Much as expected, this mornings ‘surprise announcement’ from Apple revealed that in the UK the iPhone would be exclusively on O2 and available through the Carphone Warehouse.

In terms of pricing the handsets will sell for £269 and will not be subsidised. Users will have to sign up for an 18 month contract which will cost either £35, £45 or £55 a month. All the contracts will include unlimited data, plus free access to the 7500 wi-fi hotspots operated by The Cloud. Other important points to note are that this is the same iPhone as in the USA – so no 3G. The phone will operate on the older GPRS system, making use of EDGE where available – currently only about 30% of the country.

That is certainly going to make things interesting over how the phone will sell and who will buy it. The majority of phones in the UK are subsidised, so comparatively the iPhone is a big outlay. The free wi-fi is nice, but in comparison to the high speed connection I can get pretty well anywhere using my 3G phone it is a definite step back. Certainly a quick straw poll around here has found that the lack of 3G is a definite sticking point for the UK techie. However much the funky touch-screen attracts them, over here 3G is a big issue.

However, where it might sell is with the fashion concious who are only after a phone. Certainly the hype and the unique look may well find a lot of users going out just to have the latest and greatest phone. Even without 3G it is still perfectly able to make phone calls, and works fine as a music player – it’s just that I don’t think you’re going to find too many of the techies queuing up for it come November 9th. I’m sticking with my Nokia.