Vodafone disappoint...again

Written by Philip Roy | 08 July 2009

A year ago we were told by Vodafone "The iPhone 3G starts from $ 199 on a two year contract" and we celebrated....for less than 24 hours...and then found out that a two year contract was going to cost a massive $250 NZD per month and only the 8Gb model would be $199.

For the last couple of weeks Vodafone's site has stated "Plan pricing and handset subsidies will be available closer to launch date", suggesting hope for both new plans and prices. Today Vodafone have released details of their plans and prices for the iPhone 3GS and little appears to have changed. The plans are in fact the same for the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS (and don't appear to have dropped), with the top-range plan and phone costing over $3700 for the 2 year period.

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David Wilson said: July 08, 2009 | url   

3GS handset only And why is Vodafone saying that if you want to make a handset only purchase that it can only be ordered online? - What you don't want to sell the devices? You want to make them hard to obtain? maybe create an artificial shortage even? Note: limit 1 iPhone 3GS per customer! - yup, that's right, I'll have 5 please!

DragonFire said: July 08, 2009  

And this surprises us how? No shock at all to me, in fact I'm surprised that they didn't use it as an excuse to raise the pricing on the phones and introduce and even more expensive plan... But I am known to be slightly cynical :-)

lowededwookie said: July 09, 2009  

With all due respect I do think this is disingenious at best. What made everyone think that $199 iPhone was going to be on a cheap plan? Is that how it worked in America who had the phone a year before us? Come on people reality needs to kick in here. Until the government does something about Telecom we're always going to get a bum deal because Telecom controls the landline stuff which is required by mobile users despite the fact we use satellites. We still have to get data from somewhere and unfortunately it's Telecom. As for ordering online I think that may be just an initial thing because it will be quicker to get the phone online than through the stores. It will come to stores like Magnum Mac and such sooner or later.

Philip Roy said: July 09, 2009  

Hi Darryn, In answer to your first question...yes, that is how it worked for the iPhone 3G when it went on sale in the US. We're not making a comparison over the "$199" issue here...we're making a comparison with everything that went with it. In order to get the $199 here, you had to agree to sign up to (at time of launch), total cost...over $6000 NZD. It was nothing like that in the states. Total cost of ownership was lower. And yes, before you comment how big the US is compared to NZ, again, the comment wasn't about that...it was about the approach that VFNZ took. The release of one statement and one statement alone "The iPhone 3G starts from $ 199 on a two year contract" 12 months ago was intentional. It generated a lot of interest (kudos to VFNZ) and it also rightly generated a lot of flack after more details came out. My article was about the fact that VFNZ's statement on their site implied new plans...and yet again, they failed to deliver...or rather, allowed us to interpret their comments in a way they knew would be to their advantage. Re ordering online....VFNZ have explixitly stated this is not an issue about getting things out quickly (check the geekzone forums) but about them blocking sales of unlocked phones to overseas. Re Magnum Mac...yep...no doubt. I also have no doubt that the phone will drop in price and VFNZ will relax their online demands...but it's easy to say that, as I've got an infinite amount of time to keep saying "it'll happen" in which no-one can prove me wrong. Put it this way, Vodafone once stated that the iPhone 3G would "never" be available on prepay...and look at it now.

danbob said: July 10, 2009  

Personally I think this thread is pointless. "Plan pricing and handset subsidies will be available closer to launch date" simply means just that - it doesn't imply that things might be cheaper, but people's imagination often gets the better of them. The prices are what they are without a Network competitor in the marketplace selling the same device. Either like it or lump it. Personally I have had my 3G for almost a year now and while I thought cost of getting my 16Gb iPhone on the $40 a month plan was a little bit much at the time (subsidized handset cost was $850), it's been worth every dollar and then some - it's usefulness knows no bounds. Rather than sit about and complain, just get one already

Philip Roy said: July 10, 2009  

The iPhone is great...I too have had mine almost a year. I've got data disabled and am on prepay. You might be OK with plan prices, I'm not. It's personal preference, which, regardless of what you think of the plans, others are entitled to express. Phil

DragonFire said: July 10, 2009  

I'm happy with my $40 plan - one of my main reasons for getting an iPhone is for email on the run and for that I need data and I consider the $40 plan to be very reasonble.

Philip Roy said: July 10, 2009  

Great...I'm happy for you. The point of the articles was not to comment on existing plans...it was to comment that VFNZ had an opportunity to do something impressive with the launch....they didn't. They acted as they always act, and therefore, disappointed. Phil

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