UPDATE 20100710 1445: What looks like a damage control action, DiGi has removed the controversial iPhone 3GS discounted price and has updated its payment page to emphasize on iDiGi plan reduction savings. This does make it clearer that savings are achieved from the plan however they still insist on using those savings to reflect “Effective” iPhone price.  No matter how DiGi spins it, the fact remains that you are paying MORE upfront for the phone e.g. iPhone 3GS 16GB RM2,042 now vs. RM1090 previously for iDiGi 138. These so called savings are only enjoyed if you are taking up a 24 or 36 months easy payment plan. We can’t help but to say this is DiGi Savings done wrong. Thanks Dex for the heads up!

Original Post: When DiGi announced a price slash for its iPhone 3GS packages as well as a hefty reduction in the price of the device itself, it looked like a pretty good deal, but thanks to the comments from our readers, we now know that there is more than meets the eye with the new DiGi iPhone plans.

Don’t be fooled by what you see up front, as the savings that seemed pretty good is in actual fact not really that great. If you look at the plans, you would see that the monthly repayment does not tally and the phone price is FAR OFF from what was indicated in the earlier DiGi iPhone plans.

For example, the 16GB iPhone 3GS actually costs RM2,042 with a iDiGi 138 plan over 24 months NOT the advertised RM890! If you read the fine print, there’s actually a term that states that “iPhone prices are nett price after savings.”

Nett Price after savings? What it means is that DiGi deducted the potential savings obtained from the plans from the sticker price of the iPhone. Essentially you’ll be paying more for the iPhone 3GS NOT the price DiGi advertised openly. The savings are derived from the reduction in the monthly iDiGi plan plus whatever subsidy that DiGi is giving for the phone.

Why can’t DiGi state CLEARLY and make it EASY for consumers to understand their plans without being dubbed? They could have just stated that the iDiGi plans have been reduced but instead they made it look more enticing by making it look like they’ve reduced the price of the iPhone as well.

DiGi is known for burrying terms with hidding conditions in the fine print and with this, they’ve just hit a new low. Essentially, they’ve only reduced the monthly subscription for the iDiGi plans NOT the price of the actual iPhone. But at a glance it surely does make it look like you’re getting a good deal for the iPhone, actually you’re not. You’re paying more for the iPhone but in the long run you save on the monthly plan.

DiGi made it look like it is much, much more than that.

This is really not on DiGi. You’re blantantly misleading customers who many thought that there was a genuine reduction in the price of the iPhone outright. We are disappointed that DiGi is resorting to such tactics and gimmickry.

Thanks to our readers for for pointing this out.

UPDATE: There’s more than meets the eye, read about it here.

If you’ve been eyeing for an iPhone 3GS, DiGi has slashed its iPhone 3GS prices by RM200 and also reduced its monthly iPhone plans as well. Its iDiGi 88, 138 and 238 have been slashed to RM60, RM90 and RM160 monthly respectively.

iDiGi Plans

New iPhone 3GS Price

More details at DiGi iPhone site.

This comes expected as the arrival of the iPhone 4 is near and carriers overseas have done the same price slash as well. Not forgetting also is that a new 8GB iPhone 3GS will be coming as the lowest entry phone and it may be priced ever lower than current offerings.

Next question on the list, when will pre-orders for iPhone 4 be announced?

So did DiGi (or its ad agency) leaked out DiGi’s iPhone plans one day before the official launch date? And was it deliberate?

Short answer: DiGi leaked it out and it was very deliberate.

Today, DiGi’s going to give the official word on its iPhone plans. Although a whole lot of you have been eagerly waiting for the launch of this, the real humdinger was, and probably still is, DiGi’s purported leak of the said plans one day before its official launch.

Many were wondering as to how such a (alleged) major faux pas could happen. Some were quick to point fingers to DiGi’s ad and creative agency for the leak but we smelt something fishy…and boy was it rotten.

We were on to DiGi’s sneaky PR ploy…
From our observations, it is looking very likely that the whole leak thing was nothing more than a sham. Why, You ask? Allow us to present the following case.

First of all…the sources
The word of the leak first broke out HERE and then HERE and finally HERE. After that, the now infamous three FA JPGs have already made its way to every nook and cranny of the Malaysian cyberspace via Twitter, Facebook and some blogs with people running around the streets screaming “Leak! Leak! Leak!” (Ok, that last part was a lame joke).

