Three is the next operator to announce it will be offering the iPhone 4 in the UK, making it a clean sweep of the big five networks.
Following O2, Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile confirming they will be stocking the iPhone 4, 3 has taken a little longer to confirm, but given it's the first time it's had an Apple device in the UK, we'll let it off.
And the better news is that it will be releasing it ahead of T-Mobile by the looks of things, given that the pink network still hasn't given a definitive UK release date.
Same again
"Three UK will launch iPhone 4,the thinnest smartphone in the world with the highest resolution display ever built into a phone,inthe UK on June 24.
"Customers can pre-order iPhone 4 beginning Tuesday, June 15," said Three, trotting out the same words as the rest of the networks but thankfully remembering to change its name.
As you can guess, Three didn't give away any hints about an iPhone UK price, nor if it will be launching it on pay as you go, although we'll likely be finding out more in the next few days.
We can't imagine the queues will be as big outside the Three stores from 24 June as the flagship Apple store, especially if the iPad launch is anything to go by, but we're still glad that Three has finally joined the iPhone 4 party.
Your comments (12) Click to add a new comment
abc
June 11th 2010
12. @ romi:
Agree with you. Except on "branding" and "marketing" strategy the Iphone4 is definetely behind the Desire.
Apple = 95% scary marketing strategy for clueless fanboys + 5% innovation.
Not my cup of tea.
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healeydave
June 11th 2010
11. Well I think we will have to agree to disagree on that one!
The main thing is it doesn't really matter, at least those that don't like Apple can benefit from them having spurned other manufacturers into action. They were all guilty of dragging their feet on innovation front prior to 2007, after Apple entered the game, it was a big kick up the backside and a do or die scenario.
I'll stick with the company that doesn't need to play the spec's game to grab attention, who pays attention to build quality, incorporates a realistic feature set thats actually usable without carrying around portable generator and has UI finesse without having to bolt on extra layers to upgrade the basic interface to a passable one :-)
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romi
June 11th 2010
10. HTC Desire is a seriously impressive piece of kit, iphone 4 is lagging and no longer the frontier of mobile phone technology.
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healeydave
June 10th 2010
9. @mgillespie
2 years behind my ****, you can keep you droid & your fantasy opinions.
The desire has already been superseded in the ever fragmenting world of android and with htc wanting to make profits by churning out new handsets every 3 months, the old phones like the desire will keep getting sidelined for the next new thing.
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jimfu
June 10th 2010
8. @amit290 3 sell plenty of phones that don't support video calling, they gave up on that years ago. I think apple weren't interested in 3 because of the small customer base.
The network is pretty good now and the customer service has come on leaps and bounds, if only they sold femtocells I'd sign up.
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mgillespie
June 10th 2010
7. Meh, iPhone is now about 2 years behind Android in terms of real tech.
Why waste your money on a iPhone4 when a HTC Desire is not only cheaper, but considerably better to?
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healeydave
June 10th 2010
6. P.S.
Knowing the iPhone 4 was due around June, I have been out of contract since December waiting for it. So as I am pretty flexible to get it from anywhere, does anyone know what Three's coverage is like these days?
I know its been iffy, but unless they curtailed their expansion plans, I would expect it to be vastly improved by now, I will be using it in the Midlands mainly.
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healeydave
June 10th 2010
5. UK 5 - USA 1
I sent this headline to one of the other tech blogs saying its not an early prediction of this weekends world cup game but the results of the Mobile Networks the iPhone 4 will be available on where-by the brits have emphatically won already :-)
Since Tesco already sells the iPhone and they use the O2 network I'm sure they will be stocking the iPhone 4 too. Also, whilst Virgin has not said anything, they piggy back the T-Mobile network, so technically, the iPhone 4 will be usable on every network in the UK.
Perhaps we should amend that score to UK 7 - USA 1
;-)
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archdukecorvus
June 10th 2010
4. FINALLY!
Might actually get an iPhone now.
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tfawcett
June 10th 2010
3. Considering how competitve 3's iPad contracts are I will be very interested to see the cost of the iPhone 4
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amit290
June 10th 2010
2. You knew this was coming. As soon as the iPhone 4 had support for video calls '3' were going to bring the phone to their network. Thats the only reason they've not been selling the iPhone 3G/3GS like the other networks over the past few months.
I've got a feeling they'll be pushing Apple now to make '3' the first UK network to bring video calls over the 3G network, not just wireless.
I'm happy because I dont have to figure out how to unlock the phone now :).
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dvs
June 10th 2010
1. So why did Three supposedly make an announcement the other day stating that they had no intention of stocking the iPhone?
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