06/23/2008, 9:20am, EDT
Monday, June 23rd
Softbank announces iPhone 3G plans, prices
Japanese carrier Softbank has announced its planned prices for the iPhone 3G, Reuters writes. Launching with the initial wave of 22 countries on July 11th, Softbank will sell the 8GB iPhone for 23,040 yen, or approximately $215; the 16GB iPhone should cost 34,560 yen ($322). It is expecting most subscribers to sign up for a 7,280 yen ($68) per month plan, which will guarantee unlimited data use and free calls to other Softbank users.
This plan would be 70 percent higher than Softbank's average income per person, roughly 4,310 yen ($40); the iPhone should thus help boost Softbank's earnings, says CEO Masayoshi Son. "There have been users who were just attracted to our low price," claims Son, "but the main point this time is feature attractiveness rather than price."
The company further expects to see people switching from Japan's first- and second-place carriers, NTT DoCoMo and KDDI, as neither company has so far signed a deal with Apple. This may change, as DoCoMo was once considered a front-runner for an iPhone contract, and it has expressed continued interest in recent days.
Filed under: iPhone
Other story tags: iPhone 3G, japan, Softbank
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not bad at all
A bit pricey for the hardware, but not bad at all although it would depend on what price on calls to non-Softbank users are like.
includes sales tax?
In the past few years most stores in Japan have started including the sales tax in the price, much like the VAT in Europe is included in the price. I noticed this when I was there in 2005 and 2007 (versus 2003 when the sales tax was added on at the register and not in the price, as in the US). If that is the case, then the price is just a couple bucks over $199 and not $16 bucks over.
(My conspiracy thoughts on why they do this is to get people ready for a sales tax hike that they will not notice as much since the prices include the tax)