You’ll quickly notice that none of these blogs have nothing remotely related to telco, they are not run by newspapers neither are they run by journalist. It kind of makes you wonder how three seemingly unrelated people with very different blogs have the same information. Ok, so maybe they knew somebody, who knew somebody, who knew somebody BUT to get this kind of material is like getting gold bullion from a complete stranger.

Why would the source leak such an important piece of information to unknown, unrelated bloggers? Why not go to the papers straight? Why not leak it to us?!

If we didn’t run this blog and we had this kind of info, the first thing we’d do is pass it to the papers. If we were like these three people who are not related to the industry, there would be very little to no implication to us, so if we wanted to be famous, why not go all the way to? Right?

Well, that’s because they’ve been told what to do. Furthermore, nobody questioned the credibility of these three blogs, in fact one blog just had a single posting and it was about the DiGi iPhone plans. So if you went out in the open declaring that this is legit info that you’re pedaling, you must have, to a certain degree a level of confidence that the info you got is the real deal. Given the situation, this level of confidence can only come if you were told from the get go what you need to do and what role you’ll be playing in this ploy.

Second…DiGi’s reaction
From its Twitter response to the chaos that ensues after the “leak”, we could almost see DiGi’s digital team, the marketing guys and the product development people falling off their chairs laughing at their prank.

C’mon guys, you’re obviously overdoing it in the dramatic shock department, next time if you want to do the same stunt, tone it down a tad ok.

Thirdly…the timing
To us leaking the information just one day before the launch date is too much of a coincidence. What’s the point? Let’s not kid ourselves here, there is really not much Maxis or anyone else can do at that point to counter DiGi’s plan.

It may be good for prospective customers to know but since DiGi’s pre-booking has also been closed, it’s really not much of a use to them as well; plus those who want to know will know about the plans today after the launch anyway. So what is the point?

Which brings us to one conclusion, that the information was leaked out as a PR stunt.

Bottom line…because we are already at the bottom of this blog post
It appears DiGi has a leg, an arm and then some over Maxis in terms of value and pricing for it’s iPhone plans – that’s a fact. There’s no denying that DiGi’s plan undercuts Maxis’ in terms of price and value by some margin.

But what DiGi did with the pseudo leak thing…we thought that was rather underhanded and misleading; and something that leaves a rather bad taste in our mouths (read: not nice of you DiGi to do something like this).

So DiGi, next time you want to pull a stunt like this, make sure you pay attention to the details ok.

A day before its official revealing of DiGi iPhone plans, we managed to get a copy of the leaked iPhone brochure.

From the leak brochure, we understand DiGi is offering iDiGi 88, iDiGi 138 and iDiGi 238 which rivals Maxis’s iValue Plans. Even the plan numbers 138/238 sound similar to Maxis old postpaid plans 10 years ago. What it offers nearly doubles of Maxis’s offering in terms of Data, bundled SMS and MMS.

If paying up front for the phone is too heavy, DiGi also has EPP plans for the iPhone that breaks it up in month installments.

High resolution brochures below:

Please take note that official price plans are only officially released tomorrow and may subject to last minute changes by DiGi.

Do check the official DiGi iPhone page tomorrow.

[ SOURCE ]

Those who pre-register for an iPhone from DiGi earlier should be receiving an email from DiGi soon.

The collection should be starting this coming weekend and also depending on the pick-up point selected in the registration.

There will be special payment plans will be available for Maybank, CIMB Bank, HSBC, Citibank and Ambank credit card holders.

If purchase is made by cash outright, the iPhone prices as follows:

• iPhone 3G 8G RM1990
• iPhone 3GS 16GB RM2490
• iPhone 3GS 32GB RM2990

Outright purchase price is similar to Maxis however what we’re anticipated is the iPhone + postpaid bundle plans which is expected to be announced tomorrow.

With this DiGi has ended Maxis monopoly of the iPhone game  in Malaysia for about a year since its launch of iPhone 3G in March 2009. Now we just have to see how DiGi packages and price the iPhone 3G S to offer some real competitive advantage.

In another note, we also hope that DiGi have studied the impact of the iPhone on Maxis in terms of device stock availability and network capacity. To date, DiGi has been getting rave reviews on their Turbo3G network but is it ready to withstand the massive data consumption of iPhone users?

If you’re a DiGi customer or a potential customer who are looking to switch to a telco with iPhone 3G alternative, do drop your email to register your interest.

[ SOURCE ]