Steve Jobs announces iPhone for the UK

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has announced that the iPhone will be available in the UK from the 9 November.

The much anticipated phone and music player will be available exclusively on the O2 network. Cost of ownership however is an upfront £269 inc VAT, plus an 18 month phone contract with O2.

Three tariffs will be available, costing £35, £45 and £55 per month. All three include unlimited mobile data usage, so users can surf the internet without extra charges.

Jobs reiterated his earlier comments that the iPhone was "the best iPod we've ever made", and described it as "a breakthrough phone". His comments were echoed by O2's Matthew Key, who said that "within about two minutes of having the device, I knew if was a breakthrough product".

iPhone users will also have access to 7,500 WiFi hotspots provided by The Cloud, but unlike many rivals the device does not allow users to access the internet using fast 3G technology.

Jobs described current 3G chipsets as "power hogs", and explained that 3G had been omitted to save battery life. "The iPhone has a talk time of eight hours", he said, "most 3G phones are two to three hours ".

Jobs said that the slower EDGE wireless technology supported by the iPhone as "works really well" for most iPhone applications. Over thirty percent of the O2 network will support EDGE when the iPhone is launched in November.

The iPhone will be available from O2, Carphone Warehouse and Apple stores. Each store will have an "expert" to advise customers, and O2 will have 1,000 customer care experts dedicated to its iPhone customers.