries in Europe, they are still going for that. Then Steve throws in an analogy for the other carriers, comparing it to going on a few dates before marrying and how you'd have a few angry girlfriends. Further pressuring on which other European customers just leads to Jobs saying they are only talking about O2 today.
What about 3rd party apps? They are already doing that with Web 2.0, but they are looking at other more integrated apps, but the more they open up the less predictable it is.
900 pounds all the way up to 1260 pounds for the 18 months, is there any guarantee they won't slash the price by a third? Other than lots of laughter Steve says they don't have any plans to, but its technology, so it could happen. Also says they are already working on the next two iterations of the iPhone.
What about the mere 2MP camera? The camera is fine says Steve, apparently more megapixels doesn't make a better cam, that's news to me, but whatever.
Will the unlimited data go to other devices/contracts as well? Yes, on October 1st they'll be rolling them out. Steve chimed in saying that it's the future.
Fine, the end, however you want to say it.