THE launch of the 3G iPhone in Malaysia is expected to increase Maxis Communications Bhd’s competitiveness, says chief marketing officer Matthew Willsher.
He expects the company to sell “thousands” of units with “thousands” of orders received over the last nine days for the phone. But he declined to disclose any figures during a press conference held prior to the launch of the iPhone in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
Maxis managed to cut a deal with iPhone manufacturer Apple Inc ahead of its rivals but Willsher declined to elaborate on how many units the company targets to sell in Malaysia, whether it has exclusive rights to distribute the phone or its target market.
“We are just delighted and the numbers keep expanding. The iPhone will strengthen our competitiveness in the market place,” Willsher says. Maxis has over 11 million mobile subscribers as at end of last year, representing about 42% of Malaysia’s cellular phone market.
Willsher says the phone will be sold in Maxis’ 29 retail outlets and 60 of its exclusive partner shops as well as at Apple stores throughout the country.
He says the phones available here are the unlocked version. This means that after the expiry of the contractual period, users can port in to other service providers and still be able to use the phone.
Maxis is offering four iValue plans that range from RM100 to RM375 monthly. The cost of the phone is subsidised and packages run from six to 24 months.
To a comment that the packages are pricey, Willsher says: “We are not low cost (operator); our pricing is fabulous as it combines both data and voice. We believe it is very reasonable.”
An iPhone offers users multiple capabilities including voice, music and data. It gives users a new way of accessing information and other web applications, listening to music, playing games, chatting and social networking.
iPhone was first introduced in 2007 and the 3G iPhone made its debut last year. Sold in 85 countries, iPhone has over 25,000 applications and 200 million applications were downloaded in the first 100 days when it was first launched.
In the fourth quarter of 2008, a total of 7 million units were sold globally, making Apple the third largest mobile phone manufacturer by value after Nokia and Samsung.
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