I have had and seen a number of queries on this site and around the web (and offline) regarding the imminent arrival of the iphone here in South Africa, regarding pricing details, when it will eventually be available to South Africans etc etc.

Pricing

Officially, all we know is that it will be available through vodacom and that the global price set by apple for this beauty will be under USD$200.00 (around ZAR

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1600 as at 12 July 2008). However, this USD $200 is maximum the add-in price you would be expected to pay, if you were getting the iphone on a contract from vodacom. This is much less than what one would be expected to pay if you intended on buying the device for prepaid usage. For pre-paid (or pay as you go) customers, the price will give a nasty sting. Expect to pay somewhere between ZAR4500 - ZAR5500 - and that only for the 8GB. Whilst most apple fanboys (and gals!) should easily be able afford afford this, it may be a little too expensive for the average joe on the street. Obviously, Vodacom South Africa is yet to release its official pricing figures - so the price listed above is just a guestimate based on other official prices from around the world. The 8GB beauty is selling for AUD 729 (ZAR 5400 as at 12 July 2008) from the Australian carrier Optus and the 16GB version retails for prepaid customers at AUD 849 (ZAR 6320 as at 12 July 2008). Interestingly enough, Swisscom from Switzerland has much better pricing - CHF 519 for the 8GB and CHF 619 for the 16GB (ZAR 3900 for 8GB and 4700 for the 16GB).

What would be interesting to see, are the contract plans that vodacom would have on offer. The wireless mobile data industry is alive and thriving here in SA with technology like 3G and HSDPA - partly due to competetion between the service providers and partly due to Telkoms fixed line services failing to deliver. In other countries, the “data plans” that come with the iphone have been very disappointing - will vodacom follow suite or will they stick to their current data rates on the iphone?

Ordering

So, how do you get your hands on one of these beauties - well the official apple website’s page for South African customers points us to vodacom, who have set up a micro-site for “pre-ordering” your iphone. No pricing or availability details as yet though. Signup and a rep from vodacom’s iphone sales team will be in contact when she is ready.

Another company trying to cash in on the new iphone hype is smartcom - anyone heard of them before? They have the vodacom logo and theme on their site and even their logo looks vodafonesque. Anyways, they too have set up a micro-site where you can add your details to their database and as soon as the powers that be decide its time, the smartcom sales team will be intouch. Both sites above have even bought google adwords - so searching for anything with iphone related keywords is sure to drive them lots of traffic.

In meat space, you could currently walk into a vodashop and also have it pre-ordered.

Links

• Vodacom’s iphone Pre Order micro-site
• Smarcom’s iphone Pre Order micro-site
• iPhone 3G worldwide pricing compared

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