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Is this screen for real? Maybe, and it shows unlocked iPhones might cost just $699! (source: http://img262.imageshack.us)

LEAKED: Outright iPhone 3G pricing for Australia

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Danny Gorog15 June 2008, 4:00 PM

A screenshot of a point of sale system from Apple retailer Domayne shows what may be the outright pricing for the iPhone 3G.

UPDATE | This story proved to be basically right -- the pricing for prepaid iPhones from Optus came out to around the same price as what's listed in the Domayne point of sale system here. However, for the actual pricing, see our Best value iPhone plans revealed! story which is written with the actual released pricing from all the carriers.

And so begins the month long guessing game till the introduction of the iPhone 3G launch.

Luckily for us Australians, the launch is on July 11th. You should register your interest with Optus and Vodafone to make sure you get your hands on one as soon as possible.

But what about if you've just recently signed up on a plan, and won't be out of contract for another year or so? Would you be interested in buying an unlocked, off-contract iPhone? Is that a 'yes' I hear you say? Well, so would I.

While nothing has been confirmed by Apple, Optus or Vodafone, there are a number of sources that suggest an unlocked, off-contract iPhone 3G may be available.

The first tantalising rumor comes from a screen shot here, which suggests an unlocked 8GB iPhone 3G will cost $699.99. If you want to step up to a 16GB version you'll be up for $999.99. The shot also lists model numbers (MB666P/A) however a Google search brings up a discussion thread on MacTalk Forums. There's also a good chance the screenshot is fake, and the model numbers are simply place holders - the '666' reference may just be a placeholder - or a joke by the person fabricating the screenshot indicating that the iPhone 3G is the devilphone. Who knows!

There are other pieces of information, however which we know are true, like Vodafone Italia, who are offering an unsubsidised iPhone 3G for 499 Euros, or 559 Euros for the 16GB model.

O2 in England are also planning on releasing an unlocked, contract free iPhone 3G. The page here says 'Customers will soon be able to enjoy all the great features of iPhone 3G without a monthly contract with the iPhone 3G for Pay & Go.'

If O2 and Vodafone Italy are going to sell the iPhone unlocked, it suggests to me that Optus and Vodafone in Australia might well do the same. This is great news on a number of fronts; firstly, being tied to any one provider means you've got little flexibility to move should a more economical plan come to market, and secondly, you can choose the provider of your choice. In Australia, that means having a legitimate iPhone 3G on Telstra's Next G network - a combination some believe is the best of both worlds.

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Tin (Senior Forumologist):

I'd say it's probably real. But the prices might not be final anyway.

Not that I care. If I get one, it'll be on contract (and I'll ditch my landline). I'm just hoping the plans they come out with are sane...

15 June 2008, 4:46 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

olea (New user):

the price beta not be real cos i think its a ridiculous price ...way too expensive!!! customers should have a right to buy phones outright at a fair price...and not be pushed into contract

15 June 2008, 5:14 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

McBanjo (User):

That price is incredibly cheap considering other products on the market.

The iPhone is literally years ahead of anything else, yet it is cheaper than most as far as my experience goes. Once I had my hands on one, I realised just how much value I had bundled in this device (I paid less than $500). It may be harder to see if you have a lower reservation price, but if that's the case, you're just going to have to wait or not buy. If you're not in the market, then yes anything would be expensive.

I personally would've been prepared to pay $1000 'before' I realised just how good the iPhone was. There are also other things to take into account, like existing iPods. I don't want to sound like an Apple marketer, but remember the iPhone is an iPod, a phone and an internet device. Before you go saying that every device does this these days, I can vouch that the iPhone is not some jack-of-all trades, master-of-none device. It 'is' the best thing out there, so you should be grateful it's not priced as such.

The thing I wont be happy about is if data plans are still as poor as they've always been.

15 June 2008, 5:38 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Danny Gorog (APC staff):

Yeah, the data plans will be interesting to see. But in the meantime, Virgin still offer their 300MB for $10 deal that's been working well on my iPhone.

15 June 2008, 7:26 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Danny Gorog (APC staff):

It'll be interesting to see what the data plans cost here - if the US is any indication they'll probably fall in the >$60/month range - which feels pretty reasonable to me, for unlimited data etc, and certainly cheaper than an unlimited BB plan.

15 June 2008, 7:26 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

McBanjo (User):

Quoting Danny Gorog:
"for unlimited data etc"

Oh if only.

I would say there's very little chance Australia will see unlimited iPhone data plans that aren't the creme de la creme ie. the most expensive (even then there would be fair-use policies of course), but I stand completely in awe and surprised if I'm wrong. I'd agree that $60/month is fair with an iPhone subsidy, but a $50 plan would be well welcomed.

