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So finally, the iPhone hits the UK, after weeks and months of speculation, pretty much all of which came to fruition, this Tuesday. The basic run down is that the iPhone, is the same iPhone we’ve come to criticize, on O2 exclusively.

So that means, UK users can expect to pay £269 for the handset, and then hop onto O2′s data orientated pricing plans, which range between £35 and £55 a month. The former offering the same 200 minutes and 200 text messages as the O2′s £15 price plan. So what are you paying the other £20 for? Presumably you’re inadvertently paying some money for iPhones ‘Visual Voicemail’ service, as well as a bucket load for the ‘Unlimited Data’ service being offered.

Unlimited Data? Really? Ok, I was lying, it’s just another marketing term, you’re really being capped to 1,400 pages per day. But that’s alot of pages, surely that’s fine, right? Well it could be, but look at the finer detail there too, is it 1,400 text only or ‘lite’ pages? If so, you can bet media rich pages full of adverts, images and such will account for a decent quota of ’1,400 pages’. Speaking of media, what if you were to load YouTube, that’s rife with media, how many ‘YouTube pages’ could the O2 data plan allow you? I’d guess ALOT less, and with this leaves alot of uncertainty. O2 needs to clear the air here, and explain what is the cap for ‘fair usage’ per day on it’s data plan, because right now it’s far too vague to support or criticize.

So, it’s the same phone as the USA, yeah? Exactly, so expect 8Gb of storage, expect no MMS, no ‘Copy and Paste’, expect no 3G. What, no 3G, but this is Europe, we’ve had that for donkey’s? Yes, we have, but according to Apple, or rather Steve Jobs, 3G isn’t viable now:

Steve: “The 3G chipsets are real power hogs. Handset battery life cuts power to 2-3 hours.” “Our phone has a talk time of 8 hours and that’s really important when you want to use your phone for internet and music. 3G needs to get back up to 5+ hours.”

So if it’s not 3G, what is it? It’s Edge, which is often relayed in marketing speak as ’2.5G’. It’s basically GPRS with a little kick to get extra data speeds. It’s fairly widespread in the USA, but here in the UK, we promptly upgraded the majority of the network from GPRS (2G) to 3G, it made alot of sense. Thus, there isn’t an actual substantial infrastructure for O2 to build EDGE connectivity in the UK. Infact, it is seemingly working EDGE single handedly for the iPhone.

O2 reports:

“We’re investing in EDGE. As many people have noticed, hey I have EDGE! By launch we’ll be north of 30% and build from there.”

So, O2 has 3G enabled handsets and the UK is fairly widespread with coverage for 3G, why are they working on establishing 2.5G in the country? Let’s face it, even if you’re not clued up on technology, if someone said to you, I’ll give you 2.5G or 3G, which would you choose? Yes, you’d be right in asking for 3G, and it boggles me, and many others as to why O2 would invest huge amounts of money to support this.

This is Apple, they can skew anything into positive press, right? Well if you look at today’s event, you can see they tried. I think deep below the skin of Apple (pardon the pun) they see the weakness in not delivering a 3G product in a continent that is very much used to such devices. How do they try to combat the negativity that comes with that? Well, Steve Jobs explains that 7,500 WIFI spots will be free to access for iPhone users on O2. WIFI spots powered by Cloud, will be free to hop on and off at your leisure, so maybe that eases the pain of not having a 3G data service? It COULD be, yeah, but it really depends on your locale. If you’re area is full to the brim with Cloud hotspots, you might be in luck, but the chances are you won’t have as many as you’d like, and you’ll be relegated back down to EDGE… But Oh Wait! Maybe you won’t even be on EDGE either, because don’t forget, O2 announces that November, when the iPhone launches O2 will have coverage of just 30% of the country in EDGE. What can the other 70% expect? GPRS, or 2G which is laughable really, but slowly the picture begins to paint itself. If you’re on GPRS, the chances of you loading even 1,400 text only pages is minimal, in one day, so maybe that’s how this all works?

So there you have it, an insight into iPhone, the UK, O2 and Apple. How many of you will be buying, knowing the more nitty gritty about it all?

iPhone is available, November 9th in the UK, you can find more information about it, here…. I would link you to the O2 Shop’s iPhone information, but the irony here is that they’re store has gone down, presumably under the pressure of inquisitors, doesn’t bode well for customers wanting to switch to O2 now, does it?