More iPhone rows

Around the time of the Irish iPhone release we covered Cubic Telecom president Pat Phelan’s reaction so-called ‘Paddy Tax’ affecting Irish users. His argument was that we in the Republic are getting a raw deal in terms of what we get for the privilege of owning Apple’s ever-so-cool handset.
To an extent he’s right, we are getting a crummy deal, especially in the data stakes but from Apple’s perspective we are a small market and don’t have the same kind of clout as the UK or the US. So we’ve got to either suck it up or buy a hacked iPhone and pray to God you don’t accidentally update the firmware.

Here’s what Phelan had to say yesterday:

O2 rubs salt in the wounds of Irish consumer with Paddy Tax version 2
Irish company Cubic Telecom today expressed Shock and outrage at O2, s decision to reduce the price of the iPhone in the UK by £100 with no announcement for Ireland.
“This is again of example of a totally two tiered structure that reigns between Ireland and the UK on the telecoms front.The £100 reduction, which will apply to the 8GB device on all O2 iPhone tariffs, will take place from 16 April and will run until 1 June. It follows T-Mobile’s decision to reduce the price of the handset from £315 to £78 in Germany.
An entry level iPhone is now £169 (€209) in the UK and remains €399 in Ireland. O2 have agreed to refund in voucher form £100 credit to all iPhone purchasers in the UK who purchased at the earlier price.
O2 Ireland have no comment to make on the matter and with the now obvious gaps between Ireland and the UK Cubic’s founder Pat Phelan is imploring iPhone fans to take a wait and see attitude.

We’ve been in the ‘wait and see’ camp since day one on the iPhone (we’ve talked about it on the podcast and on Phantom). The lack of 3G connectivity has always been a stumbling block in Ireland, especially when you take into account Apple want us to be online 24-7.
Rumour has it the sell-off is also in anticipation of the 3G model launch, expected some time in the next 2 months Stateside. Expect similar behaviour here when the new version is market-ready. We’re speculating on a September release with the UK etc ahead of us by 3-6 months as with the previous launches. We could be wrong though. Very wrong.