Today the iPhone was launched on the UK market, other European markets will follow, sooner or later, and I'm still wondering what I will do when they will make the phone available in Italy.

Not only the phone doesn't support European fast 3G networks (like most other modern phones do), but it also come bundled with a contract, which is something that really bugs me.

According to some rumors, Apple is required to sell an "open" version of the iPhone on the French market (and maybe even the Italian one), and some say that they will, but at a significantly higher price. Which probably means that Apple is getting a share of the contract with the telco.

Actually I do remember reading that the iPhone is so complex that it's necessarily more expensive than other smartphones, and that Apple needs to sell it with a locked contract in order to cover this additional value.

Yet, I look at my iPod Touch, I look at an iPhone, and I notice that the first has just the same hardware as the second, minus a camera, a GSM and a Bluetooth chips, and a few less applications installed. And the price difference is €/$200. Now, with 200 bucks I can buy a couple of phones with a camera and a GSM chip (and a battery, a case, a keyboard, a display, etc.). Which I think it means that Apple is making more money with the iPhone than the iPod Touch even before getting a share of the traffic contract.

These are very cool products, and even if they are still in their early stage, you can see genius. But before parting from all that money, I guess I will wait a little bit to get a slightly better deal.

(Or, quite possibly, I won't resist and buy one as soon as it becomes available).

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