Out of interest, how much data does the iPhone use on Virgin GPRS (you can find out in Settings>Usage)? 3G will obviously be more accessible and thus use more bandwidth overall, disregarding the speed jump. How much data would you guess the iPhone 3G could use?

15 June 2008, 7:48 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Danny Gorog (APC staff):

I have my IMAP email set to check every 15mins, plus I reckon I'd be browsing on average around 1 hours per day (over GPRS), mainly Google Reader ect, and I'm pushing it hard if I go over 100MB. With 3G that might go up to 200MB - but I'm lucky because I'm around WiFi during the day.

15 June 2008, 11:50 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Sebhelyesfarku (New user):

"The iPhone is literally years ahead of anything else"

LOL this was the joke of the week. No copy/paste? Crippled Bluetooth? Crippled camera, no video?

16 June 2008, 6:08 AM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Danny Gorog (APC staff):

easy to use, no 'task manager',great browser etc...

16 June 2008, 8:56 AM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Tin (Senior Forumologist):

no task manager is a feature? How do you manage tasks? Or are you supposed to just let Steve Jobs do it remotely?

16 June 2008, 9:53 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Me In Oz (Advanced Forumologist):

" ... I don't want to sound like an Apple marketer, but ..."

You sure do sound like it though !
I have never seen one of your post where there has been any gripes, but I forget that Apple/Mac are irreproachable and their consumers are willing to sell a kidney to own .............. A glorified phone !

16 June 2008, 11:25 AM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

McBanjo (User):

Well I ask you. What's the alternative? If I bag Apple and the iPhone, I believe there's nothing better to turn to. It's like complaining that you have to breathe air. So there's not much point when there's no better alternative. It'd just be cynicism for the sake of it or of Apple improving something.

The reason I'm so pro-Apple is because in my mind Apple really deserves it. If other companies actually gave some original thought to their products and listened to the wants, needs and demands of their customers, I'd be giving them some praise too.

There's also a lot of admirable qualities to be seen from Apple in a business perspective. There was not a single leak of reliable information before Apple released the iPhone. It was a genuine surprise to the industry. To pull off a manoeuvre like that is very unseen and quite impressive in this day and age.

21 July 2008, 4:56 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Tin (Senior Forumologist):

Quoting McBanjo:
some original thought to their products

Apple original? And here I was thinking they take existing ideas and make them shiny. I'm glad someone corrected my thinking.
All Apple has done in the last 10 years is realise that some people like shiny things and will pay more for them.

Quoting McBanjo:
and listened to the wants, needs and demands of their customers

Not real sure I've seen Apple do that either. To be fair though, I can't think of any major company that does give a toss about customers.

Quoting McBanjo:
There was not a single leak of reliable information before Apple released the iPhone. It was a genuine surprise to the industry. To pull off a manoeuvre like that is very unseen and quite impressive in this day and age.

Ummm. No. All it takes is a desire to keep the product secret, a few lawyers and some non-disclosure agreements. And people know Apple don't mess around with that, so it's even easier for them.
Besides, it was hardly a big secret. You only needed to combine about 3 hints to get an idea of the specs and features (GPS was hinted at by Telstra wanting to make Whereis iPhone compatible for example). Even the release date was almost predicted by some people.

21 July 2008, 5:26 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Darren Muller (New user):

Plagiarism is alive and well at APC. If you are going to rip off someone else's work, at least have the decency to acknowledge where it came from instead of lying to the public and claiming it as yours. Poor form Danny Gorog, very poor form indeed.

This screenshot and story is stolen from mactalk.com.au - at least admit it Danny!

16 June 2008, 10:28 AM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Dan Warne (Administrator):

Actually the screenshot was sent to us as an anonymous tip with a link to an image sharing site -- we had no indication it was from MacTalk, and still have no reason to believe MacTalk originated the image. Danny then searched on the product number and found the thread at MacTalk and mentioned it AND linked it in the story.

You guys at MacTalk have a ludicrous teenage-style petulance about exclusive rights to stories. You've gone out making defamatory claims about SMH's Asher Moses, based on your presumption that because you reported a story, that you somehow own copyright to "the story".

In the real world, you own copyright to the wording of your story, but you can't actually own the concept behind the story... it's something that everyone in media has to put up with. You can't own a story -- but you can have the satisfaction of reporting it first.

In your case you may well have reported this story first, but we received it as a tip independently, and didn't even see your story until after we'd written the story and were researching the product numbers, so I can assure you there was no plagiarism involved.

I suggest you cool it and stop going round making accusations to all and sundry based on false presumptions.

