Say what? iPhone available for purchase at Amazon Germany?
(Click image to enlarge.)
This has so totally got to be a mistake. Or a 3rd party hoax. Amazon Germany (Amazon.de) lists the iPhone for sale at 899 Euros (approx $1036). It has all the right features and "Technische Details" but it also has an "add to shopping cart" button that's enabled. ("Jetzt vorbstellen") So what gives? Maybe precision German engineering has gotten all that tachyon stuff ironed out or maybe there's something in the text (which I can barely read; mein Deutsch schreklich ist) that I'm missing or maybe it's something with the flux capacitor. Any insights welcome in the comments.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Lee said 1:27PM on 1-12-2007
The text below the price says it's not available yet and you are in fact pre-ordering it.
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Tony C said 1:35PM on 1-12-2007
I ran it through Google Translate...
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.de%2Fdp%2FB0002W4OVW&langpair=de%7Cen&hl=en&safe=off&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools
...and it looks properly enough like one of their preorder pages...
Not created by a third party store, though a good deal of the product page is just from screenshots and text cut and paste from Apple's website (and not even linked)...
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Till said 1:39PM on 1-12-2007
So, Your german is funny, not bad though! It actually says "pre-order" on the shopping button. They say: "will be delivered as soon as product is availale, pre-order now". I'd love to affirm the high skills of german engineers but unfortunately this is not the case here!
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Jonathan Hillebrand said 1:55PM on 1-12-2007
I assume, that the iPhone is available only through T-Mobile germany. So this must be a total mistake. And I think not until late 2007.
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geezer said 2:02PM on 1-12-2007
"jetzt vorbestellen" means pre-order now
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th said 2:03PM on 1-12-2007
"Jetzt vorbestellen" means something like order now, and at the bottom of the page it says "On sale since 17.04.2004", which is pretty strange.
BTW, it's on sales rank #11 by now!
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Christian said 2:04PM on 1-12-2007
Funnily, Amazon specifies the operating system as "Mac OS X" which certainly is not the case. It's OS X at best. But I am still surprised it's already listed at Amazon, even more so at their German store.
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Stuart Frisby said 2:06PM on 1-12-2007
Notice that the graphics are ripped straight from the iPhone website too, rather than being official press photographs. They even used the strapline images from the site.
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Christian said 2:07PM on 1-12-2007
@th (#6): The iPhone currently ranks #2 in electronics. cf. http://www.amazon.de/gp/bestsellers/ce-de/ref=pd_ts_h/303-6586680-7214650
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thedonkey said 2:28PM on 1-12-2007
BTW, I just want to be the FIRST one to say that "jetzt vorbestellen" means pre-order now, or maybe it's something like order now. How much do you want to bet I won't be the LAST one to say it.
;-)
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Mikey said 2:44PM on 1-12-2007
Amazon.de is usually pretty quick when it comes to offering stuff for preorder. But in my oppinion this pre-order offer is highly questionable. I have seen Amazon.de offering a certain book for the past two years now, always claiming it will be available "within a few months" but the problem is: the actual publisher does not know anything about that because the book is out of print and there currently are no intentions to reprint I have been told. Yet Amazon is happily accepting pre-orders for it. Interesting, huh?
So, are they maybe just hoping the iPhone will be on sale this way? Well, we'll find out as time goes by.
Mikey
Germany
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thomas said 2:49PM on 1-12-2007
Not locked to any contract obviously, although all providers seem to be heavily interested. They seem serious about this, so apparently they have more info regarding availability. And pricing says: no risk, if prices go down, you will be charged the lower price.
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Michael said 2:54PM on 1-12-2007
It's a pre-order, but the interesting thing is that the phone will be sold by Amazon, not a third party.
This may fuel the speculation that the phone will be available unlocked and without a contract outside of the US.
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Christian said 3:06PM on 1-12-2007
Strange offer - notice that this is not bundled with a contract...That would be a good sign!
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Marco Senf said 3:07PM on 1-12-2007
It says it's offerd since 17th of August 2004. Well, there seems to be a mistake, but otherwise this could be the distriubution strategy over here. Making it more expensive, but selling it without the contract. Would be cool! It looks quite real. The 8GB model sells for 999€.
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jan303 said 3:19PM on 1-12-2007
german site fscklog.com made a preorder and got an expected shipping date of march 15-17,2007! not bad, looks like we'll get the iphone here in germany 3 months before the us... ;)
oh, and did someone already mention it's at #2 of the best selling items?
i am pretty sure the iphone will be unlocked and 3g once it comes here... unfortunately not before fall.
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Marco Senf said 3:29PM on 1-12-2007
The question is: Is the sim-card replacable to change to provider? I guess the US Version has it build-in - so there is no slot ...
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Jay said 3:32PM on 1-12-2007
While it may be true that the iPhone will be supported only through T-Mobile, that does not stop anyone (including Amazon) from selling them if they can source them. Or for buyers to use SIM cards for other providers. Cell phones aren't provider locked in Germany like they are in the U.S. and U.K.
The 4GB is 899 Euros and the 8GB is 999 Euros. Oh and that button says "pre-order now". ;-)
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Jan said 3:45PM on 1-12-2007
It's on number one right now!
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Jonathan Hillebrand said 3:46PM on 1-12-2007
Maybe it's just a clever way of viral marketing.
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