iPhone 3G cheaper imported
Imported 3G iPhones are starting to appear on local e-commerce websites at prices lower than the official Apple/Vodacom prepaid iPhone pricing.
A recent advertisement on MyBroadband offered 8GB 3G iPhones at R5 700 per phone which included overnight courier fees. This is cheaper than Vodacom’s prepaid price of R 6 389 for the same phone.
On BidorBuy there are also many iPhone 3G offers, ranging in price from R5 950 for an 8GB model to around R 9 000 for a 16GB phone. Savvy users may therefore pick up a bargain while others may overpay for a hacked iPhone without any guarantee.
More traditional online retailers typically sell the iPhone for a similar or higher price than Vodacom’s prepaid offers. Considering that there are no official warranties on grey iPhone imports – which are typically hacked to work on all networks – it would be particularly obtuse to go this route.
The iPhone in South Africa is not network locked like most of the models found in other countries, which may make the local version of the iPhone a sought after commodity for exports.
This is one of the reasons why Apple made certain that the prepaid price of the iPhone locally is not particularly attractive, a clear strategy from both Apple and Vodacom to avoid that the iPhone is used on other networks.
The fact that the iPhone carries a warranty when purchased through official Vodacom channels makes it a better choice for most users looking to own an iPhone 3G.
Although a few hundred Rand can be saved on hacked imported models, the subsequent hassles with firmware updates and the like may not be worth the saving.
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