New Zealand Will Never See the iPhone - Or Will We?

Comment by KevDaly, on 22-MAR-2007 08:08

But if we take a step back and view the iPhone dispassionately, do we really care?

Comment by Gigs, on 22-MAR-2007 16:30

Given that vodafone bosses around the handset makers, who certainly are far more established than Apple, they won't have ANY qualms about saying "Sorry we don't support this feature" and telling apple where to put it.

Niftyness aside, Vodafone don't have any qualms about getting manufacturers to change their UI's and live out a phone as well. iPhone - Live? Whilst it may seem silly now, it'd be a valid request for them.

With apple having a store here though, it makes you wonder if they'll just not bypass the network altogether and be a parallel importer for their phone, forgoing any network acceptance and just selling it as is.

Time will tell. Thouggh i have to agree with you K    ev :)

Comment by James, on 3-APR-2007 10:50

totally agree, the iphone looks totally underwhelming. If you want something really fancy I would go with the Nokia E90

http://europe.nokia.com/A4346040

...meanwhile I'm pretty happy with my 6234.

Comment by Lisa, on 27-JUN-2007 11:13

Well here's my point of view.

For the last few years I've been using my old cellphone waiting for a phone to come out that has the features that I would like.
Now call me a Mac geek and you'd be right. If I can hold a Mac in the palm of my hand and make a call, surf the net, listen to music, watch movies, find a street I want to go to, take photos, sync with my email list and my address book etc etc then I want one. My old phone is due to be retired but I'm hanging onto it in the hope that sometime..... I can have an iPhone.

Go on, hang me out to dry. I dont care. If nothing else I might be the only rushing to get one when they do get here but I will be getting one.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Comment by Nic, on 18-JUL-2007 15:29

What else is compatible with ical and itunes... ?? Im naive to technology like this, and need something that can send recieve emails and can add to ical from the device, and can sync on connection...

Comment by mirco, on 12-OCT-2007 14:36

i have a i phone to work with nz vodafone, if you want one you can find for 800 NSD or less unlock

Comment by matt Searles, on 29-NOV-2007 15:49

I agree with Stuart. Its not all about features, specs or how fast it does things or doesn't. What makes the iPhone unique amongst its competitors its the simplicity and intuitiveness of the UI. I played with a Parallel imported one yesterday and within minutes i felt like I'd owned it for months.
OK, I'm a mac user so you could say I'm biaised but OS X on a mobile device is just awesome.
It would be a shame if it didn't get sold fully supported here in NZ, but i guess we'll have to see who of the carriers here is prepared to deal with Apple's stringent demands. One thing is for sure - they won't be able to stock enough because it will fly off the shelves, no matter what - not because its the best phone, simply because the public perceive its THE device to have. After all that's what happened with the iPod and look where we are now....

Comment by Appleconvert, on 27-DEC-2007 21:10

Far you cant buy them in nz from importers until I found

www.tochcomputers.co.nz and that where I brought mine

Comment by Bondy, on 4-JAN-2008 15:23

I have recently acquired a workmates Sony K800i - Its a nice phone with all the usual features and works reasonably well.

But after having it for nearly four months, I still find that accessing and using some (often basic) features is a challenge - The GUI doesn't respond to joystick movement accurately enough, some features are hidden in menus buried too deep and the keypad still feels clumsy and entering some common punctuation marks in texts involves too many buttons.

So yesterday, I purchased the iPod Touch, that is basically much the same as the iPhone minus email and phone functions. I have also played around with another colleagues iPhone.

I could navigate around the iphone/ipod touch easily, find all the features that I use on my current phone, and figure out within seconds how to do the things that I might want to do only occasionally (such as use the calculator) - I did all of those without any reference to any manual or online help.

The trouble with most phone manufacturers is that they spend too much time and R&D money trying to pack more features into a phone. They spend little on making it easy to use.

That is where Apple got the market with the original iPod. Feature for feature, the ipod is more expensive and less featured than most other MP3 players. It caught the mass market primarily because it was simple and easy to use... and it looked cool.

Put it this way - Sony Erricsson has been making mobile phones for over 15 years... and still they can't make a phone that is as simple to use as Apple's first ever attempt at making a phone. That is what will make the iPhone sell.

So it is a big deal for either Telecom or Vodafone to grab the market. I spoke to a Vodafone insider who said that over 3000 iphones have been detected where Vodafone NZ is registered as their home network (eg: excludes non-vodafone SIM's).

Telecom will have to suck eggs until they roll out their UTMS network.

Comment by Richard Clark, on 5-APR-2008 17:03

of course we fucking care, this is such a New Zealand head up the arse attitude of "oh we don't care about Apple, let's just move on" that is why nothing changes in New Zealand! Damn it, I want an iPhone and I want it now. I am an Apple user, I have been since 1993. I returned to NZ in 2006 after eons OS, mainly NY & LA, no London fog for this kiwi, and I am confronted with dialup parading as broadband. Come on guys, by honest, when WILL we stop kidding ourselves and get connected to the real world, this country is so in denial and now you will all simply tell me to fuck of back to wherever I came from. Well I am sorry, I am here today and I will speak up and out and challenge the status quo that is totally turning this beautiful South Pacific paradise into a faux Piccadilly Circus with Circus being the operative word. Get the government out of our lives, stop selling off the farm and support those who wish to contribute, stop trying to support those who simply don't care. Over the long term it doesn't work. It's simple. I bought a Palm Treo off Telecom, it got drowned, I tried to replace it, they approved the insurance claim but told me they didn't support Apple. Say What! the salesman then went on to say that most New Zealanders drove Holdens. Well excuse me, I am one that will not buy crap. all the reports I read and all my friends who have iPhones in Ca tell me that they are exactly what they have been looking for. Apple produces products that people want. Period. iWant an iPhone for my iTunes, iWork, iBlog, iPhoto and all my calendar apps so I have one simple device I can use World Wide. Amen.

Comment by Neen, on 7-APR-2008 20:45

I found several sites that offer iPhones in NZ unlocked. I'd love one...my friends overseas said they'd never go back to a 'normal' handheld device. Is it worth getting one or will it be found that most of it features aren't supported in NZ ?

Do they work on Vodafone ? What works on the phone/network and what doesn't work ? Anyone know the answers ??

Comment by Frank Simon, on 6-MAY-2008 18:28

Hi,

Based on an german news article (Heise IT Newsticker, http://tinyurl.com/4utqym), Vodafone sign a contract with Apple to offer the iphone in 10 countries including Australia and New Zealand.

regards

Frank

Comment by Chase, on 28-MAY-2008 18:09

Thank you Richard. It is about time someone realised that NZ is going back to front and inside out! And yes this comment is coming from a born and bred New Zealander.

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Comment by Howard, on 29-JUN-2009 15:41

Don't buy an Iphone 3GS in New Zealand.

Buy an unlocked one in Australia.

It will then work in New Zealand on Vodafone 900Edge where 97% of people live, work and play. (Unfortunately this is slower than UMTS) It will occasionally be able to pick up 2100UMTS which will be fast.

It will work on Telecom XT in New Zealand on 850UMTS and 2100UMTS which is fast and where 97% of people live work and play.

In summary it will work fast all the time on Telecom XT and some of the time on Voadfone. Obviously the preferred network is Telecom XT for the iphone. Unfortunately they don't sell it in New Zealand but Voadafone do, unfortunately the Vodafone NZ model is locked, so you need to buy an unlocked one in Oz.