It’s a great week for mobile telephone aficionados – not one but two new handsets have hit the market within days of each other.
The first of course is the 3 Skypephone which hit the shops on November 2nd and is available from 3 Stores and on the 3 website and the Skype website. From this Friday 9th November the iPhone will hit the shops and can be sourced at Apple, O2 and Carphone Warehouse retail outlets and websites.
Whilst the 3 Skypephone is available for just £49.99 on Pay As You Go or free on contract with 3, the iPhone requires an 18 month contract with O2 and retails at a massive £269.00 with tariffs starting at £35.00 per month. The Skypephone in comparison is an absolute bargain, especially bearing in mind it includes 4,000 minutes of Skype calls with 10,000 Skype messages for free!
eBay are limiting how iPhones are sold on the site to protect buyers and sellers:
- One-day listings and Three-day listings are not allowed
- Sellers must offer PayPal as a payment method
- New sellers cannot list using the Buy It Now (Fixed Price) option
The iPhone launch in the UK is sure to create a frenzy between buyers and sellers. but I won’t be one of them. It’s just too expensive for what it gives even though it’s a really cool piece of technology superbly engineered. There’s a lot of excitement about the Skypephone and I’ll certainly be sticking with mine with my 4000 minutes a month of free calls each month!
2 Responses
It’s interesting that the release of the SkypePhone coincides almost exactly with the news that we are now aloud to use Skype in all listings.
I notice from your previous blog entry that the SkypePhones do not yet support SkypeIn, that would just be the icing on the cake that would please all potential buyers:
0845/0800 number redirected to (SkypeIn) landline number redirected to SkypePhone
People who Skype can use Skype;
Those with inclusive minutes on their mobile/home phone contract can use the landline number;
Everyone else uses the local rate or freephone number. 🙂
SkypeIn and SkypeOut are coming, Steve: I guess we have to give 3 their chance to make some money first!