It is now official,the iphone 3G is available in Kenya under the Orange network.The phone was launched on Thursday and it was an event filled with pomp and glamour,but don't expect any people to be queuing for days on end like when it was released in other countries such as Australia or South Africa as the price is not for everyone.
The phone will be available on either prepaid(ksh 33000 for the 8GB and 42000 for the 16GB)or postpaid(ksh 50000 for the 8GB and 59000 for the 16GB).
On top of that buyers will have to sign a contract for 1 year of which for prepaid users will be ksh.60000.(I am not sure about postpaid users so I will update this post once I get that info)
Personally I think that the phone itself is cheap but the contract is just too much,according to the Apple CEO Mark Jobs when he first released it he said that the price of the phone would be subsidised by the one year contract but in the Orange Kenya arrangement I am not seeing the price difference,the phone is expensive and the contract is also expensive.
The year contract is supposed to allow full access to the Iphone 3G features but instead of 3G orange is offering users EDGE which is much more inferior.Also the GPS function will not be accessible which makes me wonder what exactly buyers will be paying for.
What's the need of releasing a phone which is too expensive to buy,especially for the young adults and teenagers at which the iphone is targeted.