16 June 2008, 12:43 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Me In Oz (Advanced Forumologist):

....... And Mac seems to think they have always owned the point-and-click GUI too ! LOL

Your response is a good metaphor for the Apple/Mac ideology !

16 June 2008, 2:14 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Amos Barnett (New user):

Quoting Dan Warne:
You guys at MacTalk have a ludicrous teenage-style petulance about exclusive rights to stories. You've gone out making defamatory claims about SMH's Asher Moses, based on your presumption that because you reported a story, that you somehow own copyright to "the story".

Dan, the person who posted that, Darren, is not a representative of MacTalk Australia and his words are definitely not representative of our opinion. However, since you choose to reply to the comment as you have, then in all reason, I, as an administrator of MacTalk Australia, feel I should reply.

There's no reason why we wouldn't accept your explanation about the tip-off. Why wouldn't we? It has nothing to do with copyright, as the MacTalk forums aren't a publication in the sense APC is. It has to do with giving credit where it's due. When a blog, say, Engadget, finds an interesting NYT story on a blog, they post "NYT via Blog_name". This is called giving credit where it's due. Is this so hard to understand? Every online publication seems to understand it, but the newspapers and, so it seems now, APC do not.

The whole issue of Asher Moses, which has nothing to do with APC, was entirely dropped, as it had become silly. Yet you choose to bring it up. It appeared that a couple of times Asher basically got his story ideas from MacTalk, without giving any credit to the source of them. In comparison, there is at least one other newspaper reporter on MacTalk who regularly posts on MacTalk when he writes about Macs for his newspaper. When he gets info from MacTalk, he credits us. Is this so complicated? We honestly don't care about copyright, we do care that newspaper reporting these days seems to be "I found it on the internet, but don't want to admit it" quality.

Now, as for the rest of what you said, you're putting words in our mouth essentially, especially as you were replying to a random person who you have declared our representative without any verification and see fit to compare us to teenagers on a public web site. As a very well-known and respected reporter, your actions simply lowers people respect for reporters at major publications even further. So instead of saying, "We only got the image as a tip-off", you resort to posting this diatribe, which demeans yourself more than anyone, especially so, as this isn't even on our front page as news.

Amos

16 June 2008, 3:32 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Anthony Agius (New user):

All that was required was a link to the thread Danny mentioned. At first he failed to mention MacTalk, then he mentioned it, but did not provide a link. Then just recently, a link was added. That's all that is required, a simple link to a source of information. Easy :)

16 June 2008, 3:43 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

rtg159 (New user):

crikey dan and danny! that comment certainly went close to the bone eh? hmmmm qrious? qrious.com.au !

19 June 2008, 10:01 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Wazza (Regular user):

I can't see anything in this article claiming the APC sourced the screen shots themselves. In fact there are even links to the original screen shots.

16 June 2008, 11:31 AM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Japius (New user):

The Harvey Norman/Domayne system has many flaws, in particular as you can see the listing for the iphone is 'white' in colour, this means it was created locally (by that store). Often done to facilitate pre-orders, it means that corporately they have no pricing as yet and it is probably a 'best guess' by a salesperson at that particular store. You will also note the - (dash_ at the end of the product code, which also indicates it is probably a guess at the actual code too.

16 June 2008, 12:56 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Fe (New user):

$700 for something that is only A$210 in the USA
What a bloody rip-off. Our phone companies must think we are
all stupid

17 June 2008, 8:40 AM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Me In Oz (Advanced Forumologist):

Quoting Fe:
Our phone companies must think we are
all stupid

No ! ............ Just the teenagers !
That's why the telcos are earning record profits !

17 June 2008, 9:20 AM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

TP (New user):

Correct me if I heard incorrectly, but when the phone was launched last week it was announced that the phone would be the same price in Australia as in America and other countries, that being $199 US. Why are Australian providers now suggesting $699 plus?

17 June 2008, 9:16 AM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Tin (Senior Forumologist):

It was never stated whether it was a subsidized on contract price or an outright price.
Some suggested Apple may be selling them at a loss to push them out there and gain market share.
Others said it would be the contract price because AT&T is only selling them on contract (yeah, cause AT&T is the only phone company in the world).

I personally don't really expect to see it at $200 outright, but I do expect a range of mixed data and voice plans to come out starting at lower prices than we're used to.

17 June 2008, 10:59 AM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

daveconmedia (New user):

Should the prices shown be real, one shouldn't be surprised given the propensity for businesses to rip people off. Shameful, disgraceful and disgusting.

17 June 2008, 9:52 AM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

spaghetti (New user):

was the $199 an outright price?, or a price on top of a $2000 over 24 month contract.? i think it is the latter, from what i can understand?

