3 Australia has followed suit with Optus and Vodafone on iPhone 3G S pricing. The smartphone will be offered for free on certain monthly pricing plans. To be honest, the price structures for the iPhone 3G S on all the operators are pretty similar, but 3 has offered a cool option for existing customers. If you already have a contract with 3, you can slot a 3G S into that existing plan for an extra monthly fee, without not other changes.
Four operators are now offering the smartphone in Australia. The pricing structure shares common features for all of them. The contract lasts 24 months (although that’s standard for iPhones globally). All models of iPhone are available for a monthly fee with “capped” plans. All the operators offer different combinations of voice, texts and data with these plans. For the more expensive plans, the iPhone itself is offered for free. For the 3G S 32 gigabyte model, it usually only comes for free with the absolute top-tier data plan – except for 3. The minimum charge for a 3G S 32gig on 3 is ten dollars a month.
You can check the details yourself at the following links (thanks news.com.au):
What we think?
The thing that really gets me about these price plans is that the data rates haven’t improved much. Not much at all. As I’ve said before, the entire point of the iPhone 3G S is that it provides a faster mobile Web experience. Theoretically, that means people will use more mobile data. But if you don’t improve the data plan with that, it will drive users away. In this case, more data means bigger bill shock.
