How Much Is The iPhone3GS Costing In Asia? [UPDATE 2]

[UPDATE 3] Updated to reflect Vodafone Australia prepaid and Taiwan “contract-free” information.
[UPDATE 2] Updated to reflect Globe Telecom’s (Philippines) 3GS contract free pricing information.
[UPDATE] Updated to reflect Maxis 3GS contract free pricing information.
A boring Friday, as well as a slow news day results in some intensive surfing to satisfy my gadget lust for the new iPhone3GS.  As we all know, Maxis has not yet updated their iPhone microsite to reflect the availability of the new iPhone3GS, so a lot of people are left in the dark about how much it will or should cost when it does become available.  So, here’s an indication of how much the 3GS is costing in other “Asian” countries, defined as the Asian region plus Australasia (ie. Australia and New Zealand).  Different countries have different arrangements when it comes to buying the iPhone3G and 3GS; some countries force you to buy them from carriers only, others allow you to buy from the local Apple store (physical or online) as well as from the carrier.  I can only think of one reason for this “arrangement” – in countries where you can buy from both a carrier as well as Apple themselves, there is no exclusivity agreement in place between Apple and any carrier.  In countries where carriers are the only source for the iPhone, some sort of exclusivity contract is in place between the carrier and Apple – what this arrangement is, no one knows for sure.  We know that Apple takes a cut from the sale of the iPhone (naturally!) but whether they also receive a separate one-time or recurring “royalty” for awarding the carrier exclusivity or not is unknown.  Also unknown is whether Apple takes a “recurring-revenue-percentage-cut” from the plans that the carriers force encourage their customers to sign up for when they purchase the iPhone – this was known to happen to AT&T when it first carried the iPhone Classic (aka iPhone2G).

So, here’s a table of what we know now about the pricing of the iPhone, if you purchase it outright, ie. with no contractual obligations from either the carrier or Apple.  Since not many Asian countries have launched yet, we only have Australia’s and New Zealand’s pricing for now; as more information becomes available, I will try to update the table.  I have not put in the various plans or packages that the various carriers offer because it’s almost impossible to do a meaningful comparison anyway; plus 99% of you guys would probably just roll your eyes looking at the plans!

* based on contract-free “prepaid kit” pricing.  Thanks to “hotty” for the heads-up on Taiwan and Vodafone Australia prepaid pricing.

Back to the question that affects us here in Malaysia – what is taking Maxis so long to update its 3GS availability?  Are they still in negotiations with Apple about the exclusivity for the 3GS?  I feel that if Maxis wraps this up in the same manner as its existing 3G arrangement, it is going to miss another (big?) opportunity, and be possibly saddled with excess stock as is the (rumoured) case with its existing 3G stock.  This is because the situation with the 3G is going to repeat itself with the 3GS – those of us who can afford it, who really want it, will already have gotten it from overseas through our blood sucking nice “AP” importers.  I feel that those who are left to wait do not have the demographics that Maxis wants as a “good” customer anyway, so it’s a double whammy for them.  What do you think?  I’ve already placed my order for an Australian unit for the 16Gb model, have you?

Finally, how much are we expecting to pay for the 3GS when it does arrive?  Let’s take a look at how much a contract-free/SIM unlocked 3G model is selling for now:

1. Apple Store Australia 8Gb A$ 719 (RM 2,026)
2. Apple Store Hongkong 8Gb HKD$ 4,488 (RM 2,042)
3. True Move Thailand 8Gb THB 24,500 (RM 2,534)
4. Maxis Malaysia 8Gb RM 1,990
5. Globe Philippines 8Gb PHP₱ 33,599 (RM 2,506)

Of the above, the Australian/Malaysian/Philippines pricing has been adjusted to reflect the availability of the 3GS.  So I guess this gives us a good idea on how much the baseline pricing will be for the lowest end model of the iPhone when the 3GS finally becomes widely available in all geographies (the 16Gb 3G model is being phased out to avoid overlap with the new 3GS).  I suspect the Hongkong pricing has been adjusted as well.  Thailand’s pricing obviously has not – and this mirrors Maxis’ pricing most closely (Maxis has a “pseudo contract-free” 8Gb iPhone3G going for RM 2,540 for its prepaid Hotlink plan).  So, what do all these mean?

My prediction is that when the 3GS is offered by Maxis, the existing 8Gb should fall in price to around RM 2,000 give or take RM 50, for those “pseudo contract free” plans for their postpaid and prepaid customers.  The 16Gb 3GS should be available for maybe RM 2,700 for the cheapest iData plan of RM 30 monthly for their postpaid customers.  The 32Gb should sell for maybe RM 3,300 for the cheapest iData plan of RM 30 monthly for their postpaid customers.  I have a strong feeling that the new 3GS will not be available for purchase by their Hotlink customers, in order to coerce fence sitters to go for the cheaper and older, and higher stock 3G model.  If I were running the business, I would most likely make the 3GS available only to my most valued customers, ie. those customers who are paying me the most!  And then slowly, over a period of time, release it to the rest of the customer demographics.

What do you think?  Am I way off base here?  Are the prices I’m speculating on too excessive?  Will these pricing result in the majority of us getting our sets from overseas?  In the final analysis, Apple doesn’t care where we get it from – in the end, they still profit anyway.  All that will happen is foreign exchange leakage from Malaysia, and we’re helping other countries’ corporations stuff their pockets!

And finally, here’s an article about the battery life on the 3GS vis-a-vis the 3G.  The short of it is that yes, the 3GS does indeed give a far battery life than the 3G model – in fact, more than 50% on average.  That’s good news, I guess!  Click here to read the full article.

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