An email just this afternoon pointed me to the press release that Globe Telecom has agreed with Apple to exclusively offer the iPhone in the Philippines. Announcement was made at 1PM this afternoon.
On the Globe Corporate site:
Globe, SingTel, Bharti Airtel and Optus to bring iPhone to the region
Manila, 12 May 2008 – Globe, SingTel, Bharti Airtel and Optus today announced that they have signed an agreement with Apple to bring the iPhone to the Philippines, Singapore, India, and Australia later this year.
More information will be released at a later date.
Finally!
A call to people inside Globe turned out nothing. They’re all mum about it. Not even a clue. All they told me is that it will be offered later this year. That’s it. No details on the plans, prices and release dates. Will have to dig deeper. *heh*
Wait, does that mean Apple will open up iTunes in the Philippines as well? Remember that Apple ties up your iTunes account with your iPhone subscription. But iPhones are already available in the Philippines. Just visit Virramall in Greenhills. Now, I’m more excited with the prospect of getting an iTunes account than an iPhone being legitimately available with a local telco.
Will the iPhone muster enough influence to make people switch providers? (That’s what happened with AT&T in the US.)
{Hat tip: Andre John & Mobius}
[...] and other operator giants from other countries signed deal with Apple. I got these news from yugatech blog and grabeh’s [...]
[...] Fresh from YugaTech: Globe Telecom Nabs iPhone Deal. [...]
[...] with Globe Telecom to sell this hot phone in the Philippines. Predictably enough, many Philippine bloggers are excited at the prospect but what I am interested in is will Globe hand over a chunk of [...]
The problem withe Globe and Smart is the cost associated with thier Data Networks. A lot of people have missed this out. Globe charges your .15/KB. So for a 1MB file thats Php 153. With Smart its time metered at Php 10/30min. Globe currently have a time metered data plan to compete with Smart. Php 5/15min, but its only a Promo at it will expire. Like all Globe marketing practices to make their services sound cheap and affordable.
Apple signed exclusive deals with Telcos that have “Unlimited” Data Plans bundled in. Without an unlimited data the current “iPhone & iTunes” plan by Apple will not work here. Apple havent disclosed its plan yet about iPhone in Asia. We dont even have an iTunes store yet. It would be very silly if you would only be able to buy music from iTunes in the Philippines is when your using WIFI at a local Starbucks.
GLOBE 3G is faster than SMART. GLOBE has HSDPA which about 3X faster than ordinary 3G network. Its like comparing an ordinary GSM GPRS and GSM EDGE. If some people are concern about prepaid/postpaid, later on this iphone 3g will be available in greenhills anyway.
Wow! I didn’t hear about this news! Whoa, i guess as a Globe user, I’m happy? lolz! But you’re right, I’m more excited about the iTunes philippines rather than the iphone itself since I already have a jailbroken itouch. =)
I really like your site by the way! =)
damn i got my new iphone 16 gb model and now this. 199$ so does this mean na halos 10k lng yan d2 sa pinas pag dumating?? and ung 16 gb ay 15 k lng?? paano yan? i need to know if that’ll be the price of the phone para ngayun plang masell ko na ung phone ko. haha. reply nmn kayu ohh
hey does that mean kapag bumili ako sa ibang bansa at dinala ko sa philippines hnd katulad yun ng nabebenta d2?..
OMG..buti di me bumili nung unang iphone cuz i think pangt kasi walang 3g o hidni 3g at daming features na wala na nasa new iphone 3g ngayon….bibili ako nyan for sure wahahaha
wow dats nice i hope prepaid yan..exciting…
[...] Fresh from YugaTech: Globe Telecom Nabs iPhone Deal. [...]
UCEPROTECT-Level3
Reputation of ASN 4775 | GLOBE-TELECOM-AS Globe Telecom, Inc.
AS Status Provider has
total IP’s Level 1 listed spammers
within the last 7 days Escalation to Level 3
by Level 1 records Optional Expressdelisting
WARNING!
PROBLEM MUST BE FIXED FIRST
TO PREVENT NEW LISTINGS
4775 LISTED 226560 497 (0.219 %) 453
What means listed at UCEPROTECT-Level 3?
GAME OVER. We and our users have seen enough spam and heared all possible excusions why some lazy providers think to be not responsible for what their customers are doing.
We are not just another blacklist. We really know better. Massive spam is always a problem tolerated by the provider.
ok sana ang iphone kung mas mataas ng doble man lamang sa 199usd. eh ang nangyari 5X ang price sa phil. peso. in 100thousand person in the mall or anywhere masuerte ka kung makakita ka ng isang iphone unit.kaya magisipisip naman sana ang globe company. bawasan naman ang presyo nyooooo!!!@!
may account na ako sa itunes dahil lately nakabili ako ng ipod touch. maybe isusunod ko ang iphone.Sir, any news regards an iphone na medyo mura? planning to have one this year. sana nga may itunes site tayo dito.
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I think iphone cannot muster enough influence to filipinos kasi sa taas ng price sa globe. but see later what globe can do to convince customers.