O2 obviously noticed Steve’s post on iPhone pricing because they’ve introduced new tariffs for new and existing users (woohoo!). Current and potential iPhone users are now being offered:
- £35 – 600 mins, 500 texts
- £45 – 1200 mins, 500 texts
- £75 – 3000 mins, 500 texts
If you’re wondering, they’ve dropped the £55 option. Existing subscribers will be automatically upgraded. When the unlimited data is figured in, these changes bring these tariffs more in line with the rest of the market (I’m surprised that early adopters were also included though). The iPhone is now a much more attractive proposition and I’m sure will drive churn to O2. However, there’s still the £269 barrier to entry to consider, which Apple are unlikely to drop as that would start to cannbalise iPod sales (although as Steve Jobs has pointed out before, if anything’s going to cannibalise iPod sales, it should be an Apple product).
As a comparison, buying an N95 8GB on O2 at £35/month will cost you £99 (tariffs are slightly different plus no unlimited data). So there’s a £169 difference that will still put many people off. And that’s just the upfront offer for the Nokia device – there’s always some haggling to be done.
But £169 is still £100 less than before, lowering the iPhone tax if you want Apple’s smartphone. Now where’s that PAYG option…?