14 DAY TRIAL // The ever so popular iPhone will be available in Taiwan via Chunghwa Telecom, a company that obviously feels pretty confident of Apple's success on the market. Having been given the right to market the iPhone, the Taiwanese operator did not wait long to state its intentions and to let us know that starting December 13 the iPhone 3G will hit stores.
Chunghwa Telecom is probably basing its prediction of 50,000 units sold until the end of March on the fact that the iPhone has been a very safe investment on all the markets it has been on sale so far. Still, at first sight, such a prediction seems to be a bit exaggerated, even considering that during the winter celebrations this device will be much appreciated. However, after checking out the pre-sale orders number, which have already reached 10,000 units (according to CHT), and considering that pre-orders are still available until December 10, the doubt factor regarding the success of Apple's phone on this market is highly diminished.
Moreover, it seems that, even if the prices are pretty steep, there are also several very interesting deals that Taiwanese clients can consider. The most appealing one brings the 8GB iPhone for free on a two-year contract for NT$2,549 per month. In addition, other such deals bring the same 8GB device from NT$4,900 to 11,900 per month, or the 16GB version from NT$2,990 to 15,200 per month, as CHT is informing.
Should clients opt for the fixed price, the iPhone will cost somewhere around NT$26,600 or $799 for the 8GB model, and NT$29,900 or $899 for the more interesting 16GB model.
After reviewing all these numbers, CHT's self-imposed target might not seem that far-fetched anymore. In any case, the first quarter of 2009 is just a few months away, so the actual results will not tardy in making themselves noticed.