UPDATE: Celcom bundled pricing updated with fixed rebate amount.
The iPhone 5 will be officially available at midnight with the big 3 telcos – Maxis, DiGi & Celcom offering the device on contract. Outright, the iPhone 5 is going for RM2,199 (16GB), RM2,499 (32GB) and RM2,799 (64GB).
Being a smart phone that’s mobile internet intensive, getting an iPhone 5 from telcos would make sense as they would be subsidising some of the cost through discounted phone price or lowered subscription fees.
So the question is which plan should you pick if you plan to go on contract? The 3 telcos offer plans with different bundling, subsidy structure at different price points. To help you decide, we have compared the subscription plans and the minimum total cost of ownership for easy reference.
Head after the break for the full comparison.
|Celcom, DiGi, iPhone, Maxis, Mobile Devices, Players on the Field|
|apple, Celcom, Celcom iPhone 5, Comparison, DiGi, DiGi iPhone 5, iPhone, iPhone 5, iPhone 5 Celcom, iPhone 5 Celcom Plan, iPhone 5 comparison, iPhone 5 DiGi, iPhone 5 launch Malaysia, iPhone 5 Malaysia, iPhone 5 Malaysia launch, iPhone 5 Malaysia Plan, iPhone 5 Malaysia Pre-Order, iPhone 5 Malaysia price, iPhone 5 Maxis, iPhone 5 price Malaysia, Maxis iPhone 5, Maxis iPhone 5 booking, Maxis iPhone 5 pre-booking|
In under 25 hours, the iPhone 5 will be officially available in Malaysia. DiGi has released more details of tomorrow’s launch execution and they will have 6 locations nationwide where you can pick up your iPhone 5 as soon as the clock strikes 12. The 6 venues are:
DiGi 360, SoHo Mont Kiara – Kuala Lumpur
DiGi Center Pulau Tikus – Penang
DiGi Center De Gardens- Ipoh
DiGi Center Plaza Merdeka- Malacca
DiGi Center Api Api – Kota Kinabalu
DiGi Store Express The Spring, Kuching
Numbers will be given out at 9.30PM tomorrow (13th December). For those that pre-order online for pick up at DiGi 360, you can collect their queue numbers at the same time as well.
[ SOURCE ]
UPDATE: Bundled SMS on iValue Simple Plan is now applicable to all networks. Thanks Bashir for the heads up.
Maxis now introduces iValue Simple, a new low commitment plan for iPhone 5 bundling. This brings a total of 5 iValue plans to choose from if you’re planning to get your iPhone 5 from Maxis. At RM50/month, that’s half the price of iValue 1 plan. As expected at half price, you’ll get 1GB of data, 200 minutes of calls and 100 SMS. The call rates are charged differently at 12 sen/minute for Maxis to Maxis and 20 sen/minute to other networks. SMS are charged at 5 sen/SMS within Maxis and 15 sen/SMS to others.
In terms of contract period, there’s only 12 months option where the iPhones are offered with the following pricing:
iPhone 5 16GB – RM2,079
iPhone 5 32GB – RM2,339
iPhone 5 64GB – RM2,699
iPhone 4S 16GB – RM1,769
iPhone 4 8GB – RM1,239
Obviously the iValue Simple plan is well suited for light users if they find iValue 1 at RM100/month too much for their usage. In terms of iPhone subsidy, you’ll only save up to RM120 off (for iPhone 5 16GB) from the retail price which is rather little for a 12 months lock down period.
For the full details, head over to Maxis iPhone 5 page.
UPDATE: Maxis reveals One Club iPhone 5 offer with no advance payment required.
The offer is tied with 24 months contract on iValue 2 plans and above. The advance payment remains unchanged with RM800 for iValue 2, RM1,500 on iValue 3 and RM2,000 on iValue 4, which will be rebated back to your bill.
Pre-booking will be closed at 11:59PM (12th December) tonight, so reserve your spot if you haven’t yet through the email invite. The official Maxis iPhone 5 event is happening at CapSquare, PIKOM ICT Mall tomorrow night starting from 9PM.
Thanks to Mushtaq for the tip!
UPDATE: Celcom iPhone 5 plans are now live on their website. They use a different plan table format from the one above and an advance payment between RM150-RM450 is required during sign up.
Celcom has finally revealed its iPhone 5 plans and offering to those who have registered their interest earlier on. Instead of the usual “i” plans, the iPhone 5 is now bundled on Celcom First plans with bolt on Mobile Internet.
There are 4 options available:
Celcom First Prime + 4.05GB data – RM98/month
Celcom First Prime + 6.05GB data – RM128/month
Celcom First Premier + 6.1GB data – RM168/month
Celcom First Elite + 6.2GB data – RM238/month
All plans come with bundled Calls/SMS/MMS which varies depending on plan option. In terms of iPhone 5 bundling, Celcom offers either 12 months and 24 months contract. You can get one as low as RM278, which is tied with 24 months contract of Celcom First Elite Plan. If you’re wondering what’s with the weird 50MB-100MB data, that’s actually the bundled free data quota from the standalone First voice plans.
There’s no mention of advance upfront payment at the moment and from the table above, they are giving out extra rebates of 10 months (for 12 months contract) and 20 months (for 24 months contract) that
ranges makes the monthly subscription between RM73-RM196 depending on plan and phone model.
To secure a unit, Celcom is offering pre-booking at RM200 which is available at their outlets nationwide. The official availability is on the 14th of December where all 3 telcos are offering it simultaneously.
Hat tip all around for everyone who sent this in!
