two seven

See the Vodafone New Zealand website.

And wow, the reaction has been nothing less than scathing across the board! I think I saw perhaps one positive tweet, but otherwise there was lots of wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Cost to purchase an iPhone outright:
8GB: $979NZD = $740USD
16GB: $1129NZD = $853USD

Ouch. More detailed pricing and plans are here.

While Vodafone spokeman Kursten Shalfoon says the data prices are sharp by New Zealand standards (and in all honesty, he’s probably right), that’s only because NZ is still behind the rest of the world when it comes to mobile (and fixed line) pricing/performance.
To be fair, a smaller market and fewer market competitors (or as some would say, a monopoly) has dictated this, but people were really expecting something more inline with US pricing.

Ars Technica have a table of global pricing. While the NZ prices haven’t been added yet, it’s clear that NZ is the most expensive market by a long shot.

Vodafone announced today that it has signed an agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone in ten of its markets around the world; New Zealand is one of them!
Yay!

The NZ Herald says it could be here in July.

I’m tipping that it will be the new, yet-to-be-released, 3G version that we go live with.

Those of you who know me even just a little bit will know that I’m something of a petrolhead. And that’s why when I stumbled across this Wired article by Charles Graeber, I was enthralled. I had to find out more.

Luckily for me, every man and his dog are talking about it. And so I found Alex Roy’s site, Team Polizei, learned some more, and then bought the book; The Driver: My Dangerous Pursuit of Speed and Truth in the Outlaw Racing World.

This is an incredible account of Alex’s road rally career, blasting though several Gumball 3000 events, the Bullrun, and ultimately, Alex’s attempts at a record transcontinental drive across the US.

This is totally gripping stuff. This is not just about having fun in cars; Alex’s determination to win is matched only by his dedication to his friends; forfeiting stages to help those who have broken down, etc.

Now, you’re probably asking yourselves why I’m writing about this on a geek blog. But I can assure you that Alex Roy is a certifiable geek of the highest order (right down to the ‘GE3K’ badge on his Polizei144 jackets). The sheer quantity of gadgetry packed into his blue BMW M5 is mightily impressive; 4 Garmin GPS units, 2 police scanners, radar/laser detectors and jammers, thermal imaging camera, to name just a few bits. All this gear enables Alex and crew to drive as fast as possible, as safely as possible. Alex takes considerable care to drive courteously and safely, often at the expensive of a position lost to a reckless competitor (and often regained again further down the track).

(more…)

toshcomputers.com have the 8GB Apple iPhone at $854, including GST. This unit comes as-is, not jailbreaked, not SIM unlocked and with no warranty that I can see.

parallelimported.co.nz have the iPhone for $1199, including GST with a 12 month warranty. This unit is ready to go on the Vodafone NZ network, and it seems that Parallel Imported will provide support for upgrading to future firmware releases.

There’s the odd unit that pops up on zillion.co.nz or sellmefree.co.nz, but they’re usually sold by people who haven’t seen the toshcomputers.com deal.

I’m still googling regularly for a WPA Enterprise hack/update/application for the iPhone.
I’ve found nothing as yet, although I do have a couple of leads to follow.

I’ve discovered that toshbuy.com are selling 8GB iPhones for $799.00 (excl. GST and shipping).

That’s nearly half the price of some other places: Parallel Imported are selling them for $1499.00.

I’ve just been sent a link to this stuff.co.nz article that explains why TradeMe have banned the auction of iPhones.

I think this is crap.

Sure, it’s their service, so they can ban what they like, but in reality there are many more products sold via TradeMe that have equal or greater fraud potential than iPhones.
By this reasoning, they should ban the sale of parallel imported GSM phones that aren’t available in NZ via Vodafone-affiliated resellers.

TradeMe FTL.

[hat tip sportsthought.com]

Update 20/09/07:

The NZ Herald reports about this. They note that sellmefree.co.nz “…is not prepared to deny New Zealanders the chance to get their hands on the hot gadget, and are authenticating each auction individually…” Nice!

Here’s a page of sellmefree.co.nz search results for the Apple iPhone.

Well, no more hardware hacks — you can now SIM-unlock your iPhone by software.

Now who in their right mind would not want an iPhone?