Cuts Price Of iPhone Until June

If you’re tempted by the thought of bagging yourself an Apple iPhone but have been put off by the rather hefty price then there’s some good news. O2 has announced that it will take £100 off the price of the iPhone, taking the 8GB model down to £169 until 1st June.

Despite the fact it’s a sure-fire winner in the looks stakes, the iPhone has struggled somewhat in the UK market due to its restricted features. The fact of the matter is that the UK has a far more sophisticated mobile phone industry, used to more advanced connectivity features than its US counterpart. Although a new 3G model is on its way, many feel that the UK release was a rush job, meaning it performed quite badly in the competitive UK market. Many are speculating that the new discount from O2 is a way of clearing out the old iPhone stock to make way for the new 3G model within the next few months.

Currently, the iPhone is available exclusively to O2 customers for monthly tariffs of £35, £45 and £75, but you won’t get the phone bundled with your package. First of all you have to purchase the phone and then sign up to a minimum term of 18 months through iTunes. The larger 16GB iPhone won’t see any fall in price, keeping its original price tag of £329.

Now, it’s also a bit of a ‘conspiracy theory’ but suggestions have also been made that customers have been purchasing the phone and then unlocking it to work on another network, without signing up to O2 at all. So this could be one way of encouraging new customers to stay legit. This seems to be confirmed with a warning on the O2 site stating: “If you attempt to unlock iPhone, you will not be able to use the phone functionality of your iPhone. If you attempt to unlock iPhone and use it on another network, it may become permanently unusable.”

It may take more than a £100 incentive to stop those who are set on unlocking – maybe just bundling the phone in with the monthly tariff? Oh but of course, the ‘exclusive’ deal always has extra footnotes with Apple.