The long wait in nearly over, in less than a few hours iPhone 3G will be released in Australia. While I’d have been one of the contender to get it in the first release Apple having released iPhone with Telstra, Optus and Vodafone only has left me with little choice other than to wait. Perhaps that is a good thing for all I know.
It would be good to see all bugs ironed out when I get mine. It still annoys me to think 3 missed out on such a huge deal… For those who may not know 3 launched in Australia in April 2003 and was the first 3G network here in Australia not to mention its 1.7 million customer base to this day — not sure what went wrong in Apple not choosing 3 during release of iPhone. Surely 3 has a bigger audience base compared to Vodaphone and Optus. This probably saw 3 gets customers to pester Apple for iPhone (via Harry). And after a huge response from a lot of 3 users Noel Hamill, Director Sales, Marketing and Product, 3 wrote in a message that they are going to take this appeal to Apple. But no release dates were mentioned.
Is this short-sightedness on part of Apple? Not sure. Then again when the 2G iPhones launched in US a year back they released them with AT&T. Not the best carrier in US either. Go figure! Apple does great things and I loved most of what they do but Phone carrier market research for Australia has clearly not been their strong point.
For me, I’m absolutely stoked to be getting away from 3 — I’ve had nothing but crappy reception and bad customer service since I’ve been with them. I’m heading back to Optus.
As for me though I have had great service. All the way… right from the time I started till date. No complaints at all. They were courteous to a flaw and very helpful every single time. Not only that I had good service when I was on International roaming both in Paris, Barcelona and India and Singapore. Can’t complaint at all. Shame they wont get the iPhone though.
You got me thinking and its all your fault Cam. Wonder if I can keep my number and move to Optus.
Sorry about that. And yeah, you can move to Optus and keep your number… I’ve already checked that out.
Good luck getting a phone from Optus now, though. The sales guy at the store where I was lined up (and didn’t get one) was telling us that Optus got less than half of the number of phones they wanted (he could have just been full of crap, though).
The real kicker for me was that I could only get patchy 3G service at my place, which is less than 5km from the centre of Melbourne. If they can’t manage to provide decent 3G there, I’m not going to bother.
Ahh! Thats god to know. Pain thought having to queue up and not get what you were there for. I wonder how long before they ship more in!!
Thats bad not having reception 5Kms out of Melbourne CBD. I don’t blame you.
Then again here is something interesting from Optus. They are all the same 3, Optus or otherwise. Sad but true.
Optus denies iPhone publicity stunt