Australian iPhone Pricing And Plans - One Day To Go
There is only one day to go for the release of the iPhone, so today I will devote some time to all the latest rumors and news for the Australian release of the iPhone as it comes in.
Each of the three Australian carriers has been playing cat and mouse with their respective plans and prices with both Optus and Vodafone having released details of their plans by yesterday.
Within hours of Vodafone releasing their plan details online yesterday, they took them back down again, while Telstra has remained completely tight lipped and released nothing.
The only carrier to release both their plans and pricing is Optus.
Here is a wrap of how things stand this morning.
Prices and Plans
With Telstra not having released their plan details at this stage, only Vodafone and Optus can be analysed here.
The best value prepaid plan is Optus’ $50 cap, which comes with 500MB of data per month, plus all Optus users receive free data for the month of July. It’s not all roses though, as call charges can be steep, with charges calculated per minute, not per 30 seconds, which can help to chew through your call times.
The Optus $59 postpaid cap plan may be a better choice. It offers the same 500MB of monthly data and you get the iPhone foe $2 for the 8GB model and $7 for the 16GB model over 24 months.
Vodafone has said it will have similar prepaid offers in the future, but not at time of launch. This is obviously what my friend at Vodafone was meaning on the weekend when he told me to hold off buying an iPhone for a couple of months.
All that is known of Telstra’s pricing at this stag, is that you can get an iPhone on a $30 plan for $279 for the 8GB model or $399 for the 16GB model on a 24-month contract with no extra monthly handset repayments.
Heavy Surfer
If, like me, you were hoping to get a good deal on a large data plan, you are fresh out of luck. None of the carriers is offering anything above 1GB per month.
Once again, Optus has the best value plan at this stage for 1GB of data, with it costing $99 on the postpaid plan and $100 on prepaid.
To get the same deal with Vodafone costs $169 per month.
Unlocking
iPhoneInAustralia.com is reporting that all Aussie iPhones come ‘bricked’ out of the box and that while you can buy them outright and activate on a store version of iTunes, it will lock it into the carriers sim in the phone. In other words, you will be locked into that carrier.
I am not sure if this means your phone would be locked into that carrier indefinitely, but if so, I would expect a fix for this, so should not really be an issue.
So there you have it. I’ll post more details as they come to hand.
Apple Store Goes Offline
As noted earlier today, prices for the new MobileMe service were up this morning. Checking on the Apple store just now though, it seems the entire store has gone offline.
I checked both the US and Australian stores, so this would seem to signify a new product launch, whether this is the new App store, or something else remains to be seen.
MobileMe On Sale In Australia
You can now buy MobileMe service in Australia, so it is ready to roll (hopefully) when you get your brand new 3G iPhone on Friday.
MobileMe, the Internet service from Apple, automatically pushes new email, contacts, and calendar events to your Mac or PC and over the air to your iPhone and iPod touch. So no matter where you are, your devices are always up to date. You also get easy photo sharing, 20GB of online storage, and more.
Prices are $119 for a single user license and $179 for a family pack.
Australian To Wait For 16GB iPhone?
I was at a party last night and having a chat with a rep for one of the Australian mobile companies. Naturally, we were chatting about the upcoming release of the 3G iPhone, with me pumping him for all the information I could get.
As expected, I didn’t get too much out of him, other then that they will have them in the stores, ready to sell on July 11.
One interesting bit of information he did have though, was that there would only be the 8GB model on sale on July 11, with the 16GB not being available for another two months.
I haven’t heard this anywhere else, so cannot really say if it is factual or not. I would think not, but I will try and see if I can get confirmation anywhere else. If true, I don’t think this would be a supply issue at all, it could be a way of preventing getting topped by the other carriers plans. The company could be using it to release the smaller capacity iPhone, seeing what the plans are from the other carriers, then providing a far more competitive plan in two months time, with the larger capacity iPhone.
As the party finished and everyone went their separate ways, just before I left, he told me to hold off buying an iPhone for a couple of months.
Has anyone else heard rumors of this, or of better plans coming out a couple of months after the initial release?
Optus iPhone Plans Revealed
With the complete lack of plan details coming from the three carriers in Australia I was starting to wonder if they were simply going to wait until the day of release before making an announcement, but it looks like it got the better of Optus, who has bitten the bullet and been first to make their iPhone plans public.
The data allowance is, as you’d expect from an Australian telco, pretty low; there is no unlimited, fair use plan, nor anything of any reasonable size that would be affordable for the average customer, however it is better then I expected.
