
Hallo
vom aus Deutschland! Since I haven't been able to participate in most of the
line-waiting,
MobileMe-stalling,
activation-collapsing fun yesterday and today, and the 29 pages of lovely iPod touch apps are
inaccessible until the touch update drops, I figured the least I could do was post a picture of one lonely iPhone 3G on display in the
T-Mobile store in the
Innenstadt (central city) of
Osnabrück, a medium-sized city in the northwest portion of the country.
The caption reads "Das iPhone, auf das Sie gewartet haben" -- the iPhone you've been waiting for. Despite
reports of mob scenes elsewhere, I can report that if you're looking for an iPhone 3G in Osnabrück you
can just walk in, lay down your euros and buy it with nobody in a sleeping bag blocking your way register for one when they get back into stock (weak!).

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Srdjan Dobic said 1:55PM on 7-11-2008
hey, how about reporting that half of the country can't log into iTunes to update our iPhones to 2.0
This is crisis, man!
Reply
Michael Rose said 2:23PM on 7-11-2008
It's not Germany, it's the world -- activation servers are down.
Srdjan Dobic said 2:31PM on 7-11-2008
Guess we just have to wait and pray to the server Gods.
Thank you Michael R.
cbenitez said 2:00PM on 7-11-2008
http://developer.apple.com/iphone/
Is down too
Reply
luke said 2:02PM on 7-11-2008
Österreich grüßt! (greetings from Austria)
In Linz (3rd biggest city in Aut (small country under Germany ^^)) you could hardly get any iphone. The ONE and T-Mobile (carrier) shops got only five to twenty phones per store. (i was in two ONE and two t-mob stores - had no luck)
i spock with a sales man from t-mob and he said they only got 400 phone nation wide. not good :((
now i have to order the phone online. to bad.
the wating continues
Reply
arun said 2:07PM on 7-11-2008
is it possible to buy iphone in germany without contract...please do telll.
and is it possible for a foreign national to buy an iphone in germany...please do tell...
if its not possible to buy iphone without contract , can i terminate the contract after buying...please do reply...im desperate to know..
Reply
luke said 2:13PM on 7-11-2008
nope
Macke said 2:17PM on 7-11-2008
Sounds to nice, to be true!
On many german Apple-sites you can read about quite different experiences:
Most of the T-Mobile Stores had only between two and ten 3G iPhones!
I reserved a phone a few days ago, in the hope to get one today, but..............
Have a look:
http://www.macnotes.de/2008/07/11/verkaufsstart-iphone-3g-lange-gesichter-vorm-t-punkt/
Headline means: Sad Faces in front of the T-Mobile Stores.
Reply
Leif said 3:04PM on 7-11-2008
According to some T-Mobile employees, Apple delivered 4800 iPhones to Germany. The local (Hannover, ~500.000 citizens) Apple reseller Gravis had *4* units, a huge electronics chain had *5* (which they were forbidden to sell until tomorrow). Both stores are in the inner city. It's an outrage.
Reply
Eric Simon Thomas said 2:38PM on 7-11-2008
In Holland it's no luck also! All servers down.
Here's a link to a German forum site where many people also have the same problems. No MobileMe, no 2.0 update no iPhone activation. Just like in Holland!
No iPhone stock here also. There were only proximally 5000 pieces.
Reply
1010 said 2:39PM on 7-11-2008
Damned french agreements !
We have to wait until July 17th for Orange to sell iPhones.
Reply
Eric Simon Thomas said 2:40PM on 7-11-2008
Oeps here's the link...
http://www.macnews.de/news/109672.html
Reply
Philipp said 2:45PM on 7-11-2008
FAZ (the german NYT) reports that T-Mobile Germany has sold more than 15.000 units so far. A 50 % increase compared to the launch of the iPhone 2G in November 2007!
Link: http://www.faz.net/s/Rub36B71B0E8E5C46E9AFBAF4B7B12FC9C5/Doc~ECEA2C14130F14AF7954DC30BF82435A5~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html?rss_aktuell
Reply
Spot2 said 2:43PM on 7-11-2008
First qustion... why do you spend your holiday in Osnabrück? :D oh yeah... I forgot.. because its the best city all over the world. I life there too ;)
An the reason for no people in the T-Mobile store is very simple.... IT'S ****** T-MOBILE! :D
Reply
DT said 5:12PM on 7-11-2008
It's not just T-Mobile, shops are so deserted because it's T-Mobile Germany we're speaking of. I think T-Mobile USA or T-Mobile Austria (tele.ring) for instance are far better at what they do or offer.
Christoph said 2:51PM on 7-11-2008
Hey Osnabrück. my hometown. I could serve you some coffee :D
Reply
Ed said 2:59PM on 7-11-2008
I've got mine here in Berlin without any hassle, either. Just walked into a shop in Schönhauser Allee and 40 minutes later I was home unboxing it. Unfortunatelly I haven't been able to connect to the iTunes Store yet. All I get is:
"We could not complete your iTunes Store request.
An unknown error has occurred (-4.)
There was an error in the iTunes store. Please try again later."
I do remember leaving the shop and thinking it was too good to be true.
Reply
bobobob2 said 3:16PM on 7-11-2008
Just by the way, it's "aus Germany", not "vom Germany", google translate sucks ;)
But no wonder, T-Mobile's the worst carrier ever, or the whole Deutsche Telekom, you can't even compare it to anything in the US, it's just the worstest. Plus, I think a lot of people are pretty angry at Telekom, they had a major stock crash in I think 2002, and ever since then it's been going down hill, I had 50 of 'em, lost about a thousand €, so I too refuse to shove any more money in the hungry and incompetent mouth of T-Mobile's, I'd much rather run it on simyo, a prepaid carrier that has no face to face customer service whatsoever, so no stupid people telling you things after a 20 minute drive that you already know. I'm just waiting for the 3Gs to show up on eBay, even though it's supposed to not happen, it will, I just feel it, someone, somewhere will find a way to buy one (or for that matter, many) without a contract, hell, people walked out of the store today with 3G and no contract, if this happens the first day, eBay's not too far away (alright, I know, the 30 day activation thing, but what's AT&T gonna do? Hunt you down and force you to sign a contract or give it back? America's a free country, or at least it's supposed to be. The year I lived there I felt pretty free though, so I just trust in the US)
Reply
mdk said 10:06PM on 7-11-2008
Well, I've bought the first iPhone on the day it came out with an original 24 months T-Mobile contract in Germany. Now T-Mobile is offering me to cancel this contract by paying EUR15 for every remaining month, just to make a new contract with a 3G, well even if the details of the contract haven't really changed (exept a 3G flatrate that is none, cause they drop speed down to 64KBit after some speedy megs). Optionally I could unlock my old iPhone for extra EUR100, or I can give my old iPhone with the contract/number to someone else, so I wouldn't have to pay those EUR15/remaing month.
Even if T-Mobile had gotten more than 5000 Units delivered today (even they're telling lies 'bout 15K), they'd never sell me a 3G.
I've learned something: T-Mobile? Never! Ever! Again!
and: use only unlocked, jailbroken iPhones!
or you'll get the f in your a
(Even this is a bit offtopic, i may add:
Never use Zibri!
Apple PushServices + MobileMe = kinda googlish evil)
Thank you for your attention, you may now continue watching pr0n
Reply
Alex said 6:15PM on 7-11-2008
Oh yes... I'm in Osnabrück, too... At 10 o'clock I went to the t-mobile store just to hear: sorry, no iPhone but you can register.
:(
Reply