here we go, page-13

The iPhone 3G is officially on sale, but I reckon you'd be crazy to buy one today.



Apple zealots perhaps wanted the glory of being first in line this morning, but my advice to everyone else is to hold off buying an iPhone 3G until all the telcos play their hands and we can compare apples with apples.

Telstra only officially unveiled its iPhone data pricing this morning (even though it was leaked yesterday). Vodafone only unveiled its pricing yesterday (even though it was leaked the day before). This to me reeks of contempt for customers, hoping to suck them into an emotional purchase rather than making an informed decision. Buying an iPhone 3G is like playing poker - leave emotion at the door.

The data allowance is the most crucial element of any iPhone 3G plan, yet it's the aspect we've had the least time to digest. It looks like Optus is offering between 100MB and 1GB per month, Vodafone between 250MB and 1GB per month and Telstra between 5MB and 3G per month. Yes, Telstra's entry level iPhone data plan is a whopping 5MB per month. The iPhone will chew through at least that much data in the background before you even do anything. Once again Telstra is screwing its customers blind. Expect the "Telstra iPhone $1000 bill shock" stories to appear any day.

All that said, any idiot who buys an iPhone 3G without knowing how much data is included gets everything they deserve. Optus offers the best value Australian iPhone 3G plans, but none of the plans from any of the telcos are really worth getting excited about.

Of course there's still a wild card in the iPhone poker game - Hutchison's 3 network. The word is that 3 will be selling the iPhone 3G in Australia by August, and you can be sure it will offer better data plans than the other three telcos. Even if you don't want to go with 3, when it puts its chips on the table this could raise the stakes and force the other telcos to improve their plans and data allowances.

If you absolutely must have Apple's shiny new gadget on day one, that's your call. My advice is to hold and see how it plays out.

Posted by Adam Turner
July 11, 2008 6:00 AM

someone elses view....thought i throw this in....