So you pay £270 for the iPhone and an additional £180 over the next 18 months if you take the minimum O2 tariff they force you to take. The £35 a month tariff is actually O2's £25 a month tariff. So your iPhone will ultimately cost you £450. Sounds fair. I am surprised Apple has been allowed to do this. Did they not whinge and moan at Microsoft when they were bundling Internet Explorer and Media Player with their Windows OS, saying it did not allow healthy competition or something along those lines. I have used O2 a number of times and their service is terrible. So although I love the iPhone, I shall not be forced to use O2's poor service and pay over the odds for it. I understand O2 have the exclusive deal with Apple for 5 years so I guess I'll never own one. lol

Paul Prendergast, London,

yaaaaawn! so dull, so what? its only a phone, only a fool would pay £270 for a huge phone and huge contract. So what its apple? There are loads of excellent phones on the market for free! Lets face it, you only bought one because of the hype surrounding it. Remember the spice girls? boom and bust! (excuse the pun)

LB, Aberdeen, Scotland

iPhone fantastic device
O2 deal - pants

I would pay £250 for a sim free iPhone from Apple.
Have no need for a long term contract from O2.
So until unlocked iPhones are sold by Apple, count me out.

Lets see how much they cost when sold legally unlocked from France?

unklerupert, Birmingham,

Its fair to say the phone expensive and fair to say you dont like all things apple you may only say this however if you own anything apple. Having changed our home network totally to apple in the last year(all 4 computers) we now know why people bought this stuff yes its expensive Dell has better PC specs but it never crashes runs 24/7 without complaint. They do thing that people can use rather than overcomplicated devices from HP or Sony having tried out the iphone its worth the money

Aplle Rules

Simon, newcastle,

ah, but what many people seem to miss is that the iPhone's importance goes far beyond its' raw technology - so many groups are making great technological advancements so that it is quite common but very very few are successful at taking that raw technology and making it useable and productive - this is where Apple excells. Most technology companies understand their technology but Apple understands both the technology and how people function with it. At our office, we use Blackberry phones, with many great capabilities but the interface is so very poorly done, and access to the functions is so heavily nested that it cripples the phone and makes it useless. After using a friends iPhone, I really have the urge to throw my Blackberry off a high bridge.

Gary, Fort Worth, USA

Martin and Dave,
Obviously 2 guys who do not own an iPhone. What is it that makes a guy who doesnt own one or hasnt used one feel so compelled to give an opinion that is negative.
Gentleman, please give us the same opportunity...post pics of your wifes/girlfriends so that we may judge them without having used them also.

Pope, Farmington Hills,

Martin Bentley - what are you talking about? Have you used the iPhone or iPod Touch? Do you know anything about the iPod range over the past x amount of years?

I assume not, so let me fill you in. Apple iPods, just like Apple 'Laptops', have traditionally been expensive pieces of kit that do less than their competitors do. There, i've said it. I agree with you. There are technically better products available for less.

Always have been though.

So why do they sell so well? Why are they classed as 'groundbreaking' devices?

The short answer is that they are incredibly intuitive and easy to use. And if you use any of the new Touch range of products, you'll find them better than any Nokia or Samsung or LG product. Browsing the internet is amazing on a Touch. I've never said that about any other mobile product. So that's why Apple are confident it'll do well. And I truly believe it will.

Dan E, London,

I bought an iPhone and have no complaints about it. So far it is the best phone I've owned for several years and the lack of 3G is not a issue. I'm happily browsing this page and posting here using my phone while on the train travelling home from work. Well done Apple for creating a truly usable product.

Richard Law, Glasgow,

I think its so funny what people say, these days.
"Since the iPhone does not have anti-gravity, its just not worth it." :-)
"My other phone has many more features (which I cannot access) so I won't be buying the iPhone." :-)
"If 100,000 people buy an iPhone in 2 months, its disapointing sales. If 10,000 people buy a 3gen Razr, its a wonderful sales success. " :-)

"I love Apple Mac, great products, until now. The iPhone specifications are so far behind" --- So, you love Macs but hate the iPhone. So- no big deal, don't buy it, buy one of those cheap phones that have features that keep crashing the phone so you have to re-boot it. :-) People that like Apple products like that they are simple to use and just work.

Other wise, they would buy Vista. LOL :-)

Elder Norm, palestine, usa / texas

I have the Ipod touch 16gb, this is a fantastic device. However turning this into a phone has runied the device as phones are much more advanced now with 3G capability.

Iphone should stick to what they are good at. Selling Ipods for music.

Harby Garchay, Coventry, UK

I own an iPhone, and after having owned many other cell phones, I can tell you that this is the best phone I have ever had. The map function is superb, as is stocks, weather, iPod, Safari browser and the calendar. It beats my previous Razr phone hands down!

Bill, Albert Lea, MN, USA

The iphone is an overpriced overhyped botched phone.

A few features it lacks and doesn't support are
a) camera flash (!!!)
b) mms capabilities
c) expandable memory
d) applications from third parties
e) High Speed mobile internet over a UMTS network.

Sure wifi is a nice addition but sometimes but it doesn't allow full mobility, and it's not even innovative other phone manufacturers have included the feature long before apple did.

Downloading songs over wifi (again not over 3G) is always a nifty feature (call me Zune) however once again a 3G network would have allowed to download songs from anywhere in the country (Nokia has launched a nokia music store for accessibility and downloading over 3G)

The iphone as a phone is bad idea. The Iphone as a media player ( aka Ipod touch ) however is simply brilliant.

