|
July 16, 2008
The iPhone sure has been hyped in Australia as a most desired consumer object. The device is both a status object as well as breaking new ground, as it is a phone, an ipod and a web browser that offers mobile computing with an excellent screen and touch pad technology. So you'd expect to pay a premium to purchase iPhone 3G.
However, the Australian telcos (Telstra, Optus, and Vodafone) are treating the iPhone as a sexy phone, if we judge them by their data plans. There are lots of cheap phone calls, but little allowance for downloads using the internet via their 3G mobile phone networks. There are limited downloads limits with heavy charges for excess downloads kicking in at $1 a MB.
The general consensus holds that Optus has the most generous plans of the three carriers and yet their iPhone plans only provide a maximum of 1GB of internet usage per month — for a hefty $179. You can use that by reading The Age online twice a day during the month. The excess data in that kind plan with its $1 a MB excess charge will easily max the credit cards in no time.
There has been little discussion about the breaking of new ground involves or its significance in terms of living with digital technology and its software. One exception is Stephen Ellis in The Australian, who argues that there are two closely related strands of thought embodied in Apple's iPhone.
The first was that as everything - all content and data - became digital, hardware continued to get smaller and more powerful, and networked mobility became ubiquitous, traditional general-purpose desktop computers would become less important, and a range of more limited task-specific computers (or appliances) would emerge. The rise of consumer laptops and media centre computers were important, but the iPod is an even better example, and now the iPhone (and other smartphones) are rapidly pushing further along this path.
So we have mobile internet connection--as the iPhone is really a pocket-sized internet-connected computer. Yet the Australian telco's iPhone plans are all skewed towards cheap voice calls and expensive data.
Apple's second internal premise seems to have been that for everyday users to accept and adopt these appliances (that were really simplified computers) en masse, they would have to be superbly easy to learn and use - qualities Apple had a history of delivering in products.
The simplicity and polish of good design in other words. It will probably allow Apple to win the battle of the mobile Internet.
The iPhone heralds the beginning of a new platform, especially with the third party applications (ranging from business to game applications, entertainment to educational applications) through the APP Store. However, to use the iPhone as it has been designed to use, you need to hang out in WiFi hotspots, which apart from Adelaide, are few and far between in our capitol cities.
The reason? As Mark Pesche points out I can buy 3G mobile data service for my laptop from Optus, with the Hauwei 3G/HSDPA modem and SIM card, plus 5GB of data, for $39.99 a month. The iPhone, in contrast, is 1GB of internet usage per month — for a hefty $179. it's the same data! The telco's are screwing their iPhone customers.
|
I think Apple announced they want to sell 10 million 3G iphones which is only 1% of the world's phone market. It is still a niche product. The pricing suggests its competitor is the Blackberry, and I think my iphone is better than the blackberry I had. It is worth it there.
The telcos are lucky there are not more competition in their oligopoly. Data is cheap and a true competitors would be driving that cost down to zero. IIRC a kb recovered from the burnt and broken Shuttle (Challenger?) was cheaper than a txt message sent by digital phone.