17 June 2008, 10:55 AM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Dan Warne (Administrator):

Steve Jobs certainly didn't say $199 was the upfront price -- it was the contracted price. So these upfront (non contract) prices of $699 - $999 are not surprising.

17 June 2008, 11:19 AM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

gonsalves (New user):

Can any one tell me if you can buy iphones in indonesia unlocked that will work on the network out here and what you would pay? and if so do you have to sign up with a carrier to be able to send emails ? I'm a bit of a novice as you can tell but am keen to try the new technology
Jo

17 June 2008, 11:07 AM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

SM (New user):

Haha, if you look closely, this screenshot is from the POS system at Domayne, the Harvey Norman owned retailer.
Steve Jobs said the phone will be $199USD, all around the world, however he neglected to mention the contracts placed on buyers at that price. Comparing with Win Mobile smart phones, i'd say $699 and $999 are about right pricing-wise.
Optus have also confirmed that there will be unlocked iPhone 3Gs with pricing as above, but of course it will be cheaper on an inflexible contract...

17 June 2008, 11:54 AM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Atcote (New user):

That's a purely disgusting price - they're charging $199 US for the 8 GBAmerican model, and yes, I know that's cheaper because of the increased price of its plan, but $199 US translates to about $209 Aus. Charging more than a $100 more Australian is just unfair. Unlocked or not, that price is extortion compared to what they're charging otherwise.
Of course, that's just my, probably uninformed, opinion.

18 June 2008, 2:44 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

walk or boggit (New user):

this screenshot is fake! if you look at the text saying the name of the i phone you will notice that it is not pixelated and destorted like the text directly below it. whoever made this screenshot is a newbie at editing photos because i'm 15 and i could do much better.

18 June 2008, 5:08 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

aaron (New user):

omg r u serious? the guy who sent it in or someone blured the rest out because that is irrelevant, other wise ude be looking up and down the page, this way your eye jus goes straight to it

18 June 2008, 6:33 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Eclipse (New user):

Whyy would the Price be so high in Australia. If you watch the keynote speech for apples World Wide Developer conference, Steve Jobs says that the 8gb will sell for no more than $199.

18 June 2008, 11:05 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

stephentrepreneur (New user):

When I first saw the iPhone on the market, I was ready to buy at the FULL price, outright. Then the 'Touch' appeared. After working on all the pros and cons, figured I'd get get more value for my dollars. After all, I still get email, 'net, multimedia, calender and contacts ... and sometimes at someone elses expense. Long live WIFI!!

18 June 2008, 11:11 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

Nikki (New user):

I've never understood the idea of buying phones outright to then sign a contract for calls access and data downloads. That's paying twice from my way of thinking - and the service providers already take enough from us.

24 June 2008, 1:12 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

JLA84 (New user):

ok, well My father got an iphone from the states last year, and had it unlocked for only $30.
So, if you buy it locked from somewhere like Vodafone, you can usually get it unlocked for a small price afterwards. There really is no point in paying so much extra when the service is there for a small cost.
Both he and I doubt this is the real price anyway..
Oh, and in case you're wondering, My father is an Apple dealer, so knows a thing or two about the way this kind of stuff! :-)

25 June 2008, 1:57 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

kelly (New user):

Um... actually, even if you got an unlocked iPhone 3G you wouldn't necessarily be able to use all the features on the network of your choice. Being able to utilise web applications on a phone has as much to do with the network settings it is configured to as to whether or not the phone is unlocked, and more than likely a phone bought outright from Optus or Vodafone would be configured to their network settings... it would just be insane for them not to sell it as such. As for using it on Telstra's Next G network, the iPhone is a 3G, not a Next G, phone. It will not contain any Next G chip, and therefore no Next G network.

I honestly don't know why you would want one of these anyway. Despite all the media hype, it simply does not measure up to other phones on the market. 2 megapixel camera vs Sony Eriksson's 8.1; no picture messaging, no bluetooth, no IM (unless some excluseive Apple software is released), and $200 to replace the phone after 6 months because you can't remove the battery.

25 June 2008, 2:55 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

kelly (New user):

25 June 2008, 3:08 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

kelly (New user):

25 June 2008, 3:08 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

kelly (New user):

25 June 2008, 3:11 PM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend

t.O.m... (New user):

Im a teenager and im not one of those nerds who spend every waking moment trying to find out about the iPhone or even get one,
but i do know alot of people my age who want to get an iPhone eventually and im pretty sure most of them, me included cant afford the $699.99 outright.
so im hoping that that is not the real pricing

02 July 2008, 9:38 AM (1 year ago)report abuse Send to a friend