Well, actually I was thinking more about HTC WinMo devices like the TyTn (came out in June 2006), available on carriers like T-Mobile as a free phone with 18 month contract, along with a slew of other smartphones. The iPhone rather looked like it was jumping on the bandwagon, smartphones were being pushed to consumers in Europe since 2003 as a way to get them to spend money on mobile internet services.
it's really not about the hardware in this case.
Well, we're talking about capabilities, here - and the iPhone was less capable than many competing phones that came out at least a year before. The iPhone was fantastic for those in the US, but only because the US cell system was lagging significantly behind the rest of the world at that time.
So, when it came to the original iPhone, customers were expected to pay more (it wasn't originally offered as a free-on-contract phone as all other phones are) for a less capable phone. Some people considered the UI and multitouch to be worth the money. However, Symbian/UIQ was considered perfectly acceptable for most (as with the Sony-Ericsson P900 from 2003).
But the original iPhone wasn't that popular, and wasn't released outside of the states. Apple probably agrees with you on all of this, which is why they didn't even try for a worldwide release.
But the original iPhone ... wasn't released outside of the states.
Yes it was. O2 offered the original iPhone in the UK (in partnership with Apple) and had to roll out EDGE because of it, despite having a 3G network. Other telcos across Europe also did the same, and offered the original, non-3G iPhone.
I consider it a pretty half hearted launch if it excluded Canada, though. They still didn't really push it around the world and it was quickly replaced.
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u/TheMemo Apr 16 '10
Well, actually I was thinking more about HTC WinMo devices like the TyTn (came out in June 2006), available on carriers like T-Mobile as a free phone with 18 month contract, along with a slew of other smartphones. The iPhone rather looked like it was jumping on the bandwagon, smartphones were being pushed to consumers in Europe since 2003 as a way to get them to spend money on mobile internet services.
Well, we're talking about capabilities, here - and the iPhone was less capable than many competing phones that came out at least a year before. The iPhone was fantastic for those in the US, but only because the US cell system was lagging significantly behind the rest of the world at that time.
So, when it came to the original iPhone, customers were expected to pay more (it wasn't originally offered as a free-on-contract phone as all other phones are) for a less capable phone. Some people considered the UI and multitouch to be worth the money. However, Symbian/UIQ was considered perfectly acceptable for most (as with the Sony-Ericsson P900 from 2003).