Hutchison Telecom assured the 60,000 subscribers who have ordered an iPhone 3G that shipments from Apple will be sufficient to ensure they receive their handsets in the coming weeks. The handsets will go on sale at Hutchison Telecom outlets next month once all those who pre-registered have received theirs. Asked yesterday why the 8-gigabyte iPhone 3G was not priced at the US$199 which Apple chief executive Steve Jobs said last month would be the maximum, Hutchison Telecom International chief executive Dennis Lui Pok-man said that price did not include the monthly charge for a two-year contract, to which customers had to commit. In the US, users needed to pay the equivalent of HK$600 a month for two years to enjoy the US$199 price, he said. Hutchison Telecom said this week that a basic monthly iPhone 3G plan for voice and data service in the US would cost the equivalent of HK$546. Customers in Hong Kong enjoyed the lowest mobile phone tariffs, Mr Lui said. Peter Wong King-fai, the chief executive of Hutchison Telecom Hong Kong, said that the company would not consider selling the iPhone 3G on a standalone basis, given that the company would like users to enjoy the company's services. Mobile phone users who do not want to commit to a two-year contract are looking for handsets on the grey market. Market watchers said grey market imports could arrive as early as Monday. Hutchison Telecom chief operating officer Amy Lung Pui-ying said: 'We don't worry that the imported iPhone 3G will affect us. We are providing discounts and rebates to our subscribers for the iPhone 3G.' One of Hutchison's selling points for the iPhone 3G is its phone insurance programme. The company will offer iPhone 3G users a one-year worldwide phone care service which entitles them to a replacement in the event theirs is stolen or suffers accidental damage. Hidden costs Steve Jobs said a basic iPhone 3G would cost no more than US$199 That price, Hutchison Telecom International says, applies to customers taking out a two-year contract at a monthly cost of, in HK dollars, $600
