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. Updated: January 17, 2008.

The iphone has the usual sleek asthetic appearance and functionality one would expect from apple. Bold and simple with a touch screen 480 x 320 pixel interface. You could almost say the phone of the future is here. However the iPhone does not come with out its problems. Internet access was and still is a major selling point for the iPhone but unable to play a variety of videos hence not the same experience you would expect to get from traditional forms of internet access however it still has superseded its rivals in this field.

O2 and apple have united to give consumers the iPhone experience however at a great cost. A stand alone fee of £269 is initially required for the iphone. On aquiring this, you also have to subscrib.e to an 18 month long line-rental plan at a high rate. Other

would not be so deer. Further more there is no talk of an upgrade after this time has elapsed. The sealed in battery may have out-lived its capability before this time.

The entire cost of having an iPhone is £899 at £35/month. Unfortunatley you only get 200 texts and 200 minutes free/ month. However you can expect unlimited data access to the internet. Vodafone will give you a similar deal with a 120MB capability at £7.50/month.

Therefore calculating the iPhone deal you would get, £7.50/month and £27.50/month for 200 texts and 200 minutes. Apples strategy seems to ignore the great deals consumers are used to. Customers could get phones for free, absurdly high volume of texts,

to selected people, The first three months half price and cash back.

Because of this, it is clear that you could get a better deal with any other phone where ever you go to shop. Incredibly on top of having to put down £269 in the store, you also have to pay for the first two months line-rental in advanced in most stores in the very first month of owning this iphone. It certainly does not help that O2 demand a £100 deposit too. So instead of paying nothing for a phone in the first month you could very well have to pay £439 the first month of having an iPhone.

If money was not bad enough, the iPhone also has a few technical problems. It does not work with O2’s UMTS 3G data network, not to mention future HSDPA or a pre 4G UMTS Revision 8 standard. Rather a standard known as EDGE. Simply well below 3G performance. On the up side it does offer outstanding performance in a WI-FI environment which gives you speeds close to that of laptop computers. This Wi-fi however is little comfort to many other places you may be in with out Wi-fi.

On testing the time for popular websites to load up using the EDGE connection found in the PC Advisor office, a home Wi-fi connection and a GPRS connection in south-east London. It was found that the following speeds ensued:-

('min:sec:milli')

news.bbc.co.uk
WiFi 00.11.19
EDGE 00.47.43
GPRS 01.48.46

www.pcadvisor.co.uk
WiFi 00.14.55
EDGE 00.24.20
GPRS 01.22.38

www.apple.com
WiFI 00.11.28
EDGE 00.44.30
GPRS 01.05.44

3G is a power absorbing resource, and it is this reason apple have sited for the insufficient use of 3G instead EDGE is far more energy friendly. It is understandable that apple would want a

that did not lose power all the time. Although the EDGE is wall to wall in the US while 3G is a relatively scarce resource.

The vice versa is true in the UK with only 30% the country covered by EDGE. Anywhere outside this coverage and the iPhone defers to GPRS for

access. Speed test suggest that GPRS is the worst for speed while accessing the internet in relation to EDGE. However on balance in everyday use there is insignificant difference between the two.

One would not be blamed for thinking the apple made the iPhone for the world market and waiting for the US network to sort out its affairs.

O2 for the moment is looking to expand the EDGE network in the UK. It is important to state the most major cities and towns have EDGE coverage. Instead of having wide coverage in particular metropolitan areas. It means the device can smoothly transfer between EDGE, GPRS AND Wi-fi while sustaining a steadfast connection. On the down side though it finds this hard to do while the the phone is on the move, like for example in the car.

The cloud Wi-fi network has a portfolio of about 7,500 areas in Europe which also includes the City and Canary Wharf in London. Access to this network was simple. Click on the “Cloud network” in settings and type in your iPhone telephone number in the homepage. It will then begin to count how many minutes you have consumed once connected.

There is a limit of 60 minute once connected. This is ok for the casual user but not for the person who demands internet access on the go in a Cloud enabled region. On top of this you have to keep disconnecting or run the risk of depleting your available credit in a 48-72 hours. It is an opportunity that O2 and apple have missed by limiting the coverage of this service access. By increasing its coverage it would be one clear way to balance the poor EDGE

.