George M., Guildford Surre,

Dated indeed but to be fair the iphone was designed for a US market, a market which barley runs GSM handsets never mind the outrageous GPS 3G 5 megapixel freebies that we have in the UK. Imagine the abuse Apple will receive if they try to launch iphone in Japan… oh wait they are?? lol

Jim, Birmingham,

hold your breath for the Christmas launch of the Nokia N81 touch screen and then shop around for a "Free" phone with a competitive 12 month contract. What type of a sucker goes into a mobile phone store in the UK (where all phones are subsidised massively) and pays over £200 and signs a £525 contract?

if you are still buying into the hype of this phone take a cold bath and realise in the US where it launched the iPhone was upgraded within a few weeks. That upgrade was a cost reduction. The same will happen in the UK, and in 18 months the iPhone will be a museum piece.

philippe, Harrow, Middlesex

Bought it randomly, as I was walking past an O2 store on the day my last phone broke.

I tend to dislike anything MAC - but it's genuinely fantastic.

10/10

I'm glad it's selling slowly.

Gives me more time to show off.

Mark, Woking, UK

The iphone is amazing just the feel and the virtual touch is fantastic so what if it hasn't got the latest 3g or MMS support.

I have been using the iphone since the launch and its so fast for internet use. I would have paid £500 for this iphone its amazing and I can't wait to see what else apple have for the future if you don't have this phone then I'm afraid your five years behind.

Time magazines invention of the year.

lazystudent, London,

All the independent reports I have read suggest that the launch was somewhat less than successful.

Not surprising considering the technology is a generation behind the latest phones from other manufacturers,

Derek , St Ives, Cambridgeshire

i am very impressed by this device the interface is spot on. the bright screen is a delight to use. the message service is something i havent seen on any mobile device with chat like function. ipod is great for a user like me who doesnt have 1000 cd to add to the libary. Youtube is a treat for those video junkies. only drawback is that its Edge when you can get it - which doesnt bother me.

Asif, Rochdale, UK

I had a Sony Ericsson M600i for a year until I got my iPhone. I liked the M600i size, keyboard, and UIQ stylus. However, like a lot of Symbian phones it's incredibly slow and unresponsive. After a year, even rebooting the phone did not always improve the speed. I tried a Nokia 6620 a couple years before that and it was worse.

The iPhone is very responsive. It definitely has flaws, but I'll never go back to Symbian. You're right to complain about the specs and the price, but I still love it -- it's much more useful to me than the Symbian smartphones I've tried. Some people say Blackberry is better, but I haven't tried those.

Topar, San Francisco,

Once upon a time as a Telecoms consultant for Price Waterhouse - Now - Long in the tooth - & far from the Guru days of old comes along a new device - the I-Phone

In these days where everyone can pitch a view of the technology they use (hope to use) here goes.

The Iphone possibly represents the greatest leap forward in technology today per se.

NOT by offering the longest list of functions and features that most of us have no need for.

BUT by providing an electronic tool that has NO NEED for a long confusing manual and is totally intuitive to use.

Well done Apple for keeping to its 35 yr old mission to provide easy to use technology for the world.

Well done Romania for getting the product ahead of UK.

Richard Prior, Bucharest, Romania

It's easy to not like the iPhone if you've never tried it, but the user feedback from the states is fantastic. I've had mine since Friday now and it's in a different league to my previous smart phone (a Blackberry). The 3G thing isn't such a big deal as it has WiFi and even on edge it only takes a few seconds to load most web pages, also being 3G would ruin the battery life so I'm happy without it.

Stuart, Wirral, UK

The iPhone had only been launched 3 days in the UK and you should want to purchase the iPhone, use it for a month then post a comment instead of coming off with remarks alluding to "what-if's" and "what-nots".

An iPhone cost S$900, unlocked and scores of people buy it here in Singapore without operator support, 3G and all the other issues already known. But after a month's use the iPhone performs better than any mobile phone/smart phones I'd had in the past which were a Treo, HP, Nokia & SonyEricsson.

And that's where the iPhone succeeds - simple, intuitive use of its features and without the frustrating menus of Windows Mobile or Symbian. The iPhone is not a perfect fit for everyone and Apple must be sorting out its shortcomings with future firmware and hardware updates. Look at how far the iPod has progressed to clue in on Apple's commitment!

As of now, I'd just wish Apple would launch the iPhone officially in Singapore.

A Rahim, Singapore, Singapore

It's not about technical specs it's about usability. The iphone is more usable and simple then any of the higher spec'd phones out there. Apple wins, and you guys don't get it.

Martin2 , Seattle, WA

I have to agree totally with Martin. Nice post SIr.

The iphone is already old, the technology proven to be flawed and a mere touchscreen isnt new technology.

From the queues ive NOT seen at stores, the ghosts have been buying them

Dave, Swindon,

I love Apple Mac, great products, until now. The iPhone specifications are so far behind what has been on the market for a year or so it's somewhat embarressing. I'm hoping it doesn't harm the reputation of Macbook, iPod etc which are all great well designed products which also have great performance and specification. The iPhone on the other hand although stylish and with a good interface just doesn't match the performance I've come to associate with Mac.

When Windows Vista was so blatantly floundering it would have been much more intelligent for Apple to have pushed their excellent range of Laptops instead.

Martin Bentley, Bristol, UK