iPhone in Indonesia: confirmed on February?
After Thailand that will receive iPhone 3G in couple days, Indonesians may cheers themselves because seems like Apple and Telkomsel has reached a deal. iPhone 3G is about to available for public starting this mid February. Before that, Telkomsel will have a special priority program to probably introduce phone for shortlist communities. Telkomsel is the largest mobile operator in Indonesia with about 60 million subscribers.
What about the price? Some sources reveal that the price may reach IDR 9 million or about US$ 850-900. I don’t know about the price plan, whether there will be a one year plan or two year plan like other countries. The source also added that the iPhone plan will be bundled with SMS and Internet (data connection). What about push email plan?
Of course, the problem lies on the fact that Indonesians are not used to a monthly plan. Almost all (I should have said ALL, but I reckon BlackBerry Bold is offered partially for a monthly plan for Telkomsel subscribers) phones in Indonesia are offered without any plan, thus making the phone looks so expensive. Definitely, the plan idea will make the phone looks cheaper, hence trigger more consumerism in gadget industries.
One more wish, please don’t give too much price for the iPhone. The US$ 900 is too much if compared to the original starting price in the US. Don’t you know that the GDP at Purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita of Indonesians is less than one tenth of USA citizens?
Source [Indonesian]
