Agree the numbers are purely a marketing play with the $50 sounding much better than $80 - not sure if to distract JC but a sales pitch to say that there are cheaper options and $80.

(it actually confuses more people as they look at the three promoted plans and see $80, not necessarily digging through the other options).  

Although the $870 calculates to be the $979 less GST, I was not sure if that was the case.  I am not up to speed with NZ GST law but would you not have to mention it was ex GST if quoting a price, and esp if the $50 plan was including GST. 

Also Mark mentioned a couple of numbers to come out with the $870 (which may have been the 879 - which could be the price less $100 handset subsidy on a you choose 20 over 36mths)

Must admit I was not completely surprised about the prices, it was debated in prev thread that the device would be approx $1000 outright and then apply subsidies to get price down.

Was disappointed to see that the subsidies were lean and the data bundles had not improved. 

Agree this was a tremendous opportunity to gain new loyal customers, and retain existing customers, with a value proposition to keep Telecom at bay when they release 3G at end of year.  

There are possibly a lot of expectations that need to realigned, people expecting everything for $50 and a handset for $199 - a little off the mark.  Maybe in time we will get the shift but while VF have a competitive edge on 3G network I would not see that happening too soon.