Why are phones so expensive here??

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › Why are phones so expensive here??

1 | 2

stevonz

397 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#96225 21-Nov-2007 15:50

johnr:
portege: mobygeek - No phone is NOT locked, in fact no phones in the UKs are locked except the iPhone. It is against the law to lock phones. It is regarded as anti-competition.

Having used to work for Telecom on their consumer marketing team; I have seen the costs of subsidising a phone, in fact most phones are actually subsidised but NZers except to pay for phones were as the Brits, dont - this is the main difference.

Just checking this: you are saying " no phones are locked in the UK apart from iphone "

Yes... I reecntly returned from the UK - my phone (3rd one for free from VF) was definitely locked & had to get codes from VF UK to unlock!

Ahh the days of a free new phone every 12 months...

KiwiOverseas66

173 posts

Master Geek
Inactive user

#96242 21-Nov-2007 16:50

sbiddle: That's not really a fair comparison John. Even in Australia every network can offer free ~ $700 phones on $50 per month 24 month term contracts. Vodafone don't have that many more users than NZ so the whole economies of scale argument can't be used either.

We've always paid inflated prices in NZ for handsets and I can't see that changing anytime soon.

fair enough point - but wasn't it the case that there was a general shift away from that type of "sign a 2 year contract and get a free phone" sort of thing? I seem to remember when Voda announced it was not going to subsidise handsets that its researched showed kiwis would rather pay a higher price for handsets rather than get locked into a long term contract (24-36 months).

IMHO its not just the size of the customer base - its the potential market - and scale does have an impact. Here in india the current mobile subscriber base is sitting at 220 million people - and their connecting 8 million people a month. There are some very good deals to be had (the cheapest mobiles are around $30 to buy) but guess what - there are no free phones here - and if you want to buy a touch PDA you'll pay more here than in NZ.

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#96280 21-Nov-2007 21:22

KiwiOverseas66:
fair enough point - but wasn't it the case that there was a general shift away from that type of "sign a 2 year contract and get a free phone" sort of thing? I seem to remember when Voda announced it was not going to subsidise handsets that its researched showed kiwis would rather pay a higher price for handsets rather than get locked into a long term contract (24-36 months).

And the irony now being that you *have* to sign a term contract if you want an On Account plan with Vodafone and in return don't get a free phone. You get $75 if you're lucky off a typical phone that's on average 20% - 30% more expensive than in most other countries. Vodafone introduced the E65 here in NZ for NZ$1049 when it was selling for A$699 at Vodafone stores in Australia. Identical handset with the same packaging. How can that be?

portege

188 posts

Master Geek

#96282 21-Nov-2007 21:31

couldve got the e65 for a grand price of zero too. nearly every fone is free. and in the end of the day it HAS to do with size. when other operators are ordering 20000 units we are ordering 2000

ninjabear

460 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#96284 21-Nov-2007 21:38

I don't think there's any law stating lock mobiles are illegal .Apple is different Iphone is only locked to its provider in every country while nokia and sony ericsson mobiles differs in each country.

I personally lived in new zealand for 16 years and have never bought a mobile from vodafone nz or any parallel store in new zealand because my father is in hong kong I just buy it over there and its alot cheaper..

Yes New zealand mobiles are expensive I must say!

KiwiOverseas66

173 posts

Master Geek
Inactive user

#96296 21-Nov-2007 22:34

sbiddle:
And the irony now being that you *have* to sign a term contract if you want an On Account plan with Vodafone and in return don't get a free phone. You get $75 if you're lucky off a typical phone that's on average 20% - 30% more expensive than in most other countries. Vodafone introduced the E65 here in NZ for NZ$1049 when it was selling for A$699 at Vodafone stores in Australia. Identical handset with the same packaging. How can that be?

ouch! that is one hell of a markup! Is there anyone here from voda that can explain the pricing policy? I'd be interested to see what the response is.

nzbnw

2374 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Spark NZ

#96302 21-Nov-2007 23:08

KiwiOverseas66: ouch! that is one hell of a markup! Is there anyone here from voda that can explain the pricing policy? I'd be interested to see what the response is.

O Paul.... Where are you...

nzbnw

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

portege

188 posts

Master Geek

#96303 21-Nov-2007 23:16

i would only imagine that it is se or nokia that determines the prices?

bradstewart

4335 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#96306 21-Nov-2007 23:25

portege: i would only imagine that it is se or nokia that determines the prices?

We are a Vodafone reseller yet can sell the handsets with a healthy margin and still end up a lot cheaper than Vodafone. No price is dictated to us, we are just given an RRP. VF just have a very large margin on them.

Take the E65 for example, VF sell it for $649 yet the cost price via a third party is around $500 incl. So I can only imagine how big VF's margin is.

BrentR

1315 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#96336 22-Nov-2007 09:18

A LOT of it comes down to the size of the purchase by Vodafone etc.

Last year there were close to 1Billion handsets shipped globally, when you consider that in NZ we wouldn't have even broken 500,000 (across BOTH networks) then you can see that the price that is very largely dependant on volume is going to be much higher than even Australia.

Also consider the fact that there is really only two distributors for GSM handsets in NZ with (I wouldn't imagine), much need to compete on price point to dealerships then you have a situation where prices are high, but I don't believe exorbitantly so.

mobygeek

307 posts

Ultimate Geek

#96346 22-Nov-2007 09:55

Might have been 500,000 phones sold (?) last year, but there are, of course, a lot more in stock, just waiting for a hapless user to drop in a bucket of water. Etc. The price of keeping the extras might just be entered into the equation of cost?

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#96975 26-Nov-2007 16:01

Bump.

Just to keep the thread going it's interesting to read quite a few media reports out of the UK claiming the iPhone launch is a failure and that sales are well below expectations.

Why? It seems that many people are blaming the price and the fact that many consumers are not used to paying for a handset. Their expectation is that if you sign up for a contract you get a free phone.

Just because something works in the USA doesn't mean it'll work everwhere..

Batman

Mad Scientist
29770 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#97051 27-Nov-2007 00:19

because a high percentage of kiwis still use bricks to talk and have no idea what broadband is! i mean most are so technologically archaic they just buy anything can is sold - so we actually get the outgoing models too! the new phones sold here are unheard of for months in say singapore for example

1 | 2