According to Carphone Warehouse staff, the iPhone 2G has “3.5G technology”

Posted 28/11/2007

PLEASE NOTE: this was posted back in 2007, before the iPhone 3G, 3GS or iPhone 4 existed.

I was in the Selfridges Carphone Warehouse store on the weekend in Oxford street, and I happened to walk past the in-store iPhone stand (shown on the left).

As I was playing with one of the iPhones on display, I overheard the sales pitch from one of the young sales people to a couple of young girls.

What caught my attention was when he was showing the internet browser and said “…superfast internet…with 3.5G technology“. Hang on a second, we all know the current iPhone is limited to EDGE speeds (2.75G – 236Kbs maximum data rates).

The other troubling part of the pitch was when he said it was locked to the O2 network. the girls asked “can’t we unlock it?”, to which the sales assistant offered “I’m not supposed to tell you this but you can”.

The girls walked off, but I asked him if he had said “3.5G technology” instead of EDGE and he shrugged his shoulders and just said “they’re girls…you know..” and then kept repeating the phrase “EDGE technology” as I walked off.

One wonders if this is the standard pitch when people ask about the data speeds when the iPhone is on a cellular network. Granted, when connected to a WiFi network the iPhone will provide superfast speeds but those not in the telco industry may not know the device is not a 3G device.

About Andrew

Based in London, The Actionable Futurist and former Global Managing Partner at IBM, Andrew Grill is a popular and sought-after presenter and comementator on issues around digital disruption, workplace of the future and new technologies such as blockchain. Andrew is a multiple TEDx and International Keynote Speaker.