iPhone 4 UK Why Aren’t Carriers Offering Pre-order?
Yesterday saw a somewhat haphazard pre-order day for the new iPhone 4 over in the States, but eventually people must have got passed all the issues as pre-orders for the new iPhone have sold out, and even a new shipping date is now up on Apple’s online store.
But what about us Brits? Virtually all the major UK carriers advertise they will offer the iPhone 4 as of launch day the 24th of June, so why do they not offer the same pre-order date?
On checking the main websites of Vodafone, O2, Orange, and T-Mobile today, no of them have allowed pre-ordering, with their iPhone 4 pages simply offering the ability to sign up to show your interest; even Tesco is showing register your interest.
With Apple and AT&T pre-order sales sold out could this mean that the UK can’t offer pre-order on the iPhone 4 because they don’t know just how many units they will have available? Which also begs the question, will all the UK carriers actually be able to fulfil demand on June 24th?
What are your views on this situation, should UK carriers have offered the UK public the same iPhone 4 pre-order ability as over in the US?
Comments
2 thoughts on “iPhone 4 UK Why Aren’t Carriers Offering Pre-order?”
I held back on pre-ordering from the Apple Store as I wanted to see contract tariffs first before deciding on whether to buy direct from Apple or via a carrier.
Now I fear that it will be very diffcult to get an iPhone 4 within the first 3 or 4 weeks of it's launch given how many have been ordered across all of the launch countries.
I've also been with my carrier, Vodafone, for 2.5 years and only had one handset. I like their network coverage so will stay if they can offer me a good deal, but I fear they will simply offer the same price for upgrades as new customers. This is a shame given how much loyalty (and cash – approx £500 / yr) I have given them!
I think its a case of either apple not allocating enough handsets, or the networks are trying to come together with pricing arrangements.
Phil, the network doesn’t give a damn if you can pay your monthly line rental, its when you overspend that a network makes money, and they didn’t announce profits this year by giving ‘loyal’ customers freebies or anything more than a new customer (sounds harsh mate, however its annoyin when people say that) think business mate, you’d do the same, just cos there a large network doesn’t mean anything. Back to the point of the iphone! I think the pre-orders is a shambles and it’ll probably only be released on the 24th june, providing networks have enough handsets.