Because geek is cool and clever

Hey, Apple. Watch your step October 1, 2007

A few weeks ago I wrote how we Brits can feel cheated by having to wait for new gadgets that usually surface first in America.

A case in point was Apple’s iPhone which won’t see the light of day here until November, some five months after its American debut.

I must admit that the gadget and Apple fan within me was starting to get really tempted into shelling out for a UK iPhone but having seen what’s on offer, how much I’m going to have to pay for it and, crucially, how Apple is treating its American iPhone customer-base, I’ve decided to steer well clear.

The phone will cost a not inconsiderable £269 but more importantly you will be locked into an 18 month account with the O2 network at a minimum tariff of £35 per month. A quick bit of mental arithmetic calculates that at a total cost of ownership of at least £899 – and that’s for a service that offers no 3G coverage.

Perhaps more importantly, those owners in America who hacked their devices to use other networks or install third party applications saw those devices rendered unusable by a software update to the phone.

Such harsh treatment by Apple lowers their standing in the opinions of many.