14 DAY TRIAL // Officially announced on June 9, Apple's iPhone 3G will become available on July 11 in Japan, among other 22 global markets. The new iPhone will be offered in Japan exclusively from Softbank, the country's third largest mobile operator (after NTT DoCoMo and KDDI au).
At the time the handset was announced, Softbank did not mention how much Japanese users have to pay for the iPhone 3G, but now the pricing details have been unveiled. Japan's 8GB iPhone 3G costs 23,000 yen (around $215 or 138 Euros), while the 16GB one comes for 35,000 yen ($326 or 210 Euros). Of course, these are not the retail prices of the iPhone 3G, but those available only with the signing of a contract agreement for two years, including a data plan of at least 6,000 yen ($56 or 36 Euros) per month. In the end, the Japanese price is about the same as the one from the US, where AT&T will offer the new iPhone for $199 (the 8GB version) and $299 (the 16GB version) with two-year contracts and pretty expensive data plans.
There's no word yet on whether or not Softbank will also sell the iPhone 3G without a contract agreement, but if so, the handset will surely have a high retail price. I'm saying this because in Europe, via Vodafone, the 8GB iPhone 3G has a retail price of 499 Euros, while the 16GB one costs 569 Euros - this would mean around 83,440 yen and respectively 95,1450 yen.
When officially confirmed for Japan, the iPhone 3G was presented in the hope that it would be a success in Japan. For example, Masayoshi Son, Softbank Mobile chairman and CEO, said that "iPhone has been enthusiastically received around the world, and we think it will be popular in Japan as well," while Tim Cook, Apple's COO, was even more confident regarding the new device: "iPhone 3G is an amazing product and we think customers in Japan will love it as much as we do."
While both highly-featured and good-looking, iPhone 3G still has some flaws (see this article for more details). These might make Japanese users, who generally want to have the latest technologies in their phones, turn away from Apple's handset. But we'll see how successful (or not) the new iPhone is in Japan after its July 11 release.