That’s one of the big questions on everyone’s mind at the moment, probably second only to: "when is the exact release date?"

Up until recently, the cost of Apple’s products in NZ were expensive compared to prices in other countries. At the time, all Apple sales were handled by local distributor Renaissance, and prices seemed to be set on (at least) a 3:1 currency conversion with USD. But the exchange rate hasn’t been that high in years, and when Apple set up their NZ based online store prices started to become normalised with the current exchange rate.

So now NZ benefits from pricing that is equivalent to, or in some cases, better than other countries.

For example, the iPod Touch pricing is as follows:

As you can see from the table, our pricing is not that far behind the US pricing and you would expect there to be some difference to take into account our strong current exchange rate. And the NZ pricing is actually much better than in the UK.

So what does that tell us about the pricing of the iPhone?

Well the iPhone is priced the same as the 16GB and 32GB iPod Touches in both the US and the UK. So the 8GB iPhone is the same price as the 16GB iPod Touch, which is $399 (USD) and the 16GB iPhone is the same price as the 32GB iPod Touch, at $499 (USD.)

So based on the current prices we can safely assume that if the iPhone was on sale in NZ today, it would cost $599 for the 8GB version and $749 for the 16GB version.

But… the 3G version of the iPhone is expected to be released soon – possibly as early as next month, according to the latest rumours. At the most it’s a couple of months away, so we can also assume that the version of the iPhone that will be sold here will be the 3G version. It’s also possible that the release here could be tied into the worldwide release of the 3G iPhone, but that seems doubtful if it’s released in June.

Unfortunately we don’t have any official details on the 3G iPhone yet, let alone the price of it. Apple could bring in the new 3G model at the original price of the iPhone which was $599 for the 4GB version and $699 for the 8GB version. This would likely mean that the NZ prices would be $749 for the entry level version, and $999 for the high-end model. But at those prices, you would hope that Apple would bump up the storage capabilities as they did after introducing the original iPhone. Those prices would align the iPhone with what NZ consumers are used to paying for high end phones and PDAs, like Nokia’s N95 or the Blackberry Curve.

So my final prediction for the NZ pricing? Put aside $749 for a 16GB, 3G iPhone which will suit most people, or if you’ve got some extra coins lying around, you’ll be able to get the 32GB model for $999.

Official word out today confirms that Vodafone will be selling the iPhone in NZ later this year. They have been chosen to sell the iPhone by Apple in 10 countries in total, here’s the press release.

Vodafone today announced it has signed an agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone in ten of its markets around the globe. Later this year, Vodafone customers in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey will be able to purchase the iPhone for use on the Vodafone network.

[Link to press release.]

Vodafone have announced today that they will start locking the mobile phones they sell so that they can only be used on the Vodafone NZ network. You will be able to ring a special number to get an unlock code, but that will cost $50 for the privilege.

Vodafone’s spin doctor, Paul Brislen, insults everyone’s intelligence in the Geekzone forums by providing an excuse that only the most naive would believe:

Hi all,

Vodafone’s mobiles are sold exclusively for use on Vodafone New Zealand’s network.

From 1 May we are locking new handsets to our network. All new handsets sold will include information about handset locking and how to unlock handsets.

Locked handsets can be unlocked for a fee of $50.

This is being done to protect the customers’ experience of the Vodafone brand. Vodafone brands its mobiles with both the Vodafone and Vodafone Live! look and feel. If a customers takes a Vodafone mobile to another network, the customer won’t be able to access the Vodafone experience and services.

Cheers
Paul

(the emphasis is mine.)

I don’t blame Paul for his spin – it’s just his job – and all credit goes to both Paul and Vodafone for being willing to participate in the forums. But the truth is that Vodafone is about to face competition in NZ for the first time in as long as I’ve been in NZ. For the last six years (that I know of) they have been the only GSM operator in NZ, meaning they had no competition from anyone. But now that’s changing as Telecom finalises it’s GSM network rollout, and another small mobile operator called NZ Communications launches in Auckland. Paul wants us to believe that it’s just coincidence that Vodafone starts locking their phones at the same time they are about to face some competition.

Regardless of their reasons, Vodafone have decided to lock their phones to their network. This practice is actually commonplace in other countries, with one caveat. In other countries, the up-front cost of the mobile phone is hugely subsidised, and you can usually get a reasonably new phone for free with most contracts.

So if Vodafone are going to lock their phones to their networks, are we going to see hugely subsidised phones for sale? No word on that yet, but we’ll wait and see.

However, there is another way to do business – but I don’t know of any mobile operator that’s brave enough to try it… Instead of trying to lock in customers on two year contracts, with locked phones, exorbitant data rates, and crappy customer service, how about investing in providing a service that is so good, that customers have no reason to want to leave? Imagine if Vodafone provided reasonably priced phones, with fantastic call and data plans, with friendly and helpful customer service – why would you want to leave Vodafone?

So how about it Vodafone? Try slashing the costs of your data plans, and let customers buy the latest phones at great prices? Perhaps then you’ll stop losing so many customers to your competition.

• My post on the Geekzone forums.

The HowToForge site have released a step by step tutorial for the perfect Ubuntu 8.04 desktop setup. I’ve used their tutorials extensively over the last few years, and this one is just as good as the others and includes tips that you wouldn’t normally think of when installing Ubuntu.

The Perfect Desktop – Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron)

This document describes step by step how to set up a Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) desktop. The result is a fast, secure and extendable system that provides all you need for daily work and entertainment.

Now I just need to work out how to remove Firefox 3 beta, and install Firefox 2…