Following Orange, Vodafone announces plans to sell the iPhone in the UK

Oh wait, it was yesterday, adding to my point about loads happening in the mobile world recently. But, why did Vodafone not jump straight to the gun yesterday and tell the world of its deal with the iPhone?

The answer? Strategy. I think that both companies could have had the iPhone signed to their networks for quite some time, but neither one knew about the other. Apple probably then gave the go-ahead to both companies to announce the deal, but Vodafone may have had suspicion and held back a day. By holding back a day they were able to see Orange announce their deal but more importantly the time-scale that Orange have put on it.

How does this matter though? Well it’s really, really simple – Vodafone have said their iPhone will launch later and by doing this, it gives them time to see how Orange price the device and be able to adjust their accordingly. Cunning little plan and even if they did know about Orange’s deal and vice versa, this little strategy still stands.

So what now for consumers? Well, much, much more leverage and an even bigger price war erupting. Orange will probably now be very conscious about the fact Vodafone will be basing their iPhone pricing on Orange’s, and may compensate for that by cutting costs even more so, pressuring Vodafone into either not being able to outbid, or to have to match their plans.

This is a really good thing for business customers though. Vodafone’s network already carries millions of business users. Vodafone has stated that it is using the iPhone primarily for current customers, thus the iPhone could begin being used in many more businesses – something which Apple will not be complaining about one little bit.

If you’re interested in getting the iPhone on Vodafone’s network, then visit their website and register your interest. If not, then just sit back and enjoy the scenery:

I received a package yesterday morning, I’m quite used to packages because I do order quite a bit off the net, so it wasn’t really that much of a surprise – name, address and a little blue sticker on it. I knew it was something I’d been waiting a while for, my dongle.

There’s only 5 things in the box it comes in:

1. The dongle itself
2. An extension cable, so if you’re like me and your USB ports are arranged silly you can still have two things in at once.
3. A user manual
4. A Safety Manual
5. A disc for Windows Users containing drivers.

It was quite an easy install really, pop the modem into the Mac, run an installer and then badaboom! I’m done, though I expect on Windows you need to put the CD in, instead. I did need to get used to it a bit before I start my experiment properly, so I decided that I’d have a quick play on it and see what it’s like. It wasn’t working at first, but a restart of the Mac gave it the kick it needed – looking back, the installer did say it wouldn’t work without a restart.

First impressions: the connection itself seems rather fast, zipping around the internet as if I’m on normal broadband; the connection does drop a little bit and when it clouds over I only get GPRS signal; speed tests indicate that it’s going VERY slow, but frankly, I think it’s quite the opposite with speed tests saying that I’m going at 25KBps and downloads peaked at 172KBps.

To see the images of the day, just look below, all with captions and titles – lovely. The experiment starts on Monday, so wish me luck!

P.S. Sorry for the image quality.

Mobile Broadband for a whole week, sponsored by Vodafone.

Back in the day of my old blog I tried to do an experiment to see if mobile broadband could withstand the usage of an Internet junkie like myself and was getting some pretty positive results. The experiment was to see if I could use Mobile Broadband as my primary internet connection for a month.

Unfortunately the experiment was never completed, so now I’m going to try it again. After evaluating the last attempt, I think that initially a month is far too long to try to use Mobile Broadband exclusively. So instead I’m going to try for a week initially and slowly build up over the course of the year – I reckon that if I get used to it I could use it full time.

Also, this time I’m going to keep a log book of the sorts of things that comes through my connection, so for example if I go on webcam, or if I watch a show on the iPlayer or even watch a YouTube video, I will record it.

To help me with this task I’ve teamed up with Vodafone who have provided me with the Mobile Broadband coverage. If you want to get involved with the experiment or decide that you want to go mobile, then head over the Vodafone store and get it.

The test starts very soon, so wish me luck!