Now that iPhone 4S is official, the next question is – when would it be available here in the Philippines and how much?
Well, we’ll try to figure out based on Apple’s iPhone release roadmap in the past and from there, we can have our assumption for Globe Telecom.
To recap, the first generation iPhone was released on June 9, 2007; however, Apple didn’t have a partner-carrier here in the Philippines at the time yet. Globe Telecom started to offer Apple’s second generation smartphone, the iPhone 3G, on August 22, 2008 – almost 11 weeks since the device was announced on June 9, 2008. Exactly 1 year later (June 8, 2009), Apple announced its third generation smartphone, the iPhone 3GS, with the device’s availability on Globe Telecom 8 weeks later, and that was on July 31, 2009. Then the fourth generation iPhone 4 was announced last year (June 7, 2010 to be exact), with Globe Telecom launched the device 16 weeks later (September 26th, 2010). As you can see, all the previous generation iPhones has June as its launched date, yet took several weeks before it landed in Globe’s headquarter -- 11 weeks for iPhone 3G, 8 weeks for 3GS, and 16 weeks for iPhone 4. It’s obviously an irregular pattern which makes it hard to figure out when the fifth generation iPhone will make a landfall in the Philippine soil.
This time is different. Apple announced
iPhone 4S on October 4th, with the device availability in the US, Canada, Australia, UK, France, Germany, and Japan on the 14th. And 22 more countries will have it on October 28th, but that doesn’t include the Philippines. Apple only said the iPhone 4S will be available to “70 countries by end of the year”, so we have a hint. Globe Telecom will have the iPhone 4S sometime in December, and if I have to throw my guess – that would be before Christmas. Now you’d think of it as a great Christmas present, won’t you?
Globe iPhone 4S PricesWhen you talk about iPhone, the prices get a more serious attention. And one can figure it out how much the iPhone 4S will cost at Globe. Again, we’ll do a recap.
Globe iPhone 3G PricesiPhone 3G 8GB – Php 37,599; FREE starting at Plan 5,000
iPhone 3G 16GB – Php 43,799; FREE starting at Plan 10,000
Globe iPhone 3GS PricesiPhone 3GS 16GB – Php 38,850; FREE starting at Plan 5,000
iPhone 3GS 32GB – Php 42,250; FREE starting at Plan 7,000
Globe iPhone 4 Prices (Black or White)iPhone 4 16GB – Php 37,499; FREE starting at Plan 3,799
iPhone 4 32GB – Php 43,699; FREE starting at Plan 5,000
Unlike the previous generation iPhones particularly the 3G and 3GS, the iPhone 4S at first launch will be available in 3 models – the 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB. If I’m not mistaken the iPhone 4S is the first Apple smartphone, if not all, to carry such huge internal storage at 64GB. Of course that will come with a good price!
In the US, the iPhone 4S is priced at $199, $299, and $399 for the 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB models, respectively, on top of the 2-year contract with respective carriers.
It’s unsafe yet to throw-in
iPhone 4S prices at Globe Telecom; however, if we have to benchmark iPhone 4 prices last year, my guesstimate is still the same (with calculation for the 64GB variant) and it follows:
iPhone 4S Prices (Black or White)16GB Php 37,499 -- Free starting at Plan 3799
32GB Php 43,699 -- Free starting at Plan 5000
64GB Php 49,899 -- Free starting at Plan 10K
This may not be accurate, but it would give you an insight regarding the range. Rest assured though, this post will be updated once we got a word from Globe Telecom. Stay tuned! And oh, just a related note – in case you missed the links above, go check out the details of
iPhone 4S via the link!
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