As we are only 2 days away from the official iPhone 4 release in Hong Kong. One of the three Apple mobile carrier partners, Smartone-Vodafone (SMV) released their contract prices for the iPhone 4.
Note that the only difference among iPhone 4 sold through mobile carrier partners, Apple authorized resellers and Apple HK store online is that the ones through the mobile carriers comes with a 24-month contract.
There are two hidden costs in the above tariff plans. One is that you must sign up for one or more of the VAS (value-added-service) valued at HKD36.00/month or more. The second is the HKD12.00 administration fee that all subscribers of any carriers have to pay.
Since the HKD12.00 administration fee is the same for all mobile carriers in Hong Kong. The actual price for these contracts are:
| (all amounts in HKD) | 100MB Included Data |
500MB Included Data |
Unlimited Data |
|---|---|---|---|
| Actual Cost | $138 + $36 = $174 | $248 + $36 = $284 | $398 + $36 = $434 |
| iPhone 4 16GB Upfront Cost |
$3480 | $980 | $0 |
| iPhone 4 32GB Upfront Cost |
$4280 | $1780 | $580 |
| Equivalent Non-iPhone 4 Plan |
N/A | N/A | $298 |
| Actual Cost of iPhone 4 16GB |
N/A | N/A | ($434 x 24) – ($298 x 24) = $3264 |
| Actual Cost of iPhone 4 32GB |
N/A | N/A | ($434 x 24) – ($298 x 24) + $580 = $3844 |
Also none of the above plans includes the SMV’s X-Power service, this is a HKD36/month additional charge. So this can be the required VAS you add to your plan.
Although none of the plans states, according to SMV Customer Service, Tethering is included in all three plans. Of course the first two plans will have a data limit the subscriber keep an eye on.
[Updated: July 28, 2010, 15:05]
Smartone-Vodafone now informs us that thee prepaid amount for the iPhone 4 are as follows:
iPhone 4 16GB = HKD4480
iPhone 4 32GB = HKD5280
The differences between these prepaid amount and the “Upfront” amount mentioned above are rebated back to the customer through the terms of the 24-month contract.
[Updated: July 28, 2010, 20:00]
Thanks to abc1230 (aka A網誘) on Twitter for putting together a spreadsheet to outline the different iPhone 4 tariff plans from 5 of the Hong Kong mobile carriers.
I have translated this spreadsheet into English (http://bit.ly/iphone4hkplans), but due to my limited Chinese comprehension there are still some work to do in the translation. Please feel free to contact me if you want to help complete the translation and or help update the information on the spreadsheet.
Is the upfront payment credited back over the 24 month?
No, sorry to confuse you. I used the “upfront” word to mean that the initial cost of the iPhone 4 before beginning the contract period. I purposely avoided using the word “prepaid”.I just updated the post with new information from SMV regarding the prepaid amount for each of the iPhone 4.
i dont understand hong kong. i subscribed to the newsletter. and i find out on a separate website the prices of smartone. so instead i email them today. and they call back. they cant tell you whether any store will have any and to visit on the day.is there something wrong with money nowadays. do staff not know how to take details of a potential customer
three's plans are identical, except they have some good bonus' if you're coming from another carrier (mnp).
I can totally sympathies with you.Being a long term customer of Smartone-Vodafone, vocal praise and criticism of them, but no invite to their launch party. Where 3 HK and 1010 both sent me invite to purchase the iPhone 4 at their respective launch events.Given you experience, does it mean that SMV doesn't know how to acquire new prospective customers? Nor do they care about existing loyal customers who may churn.
Thank you for the heads up.We have now created a live spreadsheet using Google Docs.