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?

Copper; this stuff ain't cheap.

There are many points of comparison between Singapore and Malaysia, one of which is the state of broadband infrastructure (or rather the lack thereof, in Malaysia, at least).  Since moving to Singapore to work, i’ve been enjoying the fast, unfettered and unthrottled broadband access afforded to me by signing up with a 10Mbps package from SingNet. I chose to sign up for the Mio service, which offered a combination of ADSL broadband, mobile phone line, as well as VOIP for fixed line calls. The benefits are obvious; with one being that the ‘land’ line number stays constant, no matter where you move on the island. Furthermore, i’m not tied down by the quarterly fees charged for the rental of a proper physical land line. Of course, this means that for and ‘land’ line calls to be made or received, the modem/router provided by SingNet would have to be on at all times. In the event of a power outage, i’d be screwed, but that’s a discussion for another day. Continue reading →