I was speaking with Optus recently about their upcoming data plans and they were totally surprised when I informed them I was hoping for gigabytes data plans; apparently, they could not fathom why someone would like so much on a mobile phone.
What You Get.
Starting at the least expensive, $19 cap plan, you get $50 worth of calls and text combination, plus 100MB of data. This looks pretty good for someone who wont be using much data, but it comes with a 35 cent flagfall and 47 cents per 30 seconds call, which is ridiculous, unless you basically don’t plan on using your phone.
Taking the middle of the road $79 cap plan, you get the $550 worth of calls and text combination and 700MB of data.
The top level $179 cap plan gives you $1500 worth of calls and texts, and 1GB of data
Excess data is 35 cents per MB, but you do get the phone for free on a 24 month contract.
I am not sure what Telstra will be offering, but I expect Vodafone to come out with something much more generous with their offering.
Telstra Announce First Australian iPhone Plans
Telstra today were the first Australian carrier to announce prices for the iPhone.
One of my twitter buddies, Shaun, posted the link to twitter.
Telstra is reportedly going to match the other carriers and release the iPhone on July 11, after previously having set July 22 as the release date.
The good news is that Telstra is going to offer the iPhone, starting at $279 on a $30 plan for the 8GB model and $399 for the 16GB model on a 24 month contract. Telstra will not be selling the iPhone outright like Optus and Vodafone.
Telstra did not release any details on data plans, other then to state that each plan includes free Wi-Fi access at Telstra hotspots
Pricing Options
- 8GB iPhone - $279 upfront on a two-year contract at $30 per month, or for free on the carrier’s $80 per month plan.
- 16GB - $399 on a $30 per month contract or included for free with a $100 per month contract.
I think I may see if I can find out more tomorrow. Hopefully they have a reasonable data plan.
Aussie Store Selling Unlocked 3G iPhones
iTWire reports on an Aussie store taking pre-orders for unlocked 3G iPhones.
LineLink Data Communications is listing 3G iPhones for $775 for the 8G model and $875 for the 16G model. Where possible, the phones will be unlocked at time of shipment. LineLink already offers unlocked, Australianised versions of the previous iPhones.
The price listed for the 3G model is higher then I have been told for buying outright from the carriers. Vodafone is reportedly going to offer the 3G iPhone outright for $699 for the 8G model, although this rumor is not confirmed.
As the 3G iPhone has not been released yet, there can be no immediate guarantee about it being unlocked. I am sure it will be achieved, look at what happened with the previous model, but there may not be as much incentive this time, with what will be far more attractive prices.
Some of the questions I wanted to put to LineLink include:
- When will the phones be available?
- Where are you sourcing supplies from?
- Is the unlock guaranteed with updates for any patches Apple may release?
- Will warranty be retained.
I am not expecting to get answers to these questions, but think it would be in LineLink’s interests to respond if they hope to have a reasonable market for the phone.
If you are considering purchasing a 3G iPhone from LineLink, you should at least get these questions answered prior to making a commitment. Alternatively, just wait until the official release date to see what the carriers are offering.
Carriers Overwhelmed By iPhone Demand
It seems Australian mobile carriers did not expect the level of interest in the upcoming 3G iPhone, with their pre-registration Websites overwhelmed with visitors.
Vodafone’s pre-registration site has received 40,000 daily visitors since it opened last week. Optus, who also have a pre-registration site, has not released any numbers for their offering, where they were accepting advanced deposits for the phone. Due to the unexpected demand, Optus were unable to keep up with the number of requests and stopped accepting deposits last week.
I hope they have enough supply to meet the demand. I’ll be checking in with some friends to make sure I get mine ASAP.
3G iPhone To Usher In Mobile Social Networks
Will the 3G iPhone be the device that reshapes the Web? I think it has more potential then any other device presently on the market. Sure there are some features that it will be able to improve upon, but it certainly has the potential to be game changing like no other mobile handset.
I thin it offers the most potential to further the advance of mobile social networks. While mobile social networks are nothing new, for various reasons, their take up has not exactly been stellar, but I think over the next two years, this will rapidly change.
Online Social Networks
The obvious question is, why won’t the existing online social networks simply build upon their user base and grab similar market share in the mobile arena.
