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Buying a 'Not Free iPhone' in Japan

Mar 7, ’09 8:02 PM
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picture-16Jerome Sadou has just posted a brief article about the adventure that was buying a Not free iPhone in Japan. In his blogpost Jerome does the maths for the different price plans, and also talks about the issues for us gaijin. He finishes by stating what many of us have found to be the case,

“…if you are a gaijin, it’s way easier to get married in Japan than to buy an iPhone!!

Read Jerome’s full post here.

  • Ross

    doesn’t anyone who bought an iphone at the start feel really ripped off?
    I do, to the point of wanting to go into a SoftBank store with a set of bolt cutters and and getting a bonus iphone for the extra 70,000円 I handed over back in July..
    I’m on Iphone number 3 now and before my warranty runs out I’m gonna develop another hairline crack I just know it lol..shoot!! another trip to Ginza for me, but on the bright side the iphone I get back will be shiny and at least looking brand new..I’ll unlock it and put it on ebay in Australia or America and will probably get a little bit more for it due to the slightly different markings on the back(compared to iphones in America from what I have seen)… some guy out there just dieing to be different will snatch it up..
    After that money is in my bank I’ll pay the cancellation fee and by that time it’ll be June\July and I’ll be all set to jump in both feet first on the next Apple and softbank finacial brainteaser of a phone plan..that is if there even is a new iphone coming out…
    depending on if a new iphone is released

    Now that’s plan A,
    plan B is just get another Iphone for the wife and renew my contract at the same time on the new cheaper plan ,man I’d be gritting my teeth every minute of that bloody visit to the Softbank shop, its like saying “oh yeh, I’m really not impressed with the service I got being a debut phone customer and all , but my logic is if your latest contract makes my first one look cheap then damn it! sign me up, again….
    and then yay I’ll pay 1,575円 less for another 24months,
    saving 37,800円 but in reality being on the plan 10 months longer than what i signed up for

    now ,seeing as I have been on the plan for 10 months already I could drop out after another 14 months and be as close to even as even gets..
    by changing over to the new contract I would save 22,050

  • Ross

    but still have the cancellation fee something like 7,000円
    and I bet they would need my Visa to be checked again….

  • The Japan iPhoner

    As an early adopter it is only natural that you pay more, thus you could only really justify feeling ripped off if you weren’t aware that you were an early adopter when you bought it.

  • Ross

    This is an excellent point
    and be that as it may, the price difference from launch compared to the price they are going for now is not really consistent with other electrical items.
    Take the Sony PlayStation 3 for instance, if I were to accept the iphone pricing scheme as industry standard then I should be able to pick up a PlayStation 3 for around 15,000円　by now.
    but I can’t, I would be lucky to get one for 25,000円 used….
    It came out in 2006!

    But yes, I agree an early adopter should always be aware of what might happen 10 months down the track.

    secondly though, if one were to vent over a beer to another in a similar fashion to my original post,
    only to be met with such a drab, unsympathetic response.
    That would just be depressing..