Cable Forum - View Single Post

Tezcatlipoca · 16-01-2009, 23:24

Why should you have to be restricted to only using apps from the App Store via iTunes? What's wrong with being able to use loads of other freeware software like you can with other smartphone platforms? I could install what I wanted - freeware & paid - with my old smartphones running Symbian UIQ / Windows Mobile / Symbian S60, so why not with the iPhone

I don't have a problem with the O2 restriction for contract iPhones, as they're subsidised quite a bit, so Apple & O2 are actually following the traditional model there for the UK & European mobile market - cheap phone, locked to a certain network.

But if you pay the full price for a PAYG iPhone, why should you be restricted to O2?

If you buy any other phone outright, you are not locked to a specific network, so why are you with the iPhone?

What if, like Chris, you want an iPhone, and are willing to pay full price for an iPhone, but you don't actually have any O2 reception? Or what if you do, but you simply want to choose a different network due to getting a better tariff?

How is that fair or competitive?

Was worse with the original iPhone, as that wasn't even subsidised on contract IIRC, so you had to pay for the whole thing yourself & still be stuck with O2 whether you went contract or PAYG.

The TV analogy doesn't work IMO -

If you use a dodgy STB, rather than an official VM supplied STB, you are still connecting to the VM cable TV network and are still obtaining VM cable TV services without paying for them.

With a Jailbroken iPhone containing e.g. a T-Mobile SIM, you are not even using the O2 mobile network, let alone using the O2 mobile network without paying. It's not the same...

However, having said all that, I've not Jailbroken mine & am quite happy to be stuck back with O2. Was with them for years, since BT Cellnet & Genie, before regretfully ditching them for T-Mobile in 2007. Much prefer O2 to my last network, and I don't want to screw up the warranty on my nice shiny new phone.

Still, if Apple would allow the iPhone to do various things such as MMS, copy & paste, video recording, Bluetooth file transfer, Bluetooth A2DP, and other features which I always assumed to be rather standard things, then perhaps it would at least lessen part of the demand for Jailbreaking (running non-Apple apps).

16-01-2009, 23:24	#472
Tezcatlipoca Inactive Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Cambridge Posts: 16,760	re: The iPhone thread Why should you have to be restricted to only using apps from the App Store via iTunes? What's wrong with being able to use loads of other freeware software like you can with other smartphone platforms? I could install what I wanted - freeware & paid - with my old smartphones running Symbian UIQ / Windows Mobile / Symbian S60, so why not with the iPhone I don't have a problem with the O2 restriction for contract iPhones, as they're subsidised quite a bit, so Apple & O2 are actually following the traditional model there for the UK & European mobile market - cheap phone, locked to a certain network. But if you pay the full price for a PAYG iPhone, why should you be restricted to O2? If you buy any other phone outright, you are not locked to a specific network, so why are you with the iPhone? What if, like Chris, you want an iPhone, and are willing to pay full price for an iPhone, but you don't actually have any O2 reception? Or what if you do, but you simply want to choose a different network due to getting a better tariff? How is that fair or competitive? Was worse with the original iPhone, as that wasn't even subsidised on contract IIRC, so you had to pay for the whole thing yourself & still be stuck with O2 whether you went contract or PAYG. The TV analogy doesn't work IMO - If you use a dodgy STB, rather than an official VM supplied STB, you are still connecting to the VM cable TV network and are still obtaining VM cable TV services without paying for them. With a Jailbroken iPhone containing e.g. a T-Mobile SIM, you are not even using the O2 mobile network, let alone using the O2 mobile network without paying. It's not the same... However, having said all that, I've not Jailbroken mine & am quite happy to be stuck back with O2. Was with them for years, since BT Cellnet & Genie, before regretfully ditching them for T-Mobile in 2007. Much prefer O2 to my last network, and I don't want to screw up the warranty on my nice shiny new phone. Still, if Apple would allow the iPhone to do various things such as MMS, copy & paste, video recording, Bluetooth file transfer, Bluetooth A2DP, and other features which I always assumed to be rather standard things, then perhaps it would at least lessen part of the demand for Jailbreaking (running non-Apple apps).