Seems the rumour mill in Malaysia has been churning a lot when it comes to the iPhone. I had it from a friend who says his source is really reliable that a certain green telco in Malaysia would be bringing in the iPhone to Malaysia and exclusively only to them.

That’s not all I heard it seems they have already come up with a general price to push the iPhone out. According to my source the price would be around RM200 – 250 per month for around 24 months and this would also come packaged with unlimited data.

Now as much as I’d like to believe the rumour mill, I’d reserve my judgement on the price as of yet because one if the price does end up being around RM250 a month for 24 months, this would give the iPhone a cost of around RM3,600 to the user which is really really expensive.

Considering the current economical climate, I wonder if pushing the iPhone at that price is going to be a good idea. As popular as the iPhone is now among the general public, some people might think twice before signing up. However that is all speculation now and this might just be the news that would make any Apple fans day in Malaysia. So stay tuned for more on this in weeks to come.

Macworld 2009’s coming up in a little over a month, and as usual, the Mac faithful are already throwing ideas into the wind on what Apple will announce in one of the most significant tech-related events to start off the year.

While i’m admittedly not the most knowledgeable around on all things Apple, come January 5th, i’ll be neck-deep among the hordes of Mac acolytes thronging through San Francisco.

Before that happens though, here’s my take on what Apple (i.e. Steve Jobs) will most likely talk about:

• Mac Pro – The Mac Pro’s been lying rather quiet, and since Intel’s gone and announced their Core i7 platform, this is a good time as any to finally bring some fresh blood to Apple’s high-end workstations. Nehalem, here they come.
• Mac Mini / iMac- The ‘forgotten child’ of Apple’s product lineup, the Mac Mini hasn’t seen an update since getting fitted with Core 2 Duo chips in 2007. It’s either Apple’s going to officially sink the product line, or announce an update. My gut says update, but with some of the new 65W quad-core chips from Intel. These babies make excellent media centers, and as they bring a more affordable side to owning an Apple-branded computer, cutting these out of the lineup wouldn’t make a lot of sense where product segmentation is concerned. On the other hand, Apple might also stuff these quad-core chips into their iMac lineup.
• 32GB iPhone / 64GB iPod Touch – More storage is always a good idea, and i’m hoping that Apple will ditch the 8GB iPod Touch while introducing a 64GB variant, pushing the 32GB model down the price ladder. Similarly, a 32GB iPhone would be very welcome; 8GB or even 16GB doesn’t really cut it, not when the 32GB iPod Touch’s already been around for quite some time.

What Apple’ll likely NOT announce:

• Snow Leopard @ Mac OS 10.6 - Initially announced during WWDC earlier in June this year, Apple’s latest big update to their operating system was stated as only shipping sometime mid 2009, likely in time for WWDC 2009.
• An Apple Netbook - Pricing themselves out of the market has never been one of Apple’s aims, not even with the ultra-cheap iPod Shuffle (US$49 on the Apple US online store, S$78 in Singapore). With that in mind, it makes no sense that Apple would announce a netbook product, and even less sense that they’d adopt the Intel Atom (if any) to power one.
• Blu-ray on a Mac – Forget it. Despite the death of HD-DVD, Blu-ray isn’t getting anywhere closer to toppling DVD. Apple’s always made it a point to go cutting edge, but at this point in time, Blu-ray is far from cutting edge, and still a little too expensive to appeal to the mainstream.

What do YOU think Steve-o will announce at Macworld?

Singaporeans awaiting for an alternative to SingTel’s iPhone price plans might have to wait a while longer, as StarHub announced that they would not be bringing in the iPhone 3G anytime this year.

Basically, the decision not to bring in Apple’s latest in mobile communication is a combination of Apple’s differing priorities towards signing on distributors for the iPhone 3G, as well as the current doom and gloom surrounding the world economy.

Similarly, MobileOne also showed no sign of bringing the iPhone 3G in, contrary to popular word when SIngTel announced that they’d secured first mover rights in bringing the iPhone to Singapore shores. Obviously, this leaves SingTel as the sole distributor of the iPhone 3G here in Singapore.

On the other hand though, another reason why StarHub decided as such could be that Apple’d cut production orders for the iPhone 3G by as much as 40% in the fourth calendar quarter of the year, despite having sold as many as 6.9 million units in the third quarter alone. Some are pointing to that as Apple simply working through existing inventory in light of weakened tech spending worldwide.

Whatever the real reason, this much is clear: Singaporean consumers are stuck with the expensive iPhone 3G contracts/price plans for the time being, with no competing offerings in sight.

Wishful thinking-cap on, might it be that Apple’s simply prepping the market for a 32GB iPhone in time for the upcoming MacWorld expo in early 2009?