John Linton .......that completely escapes me?
I read this today:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/virgin-unveils-generous-iphone-3g-plans/2008/08/01/1217097485364.html
and think the general offer (of telephone and data services) is very good and even the hardware at "$A0.00" is very attractive. But what does an Apple iPhone have that generates so much 'desire'? I remember in July 2007 when my NYC based brother in law came back to Australia for a brief visit bringing the then just released iPhone with him that my techo daughter and son were green with envy/desire and James badgered him to buy one for him when he returned to New York which he subsequently did and then got it 'unlocked' before shipping it. I think I mentioned that my daughter got up at five am to queue for one at the Neutral Bay store on the day they went on sale in Sydney and was lucky enough to get one of the 50 units they had which they sold out of as quickly as they could process the sales transactions.
Even Annette, who is the least 'mobile handset conscious' person I know (contenting herself to use her childrens 'cast offs' for the last ten years), is now keen to get one as soon as Exetel sources them for the HSPA service. In Bangkok you can buy 'second hand' unlocked iPhones in virtually any of the hundreds of mobile service outlets at prices that are around half of the recommended retail in Australia - they have them in any quantity you can pay cash/credit card for and will ship them to Australia in bulk. I don't know how good the Apple iPhone clones now being offered out of, at least, Hong Kong are but those devices are about one third of the Australian RRP.
This is my first day back in the office and I'm looking at the HSPA service details which have progressed a long way since I went on holidays (which is really good to see) and with a projected launch (hardware availability dependent) of September 15th there is very little time to try and make the 100% correct decisions we need to make to ensure this service is as good as we can possibly make it. One of the issues is, of course, the hardware we will offer to connect the service. Our view is that this is a broadband service that connects to a computer via a 'modem' - not a telephone based data device (a la iPhone) and therefore all my efforts have been directed towards sourcing computer based connectivity hardware rather than 'handset' hardware but the iPhone 'chorus' doesn't seem to be diminishing.
In the article I cited this comment seems to sum up/fails to sum up the iPhone hysteria:
"What we hear from our customers is that they really want the iPhone not just because it's a cool device but they want to do stuff with it, and I don't think that's been catered for in the market so far," said Virgin Mobile Australia chief executive Peter Bithos."
I'm not sure what sort of research produced the "because they want to do stuff" justification but maybe I'm still too jet lagged to comprehend the context in which a CEO can make such a comment.
Leaving that aside I was intrigued by the pricing in the offer:
$A70.00 a month for 1 gb and "$A520 worth of phone calls" which includes an $A864.00 retail iPhone on a 24 month contract.
When you look at the actual details here:
https://www.virginmobile.com.au/shop/p-395-apple-iphone-16-gb-whi.aspx
you find that the actual price is $A74.00 per month and this cost includes $36.00 a month to pay off the "free" iPhone. (if you don't stay for 24 months then you get charged $A36.00 per month times the number of months less than 24). Therefore the cost of 1 gb of data (if you use exactly 1 gb) is $38.00 a month less the "$A520.00" worth of telephone calls. The "$A520 of included phone calls" appears generous but I suppose it depends on what the per minute charge is - I couldn't establish that from my initial look at the Virgin Mobile web site.
Seems a pretty good deal to me - if i wanted an iPhone and made a lot of mobile calls (which I personally don't and never do). However, obviously 'typical' mobile phone users do both of those things and, from what I can see, the Virgin Mobile deal is very good.
Exetel would charge $5.00 per month (versus $4.00 a month) plus $A15.00 for 1 gb of data (downloaded - not as the Virgin offer is - uploads and downloads which probably reduces downloads to 600 mb or something like that). Exetel would also charge per mb used so it would almost certainly work out less than $A15.00 a month but there is no phone call allowance to 'muddy the waters'.
It occurs to me that if an iPhone is so widely desired then it would be worth importing the 'second hand' iPhones (which incidently, based on my limited examinations come in 'factory sealed' packaging and appear to be new) and carry the 'new' warranty risk and charge $30.00 a month over 24 months to meet such a demand. At a cost of $US350.00 a handset plus freight and duty it would provide a very good margin and be far more flexible than the Virgin offering - providing the voice call costs could be offered at reasonable pricing.
But.....there are an awful lot of buts to be considered.
I knew it was a mistake to get on that plane on Tuesday night.