Last night I was tipped that XL Axiata had published its iPhone 5S/C pricing schemes. Suspecting that it was leaked early, I took screenshots and published both the link and the shot. I was later informed that it was indeed leaked and a few hours later the page was taken down.
@amasna http://t.co/U717wugJ8q, 16 gb 10.499.000
— Nurkholis Rafsanjani (@kholisrafsa)
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Apparently people at XL hadn’t realized the page was already published so it looked like that they scrambled as quick as they could late Saturday night to remove the page, probably gave it a different URL instead of taking it down completely.
As I said last night, the pricing plans for postpaid are almost identical to the US pricing which is excellent but the prepaid prices were a big step up. Turns out, the they were about 25% higher which I suppose isn’t too bad but is shocking nonetheless because it brings the 5S very close into MacBook Air territory.
The Rupiah’s fall against the greenback is perhaps the biggest contribution to the high prepaid prices (although if you go with the postpaid option, the total cost of ownership after 12 months would be within the same ballpark) and if the exchange rate had remained in the 9500-10500 per dollar, I’m sure the iPhones would be a bit more affordable.
Something in my head tells me that this was a set up though. That I was leaked the page specifically to gauge reaction to the prices. It just so happened that the tip came after I had tweeted asking whether people would buy an iPhone 5S if it were to start at Rp 9 million for prepaid. It ended up being 10.5 million and the 5C started at 8.7 million.
Will XL make changes now that it’s all been leaked?
–
Update: it’s live, no change
– Read on Path.
AuliaSays 