Comments on: Could we be about to see a pre-paid iPhone?

By: Mark O'Neill

Mark O'Neill — Thu, 08 May 2008 12:19:47 +0000

T-Mobile (the iPhone provider in Germany) shops in the high street are slashing the cost of iPhones to get rid of inventory they can’t move. I was in Berlin a few months back and some T-Mobile shops up there were selling iPhone’s for 99 Euros. Obviously the cost of the contract was the same but the cost of the actual phone was slashed from 400 to 100. When I asked the sales clerk why the sudden drop, he sighed and said that sales were dead.

By: pukkita

pukkita — Thu, 08 May 2008 10:38:25 +0000

“plummeted down to 100€” In Germany?? Where? apple.de shows the 8Gb model at 399€ and the 16Gb one at 499€….

By: GCM

GCM — Thu, 08 May 2008 03:23:56 +0000

Interestingly Mark, you say that, you are not talking about poor third world countries, but big countries like Australia and New Zealand. As per statistics of number of cellphones in countries - Australia comes in at #29. New Zealand comes in at #72 ; whereas India comes in at Number 10.
The telecom revolution in India/China have boomed like never before. I do agree that it is still a developing nation, but in one of our company’s US visitor’s words — “Man, you gotta go to the deserts of Rajasthan. There are villages without water, electricity, and good roads ; but my US based cell phone, with international roaming, had 4 bars signal strength”.

By: Sheamus

Sheamus — Wed, 07 May 2008 23:57:38 +0000

While I think a pre-pay iPhone is an eventual inevitablity, the handset will still be prohibitive because it will cost a fortune. In the UK we recently had a run where the iPhone was available at *only* £169 (about $340), but that’s *only* that price with a £35/month ($70) contract, too. It sold out, as everyone knew it would.

However, the money is in the contract, which lasts (I believe), for 18 months, so that’s 18 x 35 = £630 ($1260).

To bring even part of that income to the pre-pay market, they’ll have to make the handset itself a real moneyspinner. That’s how it works in pre-pay - you can buy very cheap ‘top-up’ handsets, but they’re always bottom of the range. I would estimate a pre-pay iPhone - assuming it’s the actual, fully-featured model, and not specialist for that market - will be around £500 ($1000). And the pre-pay market is typically made-up of people who can’t afford or get the credit for a contract phone. So it wouldn’t sell to anyone apart from a few.

However, what would happen is iPhone crime would go through the roof. If you put that out there, and make it available to ‘the people’, but charge them out of the market, they’ll be stealing them left, right and centre.

Happy days.

By: Kristie

Kristie — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:47:49 +0000

Wow, I’ve never heard New Zealand referred to as a big country before!

By: Mrrix32

Mrrix32 — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:06:55 +0000

iPhone… Hmm I got excited by all the hype pre-release. Then they announced the price. Excitement went down a bit. iPhone came out, felt it was a bit too over-hyped. Then I went and had a go on one. I was really disappointed. Now I don’t want one any more :-/

Still, you can go into an O2 store (in the UK) and get free net access until they chuck you out *They have 2 or 3 out on display for you to have a go on)

By: jack

jack — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:51:56 +0000

wow. that’s intense. guess ebay would be better… but that depends on how bad someone would want it.

By: Marcus

Marcus — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:50:10 +0000

Hmm, okay, thanks for the info.

By: Mark O'Neill

Mark O'Neill — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:40:28 +0000

If you buy a phone here in Germany, it will be locked by T-Mobile and you will have to sign a VERY expensive T-Mobile contract. So if you take it back to Denmark, not only will you have to break the contract but you will also have to break the lock on the phone, then have to persuade a Danish provider to cover the unlocked phone (which they may not do).

Since you are not a German citizen, T-Mobile may also decline to sell you the contract since they figure you may do a runner back to Denmark…

By: Marcus

Marcus — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:18:35 +0000

Hi, I was actually thinking about getting an iPhone in Germany, since I live in Denmark and up here they cost like 800€, but if I do, I won’t be able to use my own Danish provider with it??

By: jack

jack — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:11:12 +0000

well the new iphone is coming out soon so everything may change AGAIN. while a skype or google phone may be pretty cool and/or cost saving, i don’t know if it’ll do so well. google maybe, but i don’t know about skype. like a lot of things, it’s all about the name. and apple has made a hell of a name for itself over the years because of the ipod and then it’s computer line. to me at least, it’s still hard to see google as anything other than a search engine. i know it has created other software and whatnot, but it’s hard to get past that. i don’t think i’m the only one that thinks like that either, but i’ve been wrong before. well, a lot. =P