Initially I had said that the iPhone 3G would be here in July. I was half correct in that the phone is here, its just that Vodacom first have to test the phone on its network and obviously plan a marketing campaign and all of that for when it launches properly.
There is no fixed date yet, but chatting to a few Vodacom staff members as well as emailing their customer support, in and around September seems about right.
My speculative pricing is about spot on too! Out of contract, an 8GB iPhone 3G will retail for about R6000, and the 16GB iPhone for R8000.
If you looking to purchase it with a contract, expect it to be on the higher end packages that cost around R500 – R800+ a month and then you will be able to pay the $199 (R1500 – R2000) for the phone as Steve Jobs said at the launch of the 3G iPhone.
Seems okey and all, but I haven’t heared anything the last couple of weeks, its getting too quiet.. I got the same info about a month ago, and still no news about a release. What’s going on, and why does everybody (media, public) just takes this? I can’t understand why nobody want an article about it, or give some more info. It is september and now what..?
Btw, it seems kind of lame that after receiving the phone they still have to come up with a marketing campain.. Do people ever wonder why SA is a 3rd world country?
Fair enough .It was here in July. But my question stays the same.
Why can’t they give us a release date? If they are still going to give us one does’nt that mean that we are going to wait even longer for the actual thing to be released? They say it’s against policy to give us a date,Isn’t that a bid unfair? Apple has no such policy.
I’m not judgeing or anything.But How is “in and around September seems about right” or “Most probably in September” suppose to help? So basicly when they don’t release it then they can just say we didn’t say it was going to be than we said “Most probably”. If it wasn’t such a wonderfull device that is so succesfull I would have given up a long time ago, I’m still waiting myself for the phone with my contract still going.I could have upgraded a long time ago. But waiting for a release date is a bit stupid don’t you think? Vodacom has allready lost allot of their customers because they keep leaving them with “Coming soon”
I totally agree! Waiting anxiously for some mysterious announcement or date is super frustrating! We’ve been waiting damn long and it makes no sense that zero info is released to keep us updated on the process (or lack thereof).
September’s in second half now and still nothing…
got an e-mail from Vodacom yesterday, after pre-registering for the phone, you now have to do a pre authorization for the phone.
apparently should be released next week some time or in the last 2 days of the September.
at this point i am leaning more towards a blackberry or htc diamond as the wait from vodacom has been far too long and i guarentee you that there is going to be a huge pay in with Vodacom if you try to take on the lower end talk packages.
also once you have the phone via a specific network you cannot use it on another, according to the mail
“. iPhone 3G may be configured to work only with the wireless services of a single wireless provider. Some features and services are not available in all areas. See your service provider for more details.” so once you have the phone with a specific network, you can forget about migrating to another with number portability
Well well wat do i read in the paper today? the Iphone 3g has been launched to day on the 23rd of september! So much for advertising the launch day! they so you can’t download music directly onto the phone because there’s no itunes store… useless…
well hey at least its finally in South Africa