Rory Cellan-Jones has done a useful investigation into whether iPhone users on the Orange network can expect a better deal than they’d get from O2. Conclusion: don’t bet on it. He concludes with this para which, in a way, tells you everything you need to know about the iPhone:

The problem for the operators is that users no longer see the iPhone and similar devices as phones but as small computers. And who wants to be told 25 days into each month that they must now stop playing around with their computer and just use it to make calls?

It’s also pretty clear from his account that the deal Apple has extracted from Orange leaves that unfortunate network with very little wriggle room for undercutting O2.

UPDATE: Email from my colleague Michael Dales, who has a long memory:

This has always been the way with Apple – if you look at how much Apple charges for computers, and how much resellers charge, the prices hardly change at all. Apple seem to police the prices – you will charge our RRP or forget it.

On the original iMac I remember there was a fuss where Tesco managed to get a job lot cheap from somewhere or another and were selling them a great discount, and I think Apple tried to stop them.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/04/20/tesco_offer_shifts_400_imacs/

Welcome to the world of Jobs :)

From Good Morning Silicon Valley.

There now, that wasn’t so hard. In a change of heart, AT&T said Tuesday it would allow iPhone owners to use Internet voice applications like Skype across its 3G network, and all it took was the clamoring of customers, the threat of tougher competition and the specter of government intervention. The system works!

Concerned about losing revenue and adding to its traffic load, AT&T had initially imposed restrictions that limited the use of iPhone VoIP apps to Wi-Fi connections, even though it let some Windows Mobile phones use such apps across its network. The reversal, the company said, was not the result of a sudden epiphany, but the result of a “regular review of device features and capabilities.” “Today’s decision was made after evaluating our customers’ expectations and use of the device compared to dozens of others we offer,” said Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T’s mobility and consumer markets division. Yep, just an ordinary review that began back in August, right after the FCC sent a letter to the major carriers asking them to explain their policies on Internet telephony apps. With the FCC’s embrace of Net neutrality principles and now a Google-Verizon alliance making openness a key selling point, AT&T must have figured it was a bad time to look like an obstructionist.

Funny how things happen when the FCC takes an interest. OFCOM, are you listening?

Hmmm… New York Times reports that

Apple told the Federal Communications Commission on Friday that it did not reject an iPhone application submitted by Google and that it was still studying it, in part because of privacy concerns.

Apple was formally responding to a commission inquiry into the reason the Google Voice service, which offers users free domestic telephone calls, deeply discounted international calls and SMS messages, had not been allowed into the Apple iPhone App Store.

Apple said in a letter to the F.C.C. that Google Voice duplicated the functions of the iPhone, which uses the AT&T network in the United States, and might confuse users. The application “appears to alter the iPhone’s distinctive user experience by replacing the iPhone’s core mobile telephone functionality and Apple user interface with its own user interface for telephone calls, text messaging and voice mail,” the letter said.

Apple also raised concerns that Google Voice copied all of the information about a user’s contacts onto Google’s servers. “We have yet to obtain any assurances from Google that this data will only be used in appropriate ways,” the letter said.

Interestingly, Apple said that it had not discussed the Google Voice App with AT&T and that in most cases “its contract with the wireless carrier gave it the sole authority to decide whether to accept applications”. But is also admitted that it had agreed “not to allow any applications that sent voice calls over the Internet, bypassing AT&T’s network, without the phone company’s permission”. This explains why services like Skype were allowed by Apple — they used only Wi-Fi connections, not AT&T’s network. So the problem with the Google Voice App may be that it doesn’t send calls over the Internet but connects to both parties over the telephone network.

This isn’t over yet. It’ll be interesting to see the FCC’s response.