If you’ve signed up your iPhone 5 interest with Maxis, you should have received an invite in your mailbox. The invite reveals Maxis launch venue at CapSquare, PIKOM ICT Mall which is happening at 9PM next Thursday night on 13rd December. This also gives you an opportunity to secure a unit before the launch day itself.
To reserve your slot, the email directs you to a site where you can pick your prefered plan, iPhone 5 model and pick up time. You have a choice of 10 time slots to choose from starting from midnight 12AM on 14th December until 10PM 16th December.
In terms of plans, the iPhone 5 is bundled with 4 options of iValue plans with subscription from as low as RM100/month. Unlike DiGi & Celcom, subscribers outside the Klang Valley might have to wait a little longer for their iPhone 5.
DiGi has made public its iPhone 5 plans and at the same time opened pre-orders for the device. Unlike Maxis where the bulk of the savings to the consumer comes from operator subsidies on the device, DiGi offers the iPhone 5 at a slightly higher “subsidised” price but offer plans at a lower rate.
In addition to pre-ordering online, you can also pre-order the iPhone 5 at any DiGi Store. DiGi offers free delivery for the iPhone 5 pre-booked on its online store but you can also opt for self-collection at the DiGi 360 store at SoHoKL at Solaris Mont Kiara, KL. Self-collection can be made from midnight December 14. For full details on the DiGi iPhone 5 plans click here.
We’ll be crunching the numbers from to give you a comprehensive comparison of all the iPhone 5 plans on offer in Malaysia, stay tuned.
UPDATE: Maxis introduces lower commitment RM50/month iValue Simple plan for iPhone 5.
Maxis has finally taken the covers off from its iPhone 5 bundling which is tied to its iValue plans. On the device pricing, the iPhone 5 remains unchanged from its predecessor launch price with the recommended retail pricing listed as follows:
iPhone 5 16GB – RM2,199
iPhone 5 32GB – RM2,499
iPhone 5 64GB – RM2,799
iPhone 4S 16GB – RM1,799
iPhone 4 8GB – RM1,449
In terms of bundling, you have a choice from as low as RM100/month with the iValue 1 and it goes all the way up to RM375/month on its highest iValue 4 plan. It comes bundled with mobile internet data and calls to any networks, however bundled SMS and MMS is only for Maxis to Maxis only. Maxis is also throwing additional extras such as additional 1,000 call minutes and 200-800 SMS but it can only be used within Maxis network.
The full iPhone 5 bundled pricing below:
iPhone 5 16GB
iValue 1 (12 months) – RM1,699
iValue 1 (24 months) – RM1,399
iValue 2 (12 months) – RM1,599
iValue 2 (24 months) – RM1,149
iValue 3 (12 months) – RM1,199
iValue 3 (24 months) – RM449
iValue 4 (12 months) – RM1,099
iValue 4 (24 months) – FREE
iPhone 5 32GB
iValue 1 (12 months) – RM2,049
iValue 1 (24 months) – RM1,699
iValue 2 (12 months) – RM1,899
iValue 2 (24 months) – RM1,499
iValue 3 (12 months) – RM1,549
iValue 3 (24 months) – RM749
iValue 4 (12 months) – RM1,399
iValue 4 (24 months) – RM299
iPhone 5 64GB
iValue 1 (12 months) – RM2,349
iValue 1 (24 months) – RM2,049
iValue 2 (12 months) – RM2,249
iValue 2 (24 months) – RM1,799
iValue 3 (12 months) – RM1,849
iValue 3 (24 months) – RM1,649
iValue 4 (12 months) – RM699
iValue 4 (24 months) – RM299
An upfront payment between RM300 – RM2,000 is also required upon sign up and there’s also 12 months Easy Payment Plans being offered by Citibank, HSBC, Maybank and Public bank. According to the FAQ, the iPhone 5 will be available at Maxis Centres and MEP centres on 14th December onwards.
For more information, head over to Maxis’s iPhone 5 rates page.
UPDATE: Celcom iPhone 5 plans are finally revealed.
During previous iPhone launches if you wanted to get an iPhone and you’re out of towns like KL and PJ then you were out of luck because stores had to serve the surging demands in market centres first before letting distributing stocks to stores in non-market centres. Not anymore.
Celcom has started taking pre-orders for the iPhone 5 just seven days away from its scheduled release in Malaysia. A pre-payment of RM200 secures you an iPhone 5. You can choose to collect your iPhone 5 from any Celcom Blue Cube outlet in the country or if you want to you can collect the iPhone 5 from midnight of December 14 at selected outlers.
However due to the limited distribution of iPhone 5 units, some models may not be available at all stores so it’s best you check the listing before securing your pre-order. Also, we wonder what will to those who had earlier registered their interest for the iPhone 5. Will they get a pre-order slot provided that they pay the require RM200 booking fee? Of to they have to redo to process again? What has peed your experience?
So far, no operator have revealed any plans of pricing details of the iPhone 5 but we expect more information to trickle in as we move closer to release date, so stay tuned for updates.
To pre-order your iPhone 5 from Celcom, you can head over here.
Following Maxis’ move, Celcom has started pre-registration for the iPhone 5 as well in preparation of the December 14 launch date. Celcom’s pre-registration method differs greatly from Maxis’ and it seems that Celcom method requires a high degree of manual processing at the back end which could lead to errors or missing orders on collection day. Also unlike Maxis, the Celcom pre-registration doesn’t allow you to specify the iPhone 5 variant (16GB, 32GB or 64GB), it only allows you to choose either black or white.
While operators have starting talking about the iPhone 5 many important information related to the launch of the device are still unknown. Actual pricing, plans on offer and launch venue have all not been made public at the moment.
In any case, if you’d like to book your iPhone 5 with Celcom, click here.