The new iPhone 3G (aka the iPhone 2.0) was released via an announcement today - new features, new lower prices, what's not to love? Oh, right, you still can't buy it officially in Vietnam.
The iPhone is mainly sold locked to a carrier elsewhere in the world - Vietnam doesn't do subsidized, carrier-locked phones, so it's a no-go. Plus it's such a small market, the grey-market importers will take care of the domestic needs.
Being in Vietnam, the new 3G features are unnecessary - they are only in the 3G testing phase here - and the enterprise features are likewise useless. A robust enterprise solution here means using computers *without* unlicensed software. And the GPS is based off cell tower triangulation (I think), so another unsupported feature.
What I am looking forward to is contacts searching. Thankfully, the 2.0 software can update on the 1.0 phone.
Even with all the 2.0 features that are pointless here in Vietnam, you can be sure that there will be many folks in the coming months sporting the white 3G phone - the black 3G ones will not have the requisite cachet. Apple marketing knows how to cater to the lux-consumers.
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5 comments:
I tested the GSM functions on my Windows Mobile phone, the closest tower was 4 km away. Worthless.
For GPS, My mobile phone can find 14 satellites but my friend in Belgium said it gave him the wrong position, not the phones fault. When he gets the fix in the program, I