Japan's Softbank Outlines iPhone Pricing and Tariff Details
Japan's Softbank Mobile has unveiled its pricing plans for Apple's 3G iPhone when it is launched next month. The company plans to sell the entry model for ¥23,040 ($214.60), with the larger 16GB model will sell for ¥34,560 (US$322.15).
Most significant though is that the monthly tariff would ¥7,280, which will include unlimited data transfers and free calls between Softbank Mobile subscribers. The ¥7,280 (US$67.86) monthly fee is some seventy percent higher than the company average ARPU of ¥4,310 (US$40.17).
"We expect users who pay a lot to migrate from au (KDDI's mobile arm) and DoCoMo," Son told a group of reporters, via the Reuters news agency. "There have been users who were just attracted to our low price, but the main point this time is feature attractiveness rather than price."
The company also warned that it still did not have any details on the shipment volumes and expects stocks to be limited at first due to the plans by Apple to roll out the new model handset in 22 countries at the same time. The company will then ramp up sales to a total of 70 "official" countries.
"We expect the first lot to evaporate instantly," Son said. "Supplies will likely be scarce for a while."
He even noted that company employees would have to have allocations rationed initially.
According to figures from the Mobile World analysts, Softbank ended the first quarter of this year with just under 18.6 million subscribers - making it the smallest of the three dominant operators. However, it has been growing market share faster than its two larger rivals.
While the iPhone is wholly designed by Apple, Softbank Mobile has a heritage of launching market changing products - as it was its previous incarnation, J-Phone which developed the world's first cameraphone back in Nov 2000.
Posted to the site on 23rd June 2008