[craigd]

Well i have to say the service i got from telechoice today at fountain gate was awesome, they were under the pump form 7 on wards and they remained professional throughout

Voda on the other hand, were dead, i even hada guy from crazy johns trying to entice me into the store for an iphone as the was not a single person in there store.

The offical voda store were still putting up there pos at 850 this morning, boy did these people fuck up,

just popped into camberwell and they have loads of stock the guy said it was a badly handled fiasco from the start (his words)

[mechcon]

I sincerely hope that voda/telstra re-assess their plans/data packs... Optus is unbeatable at the moment.. unless 3 pull something out...

[NeoRicen]

I've said it in other threads but it's relevant here, almost ALL the customers at the Sydney Apple Store are going Optus, they have to go all the way up and down the queue searching for Telstra/Voda customers so their reps have something to do.

[furious]

serves them right.

[kitsune]

Same story at Chadstone this morning. I wish there were some way Apple could make Vodafone give all their unsold stock to Optus so we can get them quicker.

[Piratbyran]

They will have to release better plans. Surely.

[uncyherb]

Voda & Telstra seemed (from my perspective) to have just said to themselves "Meh... stuff 'em, they'll buy it because they have to... make stupid plans designed to rip 'em off, cos they're all stupid and will buy it anyway."

Thank god Australians don't seem that stupid.

[tomricci]

Optus is the best!

[Piratbyran]

Helstra have the hiptop, why would they want to have its competition as well?

[Erwin]

Originally Posted by kitsune

Same story at Chadstone this morning. I wish there were some way Apple could make Vodafone give all their unsold stock to Optus so we can get them quicker.

Great idea - if only.

[Mohawk]

I know that it takes a while to organise plans to release to the public (and maintain a healthy profit) but why didn't Telstra and Vodafone modify their plans to remain competitive with Optus?

Optus announced their plans first and I had thought that was why the other two had waited longer, they were caught off guard by the reasonable plans that Optus brought out and were adjusting theirs accordingly...

[3dward_Shaddow]

Just walked past Optus World on Hay Street at lunch, thought that I could register for the next lot. The line was about 10 or so deep, running out the door.

Across the mall was the large shiny Vodafone store, with maybe 3 people in it. No one buying it from Digilife either, everyone in there were looking at Mac's not iPhones.

I guess the people have voted with their feet!

[laprius]

indeed...what a sad day for Voda...mind you in trying to get my account ready for porting I've tried to call them for about an hour and a half...so their call centres are busy doing SOMETHING! maybe processing disconnections

[matthewk]

Originally Posted by kitsune

Same story at Chadstone this morning. I wish there were some way Apple could make Vodafone give all their unsold stock to Optus so we can get them quicker.

Have to agree. Optus had a big line at Chaddy, Telstra a reasonable line But Vodafone was almost empty, well besides the bored sales staff.

So it turns out the iPhone is not good enough to make people pay ludicrous amounts of money, I think someone at Voda is going to be in trouble.

[grorr76]

just back from chaddy, optus sold out telstra still has stock and a healthy line still vodaphone empty who knows??

[webbaldric]

Originally Posted by uncyherb

Voda & Telstra seemed (from my perspective) to have just said to themselves "Meh... stuff 'em, they'll buy it because they have to... make stupid plans designed to rip 'em off, cos they're all stupid and will buy it anyway."

Thank god Australians don't seem that stupid.

From the carriers point of view, its all about the math on per customer profit.

If they don't pay Apple until the product is sold to the end user (or to be specific, don't pay the subsidy) they they aren't carrying alot of cost or risk by not selling the handset.

But from a per customer basis, on profit margin, that 1 Telstra customer is probably worth 10 Optus customers and about 2 or 3 Vodafone cutomers.

And when they are looking at it that way, it doesn't matter.

It also doesn't matter if you are viewing the iPhone as 'just another handset' - the carriers are in a world where they are boss, the fact someone might align with a network entirely over a handset may not have sunk into their heads.

Kudos to Optus for 'getting' the iPhone and what its about.

That all said, it's hard to imagine what Vodafone's management will be like next week, there might be a few post mortems there, there has probably NEVER been such a stark example of competition in action.

Telstra - well, they'll just bank another couple of million in profit for today and spend it advertising a network no one can afford to use.

[Reubania]

Where are the crowds??? I thought we were guaranteed a queue!!! Its the JesusPhone for goodness sakes!





Pity the two Vodafone customers had to wait for the store to open at 9am!!





The queue outside the OWS in Chadstone. Looks like Optus will be the one laughing all the way to the bank with their new JesusPhones!

[laprius]

That's insane...surely this is going to be a launch that will be the stuff of marketing lectures and PhD's. It realy shows the arrogance that Telco's are capable of sometimes (mind you it's a given for Telstra lol)

[Reubania]

Serves them right. Thank God for our anti-competition practices, we have THREE carriers to select from, and it's pretty obvious which one won.

Just goes to show that Australians aren't stupid and bend over at every of the telco's whim.

[msilsby]

When I worked at Vodafone, their mantra was to get 4 million customers. They now have that, and I am wondering if they have made a conscious decision to change focus to increasing revenue per user (RPU) over customer numbers? Either that, or they thought that people would just pay it.

Optus has obviously still a desire to be number 1, so they are pricing things competitively, it is just a shame a telco like virgin (yes, I know its optus) or 3 didn't get the iphone - then plans would have really heated up!

I have gone to optus - and am happy to report no problems. I don't have a handset yet, but have been promised one by friday this week.

The good news is that due to Vodafone and Telstra not having sold much, all of the stock coming into the country should go straight to optus.

It would be interesting to see at some stage what the sign up numbers would be? How many customers has optus stripped from the other telco's? I know at least a dozen people who have changed to optus from 3, Telstra and Vodafone.