NZMac.com - Supporting the New Zealand Mac community

Sorry that's a ridiculous statement...it makes us all Apple resellers

Phil

Dearest WMD

I am most grateful for volunteering your time so generously to find 2 typos on our web page - and it is with the spirit of the professionalism we would expect from people on this site, that I thank you for your keen eye on detail, matched only by the lack of relevance.

Now - to the facts, and let's not have the facts ruin a great story...

Yes, the iPhone immediately picks Voda as the carrier and uses their network. To me, it makes no difference if they use GPRS, GSM, EDGE, OPSM, CIA, FBI or KFC; what matters to me as a user is that I get a phone signal right away, and can text and access data.

I will have to tell your mother to give you a big spanking for suggesting that people should use hacker tools to circumvent manufacturer-placed restrictions on hardware. Whether we like it or not, it is the manufacturer's right to employ any methods they see fit to restrict markets.

My colleague at AT&T, running their global marketing group, will swear that AT&T never ever had a contract available for iPhone registration that is pre-pay or cancel with 14 days. In fact, their agreement with Apple is very specific on the kinds of plans they can offer (which have been approved by Apple) and how users are 'locked-in'. Currently, there is a 2-year minimum agreement in order to activate an iPhone with AT&T, and until other networks have an agreement with Apple to activate, both SIM and phone are locked to the Apple/AT&T relationship. Period, and nothing out of fantasyland will change that.

"Apple is only licensed for sale in the US" is legal nonsense. Speaking purely as the commercial lawyer I have been for decades, New Zealand allows anyone to sell what they own, regardless of what brand rights manufacturers might have in this or other countries, provided the product is correctly labelled. It is called 'parallel importing' and allows Kiwis to buy goods at world market prices rather than articifially high local franchise-controlled prices. That is the reason more than a thousand NZ Mac users buy hardware that is directly imported.

Not sure how TradeMe figures in with your sermon, but we have never placed an iPhone on TradeMe, as we have more orders than product right now and have a hard time catching up.

I read the Herald article again, and everything that is described as fact is factually correct. Our page was upladed after the Herald story went to print, so we might have picked something up from the Herald and not vice versa.

Maybe the sour grapes are hanging a little low on your tree, but I don't measure credibility of people by the semantics they use - it is the substance that counts, and I'll let you regain that after some reflection.

Sit tight for Phil's report on the iPhone as a working, functioning piece of incredicly exciting hard ware in New Zealand.

Cheers

Jens Mueller wrote:
I will have to tell your mother to give you a big spanking for suggesting that people should use hacker tools to circumvent manufacturer-placed restrictions on hardware.

Just a gentle reminder folks to keep things civil. I see Jens's comment there as a light-hearted comment as opposed to anything else, but just wanted to remind everyone.

Phil

Mobile Data Speeds
HSDPA: ~3000Kbps (vodem, some 3G phones - known as 3.5G)
UMTS: ~1000Kbps (most 3G phones - 3G)
EDGE: ~300Kbps (iPhone, most Blackberries - 2.5G)
GPRS: ~33Kbps (all GSM phones - 2G)

Vodafone only has GPRS, UMTS and HSDPA deployed in NZ (no EDGE), iPhone will never get an EDGE connection here, this is important as real world mobile data speeds will be 5-10x slower than on AT&T in the States.

I was wrong, 30 days not 14 to cancel service and keep iPhone without early disconnection fee. http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/legal/return-policy.jsp

It's also well documented how to activate iPhone with an AT&T GoPhone prepaid no term plan through iTunes, if you like I can forward you my email activation confirmation from iPhone launch day.

Just be honest, you're not selling a USD2000 phone that customers will roam with for two years, you're selling a NZD800 wifi video iPod that's still best in class without phone functions.

Put the total cost of ownership and cost of calls/data up on your website with what you propose and you'll realize it's ridiculous

We are selling the hardware, and we have no interest in, or profit from, any activation or ongoing monthly charges. People in NZ are as smart as folks everywhere to make up their own mind of whether they want an iPhone or not...

Quite correct, there is a one-time cancellation right, but it only applies to the first 17 and 30 days with varying degrees of a refund or credit, and after that initial period of cancellation folks are bound by a 2-year contract. You seem to intimate that customers have an ongoing right to cancel at will at any time during the contract term, and that would be an incorrect impression. They can do so, but for a US$175 cancellation fee.

It is unclear whether Apple will let de-registered iPhones connect to iTunes... I know absolutely for a fact, that AT&T builds a data base og iPhones which have been deregistered, and their IMEI codes are known.

Remember, this is the first time that a manufacturer has locked both SIM and phone and also controls the medium through which you download content - and thus we all need to learn about the conduct required to comply with these restrictions. There is a growing debate in Europe whether this approach is coercive (i.e. Apple will not contract with a phone provider if that provider allows music downloads other than through iTunes) - but at the end of the day it is the consumers who decide with their pocket books whether they feel they have received value for money.

Is ToshComputers (formerly MacDirectSeller.co.nz, formerly appledirectseller.com) selling activated or unactivated hardware?

Both hardware-only-unregistered and fully registered, see our web site. For accounts with sufficient credit history we activate and pass the AT&T billing through to the client (that is how most of our NZ sales have been handled, and those are mostly corporate people or the companies themselves). Some (few) clients elect to do their own registrations and anecdotally those seem to be folks who have friends/relatives in the US and thus can provide an AT&T-acceptable credit history, SSN and billing address.

We are still operating as macdirectseller.co.nz but are keeping the consumer product lines, i.e. iPhones, on the toshcomputers.com site so that the considerable traffic for iPhone etc. (200+ hits per day) does not clog up our Mac business.

If you are south of Auckland, you may not have seen this on the front cover of the College Herald. A great image from Kimberley Chan a year 12 student at Epsom Girl's Grammar school.

Very cute...