Vodafone today said that it would offer dedicated iPad pricing plans for all models, from the end of May in the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain and Australia. Apple had just got through telling everyone that international iPads would be delayed slightly, and then the operator’s began to confirm May delivery dates.
By saying that Vodafone will deliver all models, that means it will be selling the Wi-Fi only devices as well, which must sell without a 3G data package, but might take in a partner, such as BT, and it’s global Wi-Fi network. The deals cannot be exclusives since T-Mobile and Telefonica would never allow Vodafone to have the iPad in their home territory without a fight, so expect all the major European cellcos to come out with plans in a similar timeframe. In fact the Orange announcement came hard on the heels of the Vodafone one, the same day and using almost exactly the same ‘Apple approved’ wording.
It is likely that Vodafone will dramatically lower the consumer price of the 3G iPads by subsidizing them, perhaps not down to zero, but certainly something approaching half price, and it will use the subsidy to sell two year data contracts. Most of the Vodafone handset internet data plans come with a 500 MB monthly cap, which will go nowhere on an iPad and it is likely that the cap will need to go to 2 or 3 GB before it will attract customers. The iPhone is offered by Vodafone with 1 GB of data a month, on contracts as low as £25 a month.
Although Vodafone was the first UK operator to say that it will offer the iPad and give a date, it is unlikely that O2, the original exclusive iPhone supplier in the UK and Orange (as we have said it already echoed the statement), which also sells the iPhone now in the UK, will miss out of the opportunity, especially now that the device has proven a success, with Steve Jobs citing sales of 450,000 devices in the first few days of going on sale in the US.