How SMART and SUN Can Make Money Out Of GLOBE’s iPhones

Posted by Jozzua on Oct 27, 2008 in Random Blabber | 3 comments

As you all know Globe Telecom is the Philippine carrier of the iPhone. SMART and SUN, Globes main competitors, seems to be out of the “iPhone” picture.

Or are they?

I’ve been playing with my iPod Touch (not an iPhone – yet) for a week now and have been enjoying the experience so far. The wireless connection is the clincher for me. With a wireless router, you can basically walk around the house while you twit, email, youtube and more. Typing is still a chore – I’m not used to screen-typing and I miss the tactile feel of buttons. On late nights I watch videos that I’ve converted using Videora.

With this, I am now really intrigued with the iPhone. Internet connectivity anywhere with 3G would make tech-addicts like me even more hooked. However, I consider the Globe iPhone plans still too pricey since they don’t offer unlimited internet.

That’s the main problem with Globe Philippine iPhones.

So guess who does offer unlimited internet? Smart and Sun. Both companies started going unlimited just after the iPhone was officially launched locally.

The question on my mind is – can you use the SMART Bro or SUN Cellular SIM for an iPhone? I don’t have either of this but as I understand it, both SUN and SMART use SIM cards that can just fit an iPhone. I’ve seen someone insert a Globe Visibility SIM in an unlocked iPhone and successfully used it.

We may have just seen SMART/SUN’s marketing attack on the GLOBE iPhone.

What these telco’s are essentially saying is:

“Hey Globe, you’ve got a great product, but its true value is with unlimited internet. If you aren’t offering it… we are!”

Now, the technophiles out there will just buy an unlocked iPhone (or unlock an iPhone bought from Globe; send its SIM elsewhere), and get unlimited SMART or SUN. This puts significant pressure on Globe to eventually offer unlimited internet access for its iPhones.

God, thank you for telco competition.

So does this work or not? Those with iPhones out there, tell me! I just might consider upgrading my iPod Touch to an iPhone.