Filed under: iPhone
Report: Germans buy 10,000 iPhones
T-Mobile is reporting that 10,000 iPhones were sold in Germany on the first day of sales. A store in Cologne re-opened at 12:01 AM for the event, and T-Mobile reps distributed blankets, umbrellas and warm snacks to shoppers standing in wind and rain.No activation numbers have been released yet. It has been speculated that demand will be greater than supply during the holiday shopping season, but a T-Mobile spokesman told Reuters: "We have plenty."
To our German readers: Enjoy your iPhones! Let us know how it goes.
[Via MacNN]
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Simon said 3:18PM on 11-09-2007
FIRST!! I got my iphone a little while, they're truelu awesome!
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Durvivor said 3:49PM on 11-09-2007
So, any chance I can order a T-Mobile (Germany) iPhone bring it to the USA and place my T-Mobile (USA) SIM card in there for a unlock free way of utilizing T-Mobile here in the USA?
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thaddi said 4:27PM on 11-09-2007
reached the t-mobile store in berlin around 1pm, was basically on my own, got offered a drink (wish that would happen when you enquire about a landline!), the demo unit did not work at all and the girl who was supposed to show potential customers the features got it all wrong and had to do everything with the phone attached to the dock, because the phone was out of power.
i've been with t-mobile for more than 10 years now and used a blackberry so far on an unsubsidized contract, so i was good to go. punters who are still in a two-year agreement and who got a mobile for cheap, will indeed need to pay 10 euros for each month until their contract would expire on top of the monthly iphone tariff. bummer!
went home, put in my old t-mobile sim, connected the iphone to my mbp, activation was done in 2 minutes. interesting detail: t-mobile chose the cheapest tariff for me automatically, which i wanted anyway ...
funny thing happened 10 minutes afterwards: t-mobile called and some sales rep wanted to offer me a huge price deduction on my old blackberry tariff. little did he know
reception is excellent, voice quality is decent and EDGE is really everywhere (t-mobile did extensive work on this network over the last months, at least here in berlin ...)
now i just need a ecnt pouch to keep the iphone clean and warm.
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Snaggy said 4:52PM on 11-09-2007
*sigh* must be nice!
/me silently cries and goes back to the Apple Store Canada vigil.
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Klemens said 4:59PM on 11-09-2007
Just for clarification: Over here, you can't get an iPhone without signing a contract in store. Thus, selling numbers=activation numbers.
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Pep said 5:39PM on 11-09-2007
@ Durvivor:
No. T-Mobile USA and T-Mobile Germany are different networks, which just happened to be owned by the same company (Deutsche Telekom). Phones locked for T-Mobile Germany won't work with T-Mobile USA.
cf. Klemens' comment:
I was wondering why they don't do this here in the USA too: if there's so much trouble with unlockers and resellers, just don't sell iphones without in-store activation. End of problem. Aaaah, then they'd sell less. So who is it that wants to have their cake and eat it too?
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PeWi said 6:01PM on 11-09-2007
OT. Well done Erica being on BBC Newsnight just now - the moderator made a heck of a job off it though.
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brando_commando said 7:10PM on 11-09-2007
Klemens I'm actually suprised they have done this and expect them not to continue the policy: The main reason is because people want to give these phones as gifts. Now that may seem like a crazy expensive gift to you but in all actuality it is common in the US.
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Jamar said 9:41PM on 11-09-2007
@Pep- actually, T-Mobile's SIMlock only locks phones to the T-Mobile network, not to a specific country's T-Mobile, which is rather nice of them. You only have to bypass activation (if it's still there).
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Klemens said 2:27AM on 11-10-2007
@ Daniel, who thinks he is super clever:
The iPhone is distributed via T-Mobile exclusivly over here. When I was talking about stores, I obviously meant T-Mobile stores, which there are plenty of. Also, which is rather unique, Apple does not sell them through the German online store; you are being forwarded to the T-Mobile online store. That's what I mean with "exclusivly". Try it:
http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/germanstore and than click on the iPhone.
It's interesting to see a gigantic company like Apple adjust to different national markets. Nonetheless, the expensive rates are a big bummer, I'd be surprised if these prices were not rejected by the average customer.
Just one further notice: No individual iPhones sold -> low chance for German iPhones to get unlocked.
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kiwi66 said 4:04AM on 11-10-2007
So they sold 10'000 subscriptions at the time AT&T sold 500'000 and they call it a success? I would call it the return of their arrogant sales technique. Apple will fail in Europe with that. People want to buy the device, not whoever's service which they might already have.
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aric said 6:14AM on 11-10-2007
the main carphone warehouse in leeds, uk sold 2 iphones and closed early beause no one turned up- my mate works there. the carphone warehouse in gloucester had a massive queue at opening of......five people.
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Daniel said 6:54AM on 11-10-2007
There are no Apple stores in Germany where they could sell iPhones....
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Ken said 8:02AM on 11-10-2007
Has any one with an unlocked US iPhone tried it with visual voicemail on a network that now has that feature in Europe?
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Kjell Bublitz said 10:12AM on 11-10-2007
launch failed as expected. i will just sit back an relax and wait for the next generation. hopefully t-mobile and apple will learn from this.
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Gopi Flaherty said 10:23AM on 11-10-2007
See, this is why Apple didn't want iPhones unlocked. AT&T sold what, 500k on opening weekend? And there have been around 250k unlocked iPhones exported internationally. When you combine that with the much higher market share of smartphones in Europe - meaning lots of people *already* have smartphones - I'm not that surprised the sales volume is unimpressive.
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Daniel said 11:25AM on 11-10-2007
@klemens
no Need to be aggressive.
to be more comprehensive - i wonder if Apple had a Store in germany you
could buy an iPhone without Instant activation?
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Klemens said 12:46PM on 11-10-2007
Sorry Daniel - anyway, no, there are no such store, one is supposedly being built in Munich right now. But since Apple's online store forwards to T-Mobile's, I don't think they will sell any seperate ones in Germany.
Waiting for the French unlocked iPhone.
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JHH483 said 1:34PM on 11-10-2007
uh, kiwi? What are you talking about, Germany is a much smaller country than the US, so consider the fact that the percentage might not be as high, but it is definitely not too far from the percentage in the US, and though it isn't the success there, they also did not have as much hype because they did not go to macworld, or have as many rumors. (From my viewpoint anyways.)
(Germany — Population: 82,400,996 (July 2007 est.))
(United States — Population: 301,139,947 (July 2007 est.))
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hille said 5:28PM on 11-10-2007
i bought an iPhone yesterday morning at a local t-mobile store and i am very impressed by the phone. It is definitely the best digital device i ever had.
Fees are ok for Germany, though higher than in the US.
So: Happily wating for the new firmware hack. :D
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