This column first appeared in Business & Finance in September 2007.
Richard Delevan

Shoppers at the flagship Apple Store on Regent Street in the West End of London were not amused last week when they found their path blocked by burly-looking men in black and the shop’s windows dressed in similarly opaque attire. But the high security was hardly necessary. Unlike crowds of fans in San Francisco or New York, the throng of pilgrims seeking a glimpse of London’s first native iPhones weren’t pressing forward like the front line of a festival mosh pit. Shoppers stopped for a moment to attempt to spot Steve Jobs or his new phone, but there was no pushing or shoving.
The muted welcome for the iPhone in London was never going to live up to the US launch, the hype around which would have pushed the Second Coming off the front page. In part this is because the world has seen iPhones, even in this part of the world. A shop on the Isle of Man even offers one for sale.
Another reason for the anti-climax of the European unveiling was the lack of mystery over the other main news point: which network was going to have the right to exclusively sell the iPhone for a couple of years. The Financial Times reported in July that Telefonica-owned O2 had clinched a deal - reflected in the deflation in the shareprice of Vodafone, which in late June had enjoyed a fillip on rumours it was close to the iPhone deal. As it turns out, the reasons Vodafone dropped out now become obvious. O2 proved willing to part with 40% of the price charged for calls to subscribers and share it with Apple. And like Apple’s exclusive relationship with AT&T in the US, unless you’re a reasonably accomplished hacker, you’re unlikely to be able to use the iPhone on a network other than the one Steve Jobs wants you to use.
Two final reasons that Apple’s UK launch had only a faint echo of the American cheers: The version of the iPhone to be sold in Europe this year won’t be able to access the broadband-speed 3G networks, but only the GPRS technology that will seem crushingly slow to most users. And the iPhone itself is an iconic “locked-down” digital appliance mentioned in a previous column. Only the applications Steve Jobs wants you to have are the ones you can load onto the phone - a stark contrast to competing phones such as the Nokia N95, with music players, cameras and GPS.
In fact, from beginning to end, the iPhone demands that the only choice you as a consumer can have is whether or not to plonk down the more than €1,000 for the privilege of ownership.
It’s occurred to some - fed, no doubt, by Vodafone’s vengeful PR spirits bitter about its loss to O2 - that the iPhone’s European launch could see Apple doing dramatically wrong-footed marketing for the first time in years.
In fact, the message that comes across from the iPhone seems an eerie opposite of the Apple brand values that captured the imagination of so many 23 years ago. Apple introduced its revolutionary Macintosh personal computer with a TV advert by famed film director Ridley Scott. It featured a tank top-clad woman with a sledgehammer running through an Orwellian dystopia of workers forced to stare at the same mind-numbing screen - until the female runner smashes the screen. The not-so-subtle message - Apple’s technology will set you free.
This columnist has, since first seeing that advert - lo these many years ago - been an avowed Apple fan. And we admit that we were swept along in some of the initial euphoria - until it was clear that we’d know the identity of the next US president before we’re likely to be able to purchase an iPhone in Ireland.
But we can’t help but notice that the iPhone launch in Europe signals an outright abandonment of that original message. The iPhone is deliberately limited to just a small fraction of what it would be capable of it were opened up to outside developers and if buyers were not locked into an exclusive network in each market.
It’s a point that Apple really ought to take on board - the whole idea of its corporate brand is threatened by the way its latest, greatest innovation is being sold.
Free the iPhone! seems an unlikely slogan for T-shirts, but you never know.

Richard Delevan is business editor of the Sunday Tribune. rdelevan@tribune.ie