Warning: If you love media, do not buy an Apple iPhone 3G if you live in Australia!
The Apple iPhone 3G fails at being a true multimedia device. Almost all of the great mobile content that is offered by Optus, Vodafone, Telstra and other content providers like MobileActive and Jamster is not available on the new iPhone 3G. The iPhone 3G is incompatible with a lot of the content services and does not support flash. The cost of using the iPhone to browse is a lot higher in Australian then it is in other countries. For example, in the US, iPhone customers are treated to unlimited web browsing!
As a result, once again us Aussies are hit with massive bills as soon as we try and access online video or stream musc. With petrol prices soaring, getting a hefty mobile bill could really set the average Australian back.
Mark McDonnel, telecom analyst at BBY, said Apple was purposely limiting the device’s ability to access other content sources in order to force Australians to buy their content from its own iTunes and Apps stores. They are trying to create a monopoly on the market, which should not be encouraged. Consumers need to rally together and boycott the iPhone to ensure this does not happen.
“Of course, Apple has its own platform and it’s a question of whether people want to adapt to fit their content onto the Apple platform, so I don’t see the technical barriers as insuperable but they do impose costs and delays,” he said.
For example, if you are on Telstra and have an Apple iPhone 3G then you can forget about Foxtel Mobile or Bigpond TV because they are most certainly not supported. If you are with Optus then you can no longer access their fantastic range of ringtones, wallpapers, music downloads or mobile TV channels, which include MTV, Ministry of Sound, Nickelodeon, ABC, CNN and SBS.
Vodafone succeeds at being the absolute worse choice if you want to indulge in media. The entire Vodafone Live portal doesn’t work and neither Apple or Vodafone seem to care, so why should the consumer?
“The iPhone 3G’s [web] browser, Safari, is an HTML browser - Vodafone Live operates on a PML browser, which isn’t compatible with the HTML browser,” Vodafone spokesman Greg Spears said.
I think the message is pretty clear here, the iPhone 3G is a terrible choice if you want access to mobile media in Australia
