iPhone

Possible Pricing for iPhone in Singapore

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Using the fact that Optus is Singtel-owned, the pricing that Optus released for the Australian iPhone today is extremely interesting, and gives deep insights on what the possible pricing for the iPhone in Singapore will be. It is also highly possible that the plans offered in Australia under Optus will be similar to the plans offered in Singapore eventually.

There are both pre-paid and post-paid plans for the iPhone, and for the pre-paid plans, the iPhone is priced at 729 Australian dollars(about 960 Singapore dollars) for the 8GB model and at 849 Australian dollars (about 1110 Singapore dollars) for the 16GB model respectively.

The pricing sounds extremely outrageous compared to the pricing offered by carriers in other countries such as the U.K. and the United States.

However, the site itself is relatively confusing as it is not clear if customers opting for a contract-based plan will be getting the phone at cheaper rates. If the rumors that Singapore will be only getting the unsubsidized iPhone 3G are true, I am going to be one furious Singtel boycotter.

Singtel is still going to win big time though, but I foresee a big market of grey imports as soon as Singtel announces a ridiculous pricing.

The real cost of the iPhone 3G according to Singtel

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How much will the iPhone retail in Singapore for exactly?

As the Mac faithful have found out after watching Lord Steve’s WWDC keynote, iPhones will not be sold for more than USD$199 in all countries (in Apple’s own exchange rates) so long they are being sold with data plans and contracts.

Is it really the case?

Why, then, are there news coming from many insiders from Singtel that the iPhone will be sold unsubsidized in Singapore, for a price of $500 to $1000?

Singtel, the strongest mobile operator in Singapore simply because it is “state-owned” (it is privatized, but the major shareholder is Temasek Holdings, which is stated-owned, and is controlled largely by the ruling family in Singapore, the Lee family), is almost definitely the main choice when Apple was looking, many months ago, for a mobile operator to launch the iPhone 3G in Singapore. Furthermore, Singtel, with a large number of subsidaries in Southeast Asia and Australia (Optus Group), will give Apple the benefit of being able to sell to a large number of SEAsian countries while working with just one operator in the region. Which is why it was not surprising when the news broke that Singtel had secured the rights to sell and distribute the iPhone 3G in Singapore, during the Stevenote at WWDC 2008.

Since then, however, there has been a spade of unconfirmed news from a few very trustworthy sources that Singtel will not, as Steve said, sell the iPhone 3G for only USD 199 in Singapore. Instead, these sources claimed, the iPhone 3G will be sold totally unsubsidized, coupled with a contract and a Singtel data plan, and will retail for about 500 to 1000SGD, which makes it around 370USD to 720USD, two to four times the price of the original iPhone 3G.

While there have been news and rumors that other operators such as AT&T will be offering the iPhone 3G unsubsidized and without a contract for a higher price, the case with Singtel has been that they will be selling for a higher price anyway, even with a contract and a data plan. The excuse here seems to be that mobile phones, especially smart phones, are in the range of 1000-1500SGD in Singapore anyway, and according to sources Singtel apparently thought that it makes no business sense to be selling the iPhone that cheap in a country where most people treat mobile phones as a status symbol. Singaporeans are constantly on the lookout for better and more expensive phones to buy, and most Singaporeans change mobile phones on a 6-months basis.

While the majority of this report is based on nothing but unofficial rumors, to most Singaporeans this(iPhones priced at 1000SGD) is definitely a scenario that is highly possible, and while most Singaporeans will cringe at the price set by Singtel, there will still be many of us who will shell out the additional dollars for the iPhone, especially since it is now almost impossible to buy an iPhone from another country without first signing a contract and activating the iPhone, largely stopping all possible illegal hacking by the iPhone jailbreaking community.

Looks like Singtel will be the big winner here.


Specs of iPhone 2!

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Cult of Mac is reporting that the new iPhone will have;

-3G
-GPS
-2 x memory (16GB and 32GB)
-22 percent thinner
-Better battery life

and will only cost $200 USD (roughly 273SGD)!!!! OMG! OMFG!

This is going to be really fun.

It’s Official: Singtel to carry iPhone in Singapore, India, Australia and Philippines

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It’s finally official: Singtel, as first reported by MacRyu many many months ago, will be carrying the 3G iPhone into Singapore, and various other countries through its subsidiaries. According to Italian sources, the 3G iPhone will be available in Italy in June, and thus we should expect Singtel to offer it in the few weeks after them as well, instead of the previously reported September timeline.

You can read the report off Appleinsider here

On other iPhone-related news, AT&T is showing a iPhone Black in their inventory list as shown here. Is this proof that this is real?

3G iPhones to be totally unlocked?

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Some really interesting news/rumors to report. According to a relatively reliable source, the 3G iPhone might be totally unlocked in all countries, directly in the firmware. There will still be “exclusive carriers” in various countries, but these carriers will essentially be selling unlocked phones which can be used with other GSM carriers as well.

This sounds like great news as the new 2.0 firmware and the lack of a need to unlock the phone via hacking will greatly undermine the need for jailbreaking.

In other news, we have unverified rumors that the 3G iPhone will see the light of day actually BEFORE WWDC, within the next 2 weeks. This is apparently so that developers will be able to actually have 3G iPhones with them during the WWDC sessions themselves, as well as stick to the tradition of not releasing consumer products during WWDC. With the news of the total unavailability of iPhones in US and the UK released last night, this news seems accurate.

But of course, until we actually see the 3G iPhone, we won’t know for sure.

Quick update on the Singtel iPhone news

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Just a quick update on the Singtel iPhone news we got several weeks earlier. According to sources, the announcement/news might have been released to the media by a certain someone from Club21’s iShop, and might not be that accurate after all.

So is the iPhone coming in September or not?

We hope so. Will report back again when I have more news. And yes, technically speaking the hiatus is still on.