O2 plans to give away free iPhones (with cheeeep plan) in anticipation of new device in June

Seth Weintraub
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March 15, 2009
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The Telegraph is reporting that O2 will now be giving away free iPhones with their lower cost plans in order to clear out inventory for the new iPhones which will be released this summer:

O2, which has exclusive rights to sell the iPhone in the UK, is believed to planning to give the eight gigabyte (GB) 3G iPhone away for free on £34.26 pay monthly tariffs from May.

At present the 8GB device costs £96.89 on the cheapest tariffs and is only free on £73.41 and £44.05-a-month contracts. The operator is also said to be planning to give away the 16GB on £44.05 per month contracts.

O2, who was contacted by the Telegraph, said that any pricing changes would have to be approved by Apple. The Telegraph speculated that the iPhone Nano will appear this summer. 

O2 is also rumored to be the sole carrier of the Palm Pre, which its parent company, Telefonica, may have scored an exlusive agreement to distribute throughout Europe and Latin America.

 

Comments (8)

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | March 15, 2009 - 8:07am

£35 a month (the difference is probably the stupid VAT decrease screwing up prices again) is definately *not* a cheap plan... it's one of the higher ones in fact, and it has so few minutes/messages it remains relatively poor value - especially given the relatively long 18 month contract length.

Maybe in the US you're used to being ripped.. to us a cheap plan is £15/mo. I currently pay £20 with no minimum contract and unlimited data.

daPrinz (not verified) | March 15, 2009 - 9:10am

£35 for 600 min (incoming free calls), 500 min and unlimited data on a 3G network including a free iPhone and a 18 month contract and you call that expensive? Maybe you should check the prices in Germany and France.
So you pay £20 with no limited data and no contract? How many minutes and sms does it include? I checked the O2 site in the UK and couldn't find a plan that doesn't suck for less than £30. What about the data speed? You can have in Germany unlimited data for €20 with E-plus (at GPRS speed).

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | March 15, 2009 - 10:21am

The pay-as-you-go plans, which, although limited in minutes, messages, and no data, are MUCH less expensive than any O2 iPhone plan.

Josh (not verified) | March 15, 2009 - 8:56am

its is possessive
it's = it is

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | March 15, 2009 - 5:37pm

A quick command-F search yields all uses of the words "it's" and "its" used correctly.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | March 15, 2009 - 6:45pm

He's talking about the picture of O2's advertisement: "iPhone 3G is here and its free."

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | March 15, 2009 - 6:45pm

He's talking about the picture of O2's advertisement: "iPhone 3G is here and its free."

Mac User | March 15, 2009 - 9:46am

well, they are clearing out their inventory, that makes me wonder just how much different the next iPhone will be. as far as i can remember, we don't have specific specs of rumored iPhone. personally, i think that the next iPhone will be significantly better and i will pass on the *free* iPhone. i guess it also doesn't help me cause my contract doesn't expire till december :(

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