The iPhone Virgin Blog

I love this battle…competition = savings for consumers like us…agree? 

The competition for the iPhone market in Singapore is getting keener, with all the three telcos now offering the device.

The competition started on Tuesday night with SingTel tweaking its iPhone plans to make them more attractive.

On Wednesday, M1 announced that it will offer a 12—gigabyte data bundle for two of its lower—end iPhone plans, which previously offered 10GB. The data charges are also now capped at a lower S$30.

It was a response to StarHub’s announcement earlier in the day of a S$30 cap to its data charges.

Both StarHub and M1 started selling the iPhone on Wednesday, ending the nearly 18—month monopoly which SingTel had over the sale of iPhones in Singapore.

With the latest development, the iPhone mania returned with a vengeance.

At two of M1’s collection points, the queue started on Tuesday night, hours before the phone became available at midnight.

Some 1,500 customers formed long lines at Paragon and Westmall, as those who had pre—ordered the phone had to join walk—in customers in the same queue.

When MediaCorp visited the Paragon Orchard outlet around noon on Wednesday, about 100 people were still waiting to be served.

Lawyer Ramesh Tiwary, who has been eyeing to sign up after his contract expired two months ago, did not mind the long wait.

“Over the last couple of days, the plans have been getting better and better, so I think now is the right time to get it. Now, it’s really good because over a few nights, things have become a lot better,” he said.

Over at the StarHub’s Plaza Singapura collection point, queues were not as long because only customers who had pre—ordered their iPhones get to collect them.

Walk—in customers need to place their orders and are alerted to return to one of 20 collection points that is nearest to them. A StarHub spokesperson said this arrangement saves customers from waiting in line.

Still, customers like Aces Lim waited two hours before finally receiving her prized gadget.

For customer Michelle Tok, who was only browsing, she is hoping that more tempting offers will be dished out.

She said: “Prices are all very competitive, it’s not really a major issue right now. There’s a cap to how low they can go also. Of course, I would love to get it free, but it’s not going to happen.

“I think it’s the perks and also the after—service and feedback that I get from my friends that will affect my decision.”

And here’s good news for Channel NewsAsia fans.

The Channel NewsAsia iPhone app is now available via SMS download by dialling 75500 with the message “app”, so not just SingTel, but also M1 and Starhub subscribers can enjoy the free news app.

The news app is available at the iTunes store or via the channelnewsasia.com’s app page as a free download.

Source:  Yahoo News/ CNA

For those of you who prefer to sticking to Starhub and M1, your time is finally here.  Now you can buy the iPhone without having to switch service providers!

I just read this from Yahoo News:

StarHub will make available the iPhone to its subscribers from Wednesday.

It will also offer a range of new 3G mobile plans to meet the different needs of iPhone customers for voice, SMS and data usage.

iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G models will be available for free on the 3G SmartSurf Unlimited plan with a two—year contract. Altogether, four new 3G SmartSurf price plans will be introduced.

Local data usage charges are capped at S$48 monthly. Customers who have pre—registered for the iPhone will be given priority.

Hours after StarHub revealed plans to rollout its iPhones, M1 announced it will do the same this Wednesday.There will be four new iPhone plans offered by M1.

M1 said its iPhone customers will also enjoy call benefits of unlimited free calls to three M1 numbers, per second billing and discounts of up to 35 per cent on subscription fees with the multi—line saver programme.

Local data usage charges are capped at S$36.38, slightly below StarHub’s rates.

In July, SingTel was the first operator to launch the new iPhone 3GS.

Are you rejoicing yet?

At least now there is no monopoly and I bet prices are going to be more competitive in future.  I am still holding on to my iPhone 3G, and do not see a need to upgrade it yet to iPhone 3GS.  Well, let’s see if there will be greater discounts that may tempt me next year.

And yes just to rant, I am really peeved at the multi-sim service I am getting.  There was a day last month where my phone cannot be used at all for 8 hours, from 1 pm to 9 pm!  I can’t use the SMS service as well.  No calls and text messages can be sent outgoing and received incoming, can you believe it?  I was totally cut off from the outside world, nobody could reach me and I didn’t have an extra sim card.  This is the worst experience I have in my 10++ years of using a mobile phone!

When I called the customer service (which took me at least 20 minutes to get through), all they can say is “Network problem” and they suggested that I hard-reset my iPhone again and again.  It was of no help at all and I called a second time (another 20 minutes gone!) to have someone who have totally no idea how he could help me except to wait for the problem to resolve itself.

I am paying extra for this service because I need to surf on my laptop as well, if not I would have scrapped it!  I hope I never have to experience this again.  *touch wood*  Haha.