Mobile Marketers Dred Chinese Price Tags?
Posted by michael on Sep 28, 2009 in 3G, In The News, Mobile Devices, Mobile Marketing, Mobile News, iPhone
Since 2007, the mobile marketing industry has grown almost in lockstep with the iPhone’s progress. Where the iPhone goes, so too does the opportunity for reaching new audiences with applications and campaigns tailored to any number of diverse marketing purposes.
For mobile marketers, the prospect of reaching a whole new world of potential via the introduction of the iPhone into the Chinese marketplace has been one of the most exciting prospects to come down the pike in a long while. Yet, what helped make the iPhone such a ubiquitous device in the USA and Europe – its affordable price tag – won’t likely follow its introduction to China.
And that has some mobile marketers concerned.
According to Reuters, China Unicom will introduce the iPhone in October at an estimated retail price of 5,000 yuan. That’s approximately $730. A number of mobile analysts have already been quoted in the media today acknowledging that this high pricing will likely – at first, anyway – restrict the phones to the relatively small pool of high end consumers in China.
It should be noted, however, that the iPhone doesn’t come with a very cheap price tag elsewhere in Asia either. In Hong Kong, for example, the iPhone will you cost you approximately $695, only $35 less than the expected asking price in China.
The high price of the iPhone will all but certainly keep its diffusion in China at a minimum for the remainder of this year. But as China’s 3G network takes root and demand increases, it doesn’t seem like a wise or sustainable plan for the iPhone to remain at such high retail prices beyond the short term. Until then, mobile marketers will sadly encounter more barriers than initially imaged in dispersing their work within the largest mobile community on the planet.
David | Sep 28, 2009 | Reply
I don’t really think that China Unicom selling the iPhone “legally” will have much of an effect. People in the west need to understand that the iPhone is easily available in China and has been pretty much since its launch.
A recent estimate said that there were over a million iPhones in active use in China (making China one of the top worldwide markets). And everywhere you look you can see people with an iPhone.
5,000 RMB is pretty much the price that the jail broken versions are retailing for at the moment. The interesting question is more whether China Unicom will manage to convince Chinese consumers to buy a “legal” version.
The only way that I can see them doing this is if they subsidise the handsets or sell it a full price with minutes included. But up to now neither China Mobile nor China Unicom have offered subsidised handsets.
My bet is that they will not be able to, unless they crack down on people selling the jail broken versions, and I don’t see that happening.
As for marketers, it is not that important whether the person is on a jail broken or “legal” iPhone, they are still eyes that can be targeted, and as long as the call to action is compelling, those eyes will look…