I have come to belief Apple sell a Lifestyle, not a mobile phone or a computer. While this is slowly changing, there are a still a fan-base of Apple loyalists who are willing to pay anything for Apple products.

You should have seen those queues at the Apple stores in the US when the iPhone was first launched. Some people started lining up a whole week before the launch.

On Fri, Jun 12, 2009 at 6:49 PM, Billy <billyx5@gmail.com> wrote:
I think what most of you are forgetting is that the iphones being sold at those prices are tied to 2yrs contracts with AT&T. And you cant get an iphone on amazon. I f you get it on ebay (an unlocked/jail-broken one) it'll probably go at around $500/$600 upwards - and thats for a used one. To get the $199 phone from apple without the ATT contract would cost you $599 but it will STILL be locked - and assuming you'll jail-break it, there goes the warranty.
Another thing you have to realize is that apple expects a certain amount of payback from all operators selling an iphone. Now, seeing as the dollar is worth much more in kenya than in US, making a call for Ksh3 (or whatever it is they charge per min) wont exactly recoup the actual cost of the iphone as fast as it would say if you were in the US where the minimum contract cost is $60 and $110 at the higher end of the spectrum - and this is for calls only you still havent included the cost of SMS and data. Assume thats another $10/$20. Looking at this, I think it would make sense how apple gets its cash from selling the iphones in the US.

And coming back to kenya, orange doesnt have the same kind of "costly" plans for its users. Then there's the profit that orange needs to make. Now putting all this into consideration i think it kinda makes some kind of fiscal sense.

Disclaimer: I am in no way connected to orange or apple and I, in know way condone anyone selling a mobile phone for sh70k. These are merely my random thoughts.

-Billy



On Fri, Jun 12, 2009 at 10:47 AM, Philip Musyoki <pmusyoki@gmail.com> wrote:
The iPhone works very well even now on the Safaricom 3G network. You can watch Youtube on it.The issue has been the battery life when on 3G. The 3Gs may solve this as it has a longer battery life.

On Fri, Jun 12, 2009 at 5:43 PM, ndungu stephen <ndungustephen@gmail.com> wrote:
@ Kevin

Very rightly put -- when steve jobs said those prices last year - that ultimately changed the buying price of the iphone from that time..., so someone somewhere is trying to reap where they have not grabbed.

Now that the phone tax is zero rated, i think i can comfortably try import one from ebay or amazon at slightly above recommended price ... and with the iPhone 3GS dropping in at $ 99 (US dollars) - now mabbe every home can own an iphone :-)

The iPhone should be pretty good when applied to the safcom 3G network in the wake of the fibre cable arrival.



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