Apple’s iPhone 3G will be sold unlocked in Belgium — where existing legislation forbids locking — and can be used on all three of Belgium’s providers, but will be sold exclusivly via Mobistar (majority owned by France Telecom) and authorized Apple resellers.
iPhone 3G prices:
• 8GB – 525 euro (US$822)
• 16GB – 615 euro (US$963)
Plans:
• 3hrs calling or 300 text messages and 200MB data – 30 euro
• 6hrs calling or 600 text messages and 500MB data – 45 euro
• 9hrs calling or 900 text messages and 1GB data – 60 euro
More info here.
Belgian law also bars sales at a loss, Philip Blenkinsop reports for Reuters.
“Mobistar will sell the 8 gigabyte (GB) iPhone for 525 euros, including sales tax, and the 16 GB model for 615 euros. ‘The price will be above that in other countries,’ Chief Executive Benoit Scheen told a news conference on Tuesday,” Blenkinsop reports.
“Apple’s next-generation iPhone is set for worldwide roll-out on Friday,” Blenkinsop reports. “Mobistar will sell an initial 250 and then have a few thousand available in subsequent days.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Sonny” for the heads up.]
Yikes, that’s a high initial cost!
Seems like this is the first time an Apple product may be helped or hindered by a business partner (carriers) on the market, a position Apple hasn’t encounter before. Look for APPL to start political lobbying in the future like Google to get a more friendly market place.
Their going to eat up SproutCore.
Apple’s iPhone costomers are truly hosed at these high prices. The data plans are not so high in comparison with what’s available in other countries, but certainly don’t compensate for the high initial price of the device.
Since the iPhone hardware doesn’t seem to be subsidized, I suppose Apple isn’t collecting a high percentage of the data plans (perhaps nothing at all), so Mobistar could have kept the price down (e.g., 15EUR, 25EUR and 45EUR resp.).
I truly hope the two competing providers (Base and Proximus) will offer more competitive plans, including good arrangements for international roaming (HINT, HINT!!!)
Belgium’s legislative overregulation, intended to protect consumers, is now backfiring and hurting the consumer instead.
The legislator doesn’t understand that the iPhone hardware only achieves its full potential through the services it is connected to. The iPhone concept is in fact distributed between the hardware and those services, much like it is hard to distinguish between hardware and firmware.
Mobistar’s iPhone pages don’t even display properly in Safari.
Mobistar sucks, you can view the complete press conference here:
http://www.gva.be/iphone/
I’m still happy that we will get it on friday
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The price of 525 and 615 is for an unlocked iPhone. You don’t need the mobistar plan to use the iPhone.
I know students who have taken extra jobs to earn some extra cash money and save for this lovely machine.
The country has v expensive Internet connections, backward tech, and now overly expensive iPhone….geez…..i am buying mine from its neighbour Holland and support their economy….really felt sorry though.