22 April 2011 – Celcom announced that it will launch Apple's
iPhone 4 as part of its smartphone lineup, with prices starting at RM 248 for the 16GB model and RM 538 for the 32GB model.
For an industry that relies heavily on the first-mover advantage to stay ahead of the competition, Celcom firmly believes that being late is better than never.
The launching began with much excitement, as Celcom's Director of Marketing; Zalman Aefendy Zainal Abidin took the stage to showcase the already familiar iPhone 4. "We Saved the Best for Last” quipped Mr Zalman as an early response to the main question in the attendees’ minds; "Why so late?"
To justify Celcom's unhurried entry as a contender, the Zalman offered a number of reasons why customers should make the jump and sign up with them.
Among other things, Celcom is offering free talk time not only within their network but to other networks as well.
Free SMSes. Again, this is not limited only within Celcom's network but to other networks as well.
Celcom offers a whooping 6GB
data plan that should satisfy even the most hardcore of users.
To sweeten the deal, Celcom will extend its warranty to up to 24 months.
Upon further questioning from the press, Celcom's Chief Executive Officer, Dato' Sri Shazalli Ramly added that
the company wanted to ensure that its infrastructure was at an optimum level before finally launching the smartphone. With the deployment of its latest networks and touchpoints, Celcom is confident that it has what it takes to be the number one smartphone environment in the country. Furthermore, the company claims to have also revamped its
call centres to be more iPhone-centric, so as to cater to queries from customers regarding the device. Note that these are available only for Executive users, with prices and rates for normal consumers to be revealed sometime a month later.
[Source:
Mobile88]
From my market information, main reason for the delay is because initially the negotiation with Apple is not in favor to Celcom. Furthermore, Celcom prefer Blackberry over iPhone. They just don’t want to be at the mercy of Apple.
However, Apple’s branding is too much to avoid. Celcom customers have churned to Maxis and Digi who have been offering iPhone packages. In addition, with the Mobile Number Portability (MNP), a Celcom customer don’t have to worry of changing their 019 or 013 number.
