UPDATE (20100920) : Maxis iPhone 4 plans for launch leaked. Read about it here.
UPDATE (20100917) : DiGi confirms iPhone 4 stock in Malaysia. To launch week of 20th September 2010. Read about it here.
Ok so the official word is out, DiGi and Maxis have opened registration of interest for the iPhone 4 but little else has been revealed.
We don’t know the pricing, we don’t know the plans and we don’t know when will the iPhone 4 be available in stores.
But we know the industry enough to be able to put out some predictions that’s pretty accurate. Earlier we predicted that pre-order, or more accurately, registration of interest (ROI), will happen after 19 July and it did.
Now that the ROIs are out, we can with some degree of accuracy predict when the in-store dates for the iPhone 4 will be. It will be roughly two weeks from today. If you count the exact days that puts the iPhone 4 launch on 3 August. But we’re going to go slightly conservative on our prediction put the iPhone 4 launch sometime within the week starting 2 August.
Alright, we’ve established the possible launch date, now lets look at the pricing.
It’s probably safe to say that prices for the iPhone 4 will not change much from the current iPhone 3G and 3GS prices in the market right now. That means, the entry-level 8GB 3GS will cost RM1,999, the 16GB iPhone 4 RM2,490 and the 32GB iPhone 4 will be priced at RM2,499 RM2,990. We don’t expect much change from this.
Now the question on the minds of every single person that intends to get the iPhone 4 will be the plans. What kind of plans will be available for the iPhone 4? Interesting enough, we don’t except to see anything to change from the plans that’s available now. We might be wrong on this but we really think the telcos will continue on with the current plans. Although we’re not going to discount the fact that there might be some enhancements here and there, perhaps a higher data quota or maybe even a monthly rebate. But essentially, the upcoming iPhone 4 plans will be the same as what you’re seeing now for the 3G and 3GS..
Will you be getting free Bumpers? We don’t see a reason why not. Jobs made the announcement himself. So you can expect free Bumpers to come with your iPhone 4. But expect limited choices of colours (if there’s any options at all), maybe even a cheap third party rip-off. This might happen but we could be wrong and it might not.
What about existing iPhone 3G and 3Gs owners, is there an upgrade plan for them?
It’s not unheard of but don’t expect anything great. Prior to the 3GS launch, Maxis offered a RM500 rebate to selected iPhone 3G owners. The catch is the rebate will only reflect on your bill and you’ll have to the full price for the phone, so expect something similar from Maxis for the iPhone 4.
DiGi could also offer the same thing but it might be less in terms value considering DiGi only introduced the 3GS in April.With two telco in the iPhone game now the competition will be intense so with this, anything is game
We’ll have to wait and see what DiGi and Maxis can serve up come August. It will definitely be interesting because now there are two telcos vying for a very lucrative segment of the market, consumers will have the ultimate say on this and we advice you to decide with your strongest voice, your money.
