Apple Launches New 3G IPhone, But Argentina Will Have To Wait
Apple introduced its new 3G iPhone Monday. The phone will be released July 11 in 22 countries and will cost $199 for the 8GB version and $299 for the 16GB model. Unfortunately, though not surprisingly, Argentina is not one of those countries. The good news is that Argentina is among the countries included in Apple's “Coming Soon” category.
Claro will sell the phone in Argentina later this year. The new 2.0 iPhone will have a host of new features, including much faster download times. The faster downloads will be available to users in Buenos Aires thanks to a 3G network that currently covers the city. Claro also has 3G coverage in cities including Rosario, Cor
doba, Asunción, Montevideo and along the Atlantic Coast. The phone, which also contains a built-in GPS unit, contains push email and works with Microsoft Exchange.
Unfortunately for early adapters, the new phone will be harder to unlock. Until now, Argentines and expats living here have been able to buy iPhones in the US and crack them for use in Argentina. (See my previous post for instructions on how to do this.) But under a new commercial agreement, future iPhone activations will have to take place in-store. This is a departure from the current system that allows customers to activate the product from home. This latter process has allowed hundreds of thousands of people to unlock the phones from the comfort of their homes without having to pay any fees or penalties. Meanwhile, Reuters reported Monday that iPhone customers who do not activate their phones within 30 days will have to pay a penalty. But this may not be a deterrent to south-of-the-border hackers because any fees incurred will likely be offset by the phone's lower sale price.
I’ve been a palm Treo user for years but this new version Iphone is tempting although the US$299 price tag is for the USA and has historically cost much more outside the states e.g. 299 pounds sterling in the UK – fingers crossed those hackers/unlockers will be up to the challenge!
How can Argentina sell the iPhone at the price that Steve Jobs explained at the presentation about New iPhone, 199 US?
>How can Argentina sell the
>iPhone at the price that Steve
>Jobs explained at the
>presentation about New
>iPhone, 199 US?
That’s a very good question. The fu***** argentinean goverment has a 50% custom fee for any electronics brought from abroad.
And one might hope that they do this to protect the national industry but there’s no way Argentina can produce laptops or higt tech phones internally at competitive prices. It’s the same with LCDs and plasma screens, we pay more thatn anybody else for old generation screens.
I’m tired of this, to the politicians in Argentina, please stop charging this fee for making yourselves rich and let Argentina move to the next level in technology.
Best (an Argentinean tired of being screwed all the time)
I want to buy my Argentine friend something cool for Christmas but things like the iPhone aren’t released there yet. I think retailers in Buenos Aires should make themselves more aware on the internet for bums like me!
Hey Max,
The iPhone is for sale here now, although your broader point about Argentine stores having a very weak Internet presense is absolutely true. There is next to no e-commerce here, and even less when it comes to retail. You could try this place: http://musimundo.com/
They have at least some things online, though I’ve never actually bought online here, so I’m not sure what the experience would be like for you.
Take care,
Taos
Hate to bring the level of expectations back to reality but the truth is the 3g internet nodes in argentina already cannot handle at any acceptable level of use its already established userbase let alone the already projectd growth for the next 6 to 12 months so for at least that long you can plan for very 56k modem type speeds if you use any 3g device