iPhone 3G not suitable for Malaysian market?

We at SoyaCincau.com are counting the days for one of the big telcos to make the announcement – Celcom/DiGi/Maxis/U Mobile Introduces the iPhone 3G. But so far no such word has been forthcoming. Maxis looked like the most promising candidate but that was all based on a lot of fluff.

And as with all fluffs, it doesn’t really hold much weight.

Try as we might we can’t seem to dig up any dirt on the device coming to Malaysia. Perhaps it’s because there’s nothing to dig up but we’re keeping our fingers crossed.

Anyways one guy seems to think that the iPhone 3G is not suitable for Malaysian market.

He argues that iP3G’s built-in camera is nothing to shout about, there’s no MMS support, you can’t make video calls and you’d have to subscribe to an unlimited data service to use the phone to the fullest.

Well those are valid points and the post is a good read – after all the guy works a Sun Microsystem so he probably knows what he’s talking about.

But for the sake of just talking about the iPhone, we can’t help to argue otherwise.

1. On the camera – yeah 2MP is nothing to shout home about but you’ll agree it’s not the quantity but the quality of the pixels. Having 10MP on the same size sensor won’t do you much good anyway. Yes, the iPhone lacks a built-in flash but most built-in flashes lack much use anyway. Of course there are exceptions to this but you’ll agree that most are pretty pointless.For at least one of us here at SoyaCincau.com, camera performance is not important. Granted quality wise, it can and should be better but for uploading stuff on blogs and stuff it does its job.

   Check out a good overview review of iP3G HERE and HERE (this links to a camera shootout).

2. On the MMS – On occasions, not being able to MMS is something that we’re going to miss but with WiFi and 3G built in sending the same picture/sound/video via email is better don’t you think? Data cost can be an issue, only if you make it one. Most of the time in urban areas, you’d bound to find a free WiFi hotspot to leech on to. Besides, emailing stuff is faster than MMS, and we think that’s a fair compromise.
3. On the video call – 3G is not just about making video calls, it’s about data. We very rarely make video calls and so this is not such an issue for us. For someone who does, this could be a problem. So yeah this could be a concern for a number of people and we agree, there’s no reason this should be excluded in the device. Despite Apple’s genius sometimes they are a bit stupid like this.
4. On the unlimited data – We agree, unlimited date is useful. But its useful not just for the iPhone but for any serious phone for that matter. The immense flexibility that an unlimited data plan affords a mobile user compliments almost any good 3G phone. So even with any other 3G device unlimited data is a good thing to have. Unfortunately it’s expensive but we’re don’t think iP3G should be pegged down because of this. Telcos should step up and provide more affordable data rates – that’s all.

   Besides with built-in WiFi, we’d think that you’re most likely to log onto the many free WiFi hotspots to do your online stuff anyway. So this should be much of an issue.

Here’s the thing…

There will always be points for and against the iP3G and we’re fine with that. Make no mistake, we’re not fanboys. We are, we need to and we must be impartial on everything that we talk about because this is a credible resource for anything and everything telco/ISP related in the country.

The point we’re trying to make here is telcos should give us choice, not make it for us. Bring iP3G to Malaysia sell at a reasonable price and bundle it with a worthwhile package that compliments the device’s performance set…and then we – the discerning consumers – decide. We will tell you if it’s suitable or not.

By the number of iPhones that are currently being used in the country at the moment, we’re almost certain that the consumers will tell you – this is what I have been waiting for.

So what say you Celcom/DiGi/Maxis/U Mobile? We know you can do it (Celcom & Maxis bringing in all manners of Blackberrys, Maxis being exclusive seller of the Dell Inspiron Mini 9, U Mobile marketing Mobile LiveTV DVB-H service with Nokia N77). The question is, how much do you care about your customers.

We’ve said it once and we’ll say it again…it’s time to put your money where your mouth it.