Was the ‘Jesus phone’ worth the wait?
THE much-heralded iPhone was finally launched in South Africa last week, and it’s worth the excitement that preceded it.
The iPhone 3G is Apple’s second-generation handset and its intuitive and easy-to-use interface matches the hype that accompanied what we at Stuff call the “Jesus phone”.
Indeed, it’s quite a second coming.
Apple boss Steve Jobs’ announcement in June that it would cost $199 (R1600 at the time), was met with great scepticism. Vodacom has priced the entry-level eight gigabyte model at only R199 more than that.
The 16 GB model will cost R2 899 on the new iPhone 500 contract. This contract will cost R925 a month. The 8 GB iPhone will cost R2 189 and 16 GB will be R3 299 on the other packages, known as the iPhone $120 (R450/month) and iPhone $240 (R595/month).
All three packages include 250 MB of data and 100 SMSs. as well as call minutes — 120, 240 and 500 respectively. Once the plan’s monthly limit for data usage has been exceeded, data usage will be charged at R1.50 per MB and standard SMS rates will apply.
Prepaid customers can buy the iPhone outright for R6389 (8GB model) and R7569 (16GB model) — but remember that the handset is data intensive if you’re on pay-as-you-go. South African law prohibits you from network locking a handset so conceivably you can use your iPhone with another operator.
The must-have phone’s launch date remained a secret until last Thursday’s midnight launch and will only be available through Vodacom, which has the exclusive rights to distribute it through 50 percent owner Vodafone’s 10-country deal with Apple.
Vodacom managing executive for sales Chris Ross believes the 30 000 units for the launch are likely to be snapped up quickly. Ross says the new contracts include packages of voice and data and bundled SMSes, with the option to bundle more data.
Around the world iPhone owners have been avid mobile Internet users, in part due to the ease of using the iPhone’s Safari browser, its 3.5-inch (9cm) display and the utterly intuitive method of using your finger to scroll, pinch-to-zoom and other clever multi- touch features.
The iPhone 3G has a built-in GPS, uses 3G data networks , has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, supports Microsoft’s Exchange e-mail server, and can run thousands of applications written by third-party developers. It’s slim, has an all-black plastic back, chrome volume buttons and a headphone jack.
Texting using the virtual keyboard is sometimes challenging and this aspect is the least sophisticated of the iPhone. It’s hardly in keeping with the slickness of the rest of the interface.
Ross says typical data usage in other Vodafone countries has been 70 MB to 80 MB but he expects the average South African user to use about 200 MB.
At Stuff, the iPhone has consistently been our No1 smartphone and was our gadget of the year last year. Apple is expected to sell five million units in this quarter alone, and is well on track to sell its projected 10 million iPhones this year. Luckily South Africans are now part of that statistic.
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