The answer to that is that they are trying to, but at present all they are offering the user is little more then their existing sites. There isn’t too much game changing there. This isn’t to say that they won’t have users. They will of course, but there is huge potential for mobile social networks to come along and take over.
Features A Mobile Social Network Needs
The reason I see the iPhone being such a game changing device is not specifically one feature, but rather the entire implementation and the possibilities it provides.
Here is a list of some of the features I think are going to be important for a successful mobile social network. Many of these features already exist in one form or another on present mobile social networks, but not all of them are integrated on the one network.
- Ease of use and simplicity:- This goes without saying, but can often be overlooked.
- Slick interface design:- While Google and many of the online social networks have proven that a slick interface design is not a requirement for success, as this post is dealing specifically with the iPhone, it should be a requirement.
- Geolocation and geotagging:- Any mobile social network that does not include these features will miss the boat.
- Media upload and sharing features:- The ability to instantly record images and video from the phone and upload and share with friends. Both videos and images should be automatically geotagged on upload.
- Locate friends:- Friends should appear on maps, with the ability to select various radius from present location, such as 1Km, 5Km, 10Km, etc.
- Find new friends:- While at a location, set the phone to discoverable and be able to meet other people on the network who have the same setting, with the ability to browse their profile before making contact. If you are interested, a quick message is sent and they in turn have the choice to respond.
- Organise contacts into groups:- Automatically organise phone contacts into groups, such as family, business and friends.
- Privacy features:- Change your privacy settings for the level of visibility and the details you reveal to people.
- Search and recommendations:- While out shopping, it would be great to be able to search on your phone for the nearest store selling the product you searched for and also be able to see user reviews for that store, similar to Whrrl.
- Favorites:- In conjunction with the search functionality above, the inclusion of an opt-in service that would push certain specials based on your location and criteria. As an example, you have chosen to be advised of any specials on Canon cameras, you have gone to another city for a weekend and while out shopping, your phone advises that a shop 5Km from your location has a special on the latest Canon.
- Integration and/or domination:- There are two ways to go here, either clone of integrate. Integration of existing networks would be useful, for example, the inclusion of a user’s twitter stream, however, this type of functionality could also be built into the new service.
Monetization
With In-Stat forecasting global mobile social network users to number 975 million by 2012, there is a captive market, waiting for the right monetization strategy.
Rather then simply building an application and trying to grow a massive user base, with next to no monetization strategy, why not also include contextual and location based advertising from the beginning?
This can be achieved by use of the opt-in push feature, as well as premium ads for businesses listed on the maps. There are obviously other ways to monetize the network, but advertising is far better then premium SMS or other similar services I have seen proposed. With this type of advertising model, there is still value for the user.
If you multiply the number of businesses that could use this type of advertising, you are looking at some serious revenue potential.
I have deliberately left out some other features, as I think they are further down the track and not totally essential at this early stage. Some of the features I have listed above will take considerable resources to implement, as there are still several obstacles to overcome, but if a company can build a mobile social network that provides a lot of this functionality, they will have a model that is both highly attractive to users and one that can also provide huge revenue.
So who will build it?
3G iPhone For Australia By July 11
After all the anticipation, all has finally been revealed and yes, the 3G iPhone is coming to Australia on July 11.
As expected, in the US, prices have dropped for the device, starting at $199 for the 8GB model and $299 for the 16GB.
So how many of the rumors were accurate? read below to see.
Well, as expected, it is 3G. There wouldn’t be much point without it now. Apple is claiming load times 36% faster then the Nokia N95 and the Treo 750.
It has the edge design similar to the MacBook Air, comes in black or white (no metal) and includes a flush headphone jack, but one rumored item that is missing is the front facing video camera.
A feature heavily lacking in the previous model was enterprise support, and this has been taken care of with the ability to work with MS Exchange. You will now be able to get push email, calendar and contacts with Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync.
As rumored, it has GPS, with Apple using A-GPS, which uses a combination of regular satellite GPS data and location data from mobile phone towers.
With all of these features, you would expect battery life to suffer, but Apple claims 300 hours of standby, 8-10 hours of 2G talk, 5 hours of 3G talk, 7 hours of video and 24 hours of audio.
The App Store is for all those great 3rd party apps that will be coming out of the wood work now the phone is officially hitting the market.
One strange point of the Australian release is that Apple lists Vodafone and Optus as the carriers, but previously Telstra has been touting to have the World’s fastest 3G iPhone by Chritstmas; maybe they are yet to finalise their deal.
More details to come.
