Vodafone's iPhone pricing blunder - cockup or cunning plan?
Unless Vodafone is bluffing, or Telstra pulls some amazing data bundles out of the bag at the 11th hour, it looks like Optus will offer Australia's the best iPhone plans, argues Adam Turner.
Early Wednesday morning, a few eagle-eyed web surfers noticed that Vodafone had put up details of its Australian iPhone plans two days before launch. The page was quickly pulled, but the damage was done.
Are we really to believe that this was an innocent mistake and that right now some peon at Vodafone is handing in his badge and cleaning out his desk?
I'd say its more likely the so-called blunder is actually Vodafone's way of testing the water, to see how people would react to its plans and give the telco time to tweak the plans before launch day. The plans are shockingly poor value compared to those of Optus, which is a surprise because I expected Vodafone to undercut Optus and certainly be more generous with its data allowances.
Politicians are fond of the strategic leak - such as letting slip that taxes will rise $500 so, when it turns out to only be $250, we're relieved rather than outraged. I hope for Vodafone's sake that it's trying to pull the same trick here, but if so it's left its run extremely late. There probably isn't enough time to fix the damage done before iPhone hits the stores.
When you break it down, the Vodafone plans don't stand up well next to Optus. It seems Vodafone will offer an 8GB iPhone for $189 upfront and then $69 per month with 250MB of data. Over at Optus, the 8GB iPhone is $0 upfront and then $56 per month ($49 calls + $7 handset) with 250MB of data. A $0 upfront 8GB iPhone from Telstra will set you back at least $79 per month, and still no word on the data allowance.
Of course this comparison doesn't take into account the call and SMS allowances, which will further alter the value for money equation.
Unlike New Zealand, Vodafone Australia hasn't listed upfront pricing, which is also surprising. Still, it doesn't take a maths wiz to see that Vodafone's plans are, in a word, shite. At least we're not getting screwed as badly as New Zealand and Canada.
Unless Vodafone is bluffing, or Telstra pulls some amazing data bundles out of the bag at the 11th hour, it looks like Optus will offer Australia's the best iPhone plans. It seems Vodafone either has crap iPhone pricing, a crap iPhone marketing strategy or - more likely - both.
Other Blog Entries written by Adam Turner:
Thoughts on this article? Add a comment below.
Be the first to comment on this article.