A few hours ago I stopped by an Orange Shop looking for micro-SIM cards and I asked an Orange representative about the date on which the iPhone 4 will be available for ordering at Orange Romania. The information received from the Orange representative is as follows:
- iPhone 4 will be available for pre-order at Orange in approximately 2 weeks;
- new subscriptions will have priority, then loyalty (subscription extensions) and there are small chances that it will be available at the standard price at the beginning;
- no information about the price is known yet;
- stocks will probably be low because Apple stocks are low.
The future doesn't "sound" very good, especially if Orange will force the purchase of iPhone 4 with new subscriptions because that means changing the phone number (as far as I know) and even if they offer the phone for subscription extension, we will still have to have a subscription big enough to get the phone at a significant discount and this extension excludes free decoding from the start.
Of course, this information comes from very low, that is, from the Orange representative, and the launch of the iPhone 4 in Romania could be done under different conditions and at another time, I found out a few days ago about a slightly later launch date. Considering that the iPhone 4 will be sold coded through Orange, I hope there is an option to buy it at the standard price, but looking at the measures taken by AT&T in the USA, I'm starting to think that the only way to buy an iPhone 4 from Orange it will be with subscription extension or the conclusion of a new one.
Now I can only hope that the law will come into force this and Orange will stop forcing people to make new subscriptions to buy an iPhone.
