iPhone coming to Ireland

[Satcomer]

O2 confirms iPhone launch in Ireland and they are shooting for a March 14th launch.

[macbri]

Good news, and of course this being Ireland there's a catch (besides the cost!): directly from the O2 website:

*** Visual voicemail is not currently supported.

D'oh!

[Lt Major Burns]

hang on, i thought that that was the only feature gained from having a 'close carrier relationship'?

visual voicemail my arse. it's a non-feature.

[Thank The Cheese]

does anyone know what is up with this seemingly random, drawn-out rollout of the iPhone. I mean, even Canada doesn't have it yet for crying out loud.

Just speculation, but it seems to me it must be Apple playing chicken with carriers until they give in to their demands (namely, getting a cut of monthly fees). Surely it is better for Apple in the long run if they just release the darn phone everywhere. I mean, they've sold ~5M phones so far. If it were available everywhere in the world the iPod is sold, that number would be at least 3 or 4 times bigger IMO. Maybe more. And with that install base spending money on accessories, music, video and soon 3rd party apps, that scenario is going to make more money than what they have now.

I'm no business genius, but this just seems like common sense to me. I must be missing something.

[Giaguara]

Must be something with the way of calculating the revenue.

Since there were 1.15 billion mobile phones sold in 2007 world wide, you'd think that if the iPhones were available around the world they'd sell a bit more than 5 million