Apart from my frustration about how the arrival of the iPhone to Ireland caused Vodafone to drop their Nokia N95 prices, I don’t think I can add a whole lot to the discussion that’s been published already:

It is interesting though, that the phone is only available on 18 month contracts – O2 are basically cutting themselves off from a fairly big prospective market. Though, I’m guessing there’ll be many Mums and Dads who’ll be under pressure to cough up.

However, to see how exactly O2 are going to do off the back of screwing Irish consumers, you just have to see this quote from Dermott Jewell of the Consumer Association of Ireland from The Daily Mail (no link unfortunately):

However, Jewell feels that Irish consumers, in their rush to get hold of their shiny new iPhones, will ignore the anti-competitive charges from O2.

“In this market economy, and with healthy waiting lists for the phone, its almost a self-fulfilling prophecy and there won’t be any complaints about the prices.

“Unfortunately, we won’t see the levels of consumer agitation that could deter this,” Jewell added.

Essentially, since the country’s still relatively speaking awash with cash (or easy credit), anyone who’s blinded by the iPhone bling will be splashing the cash on March 14th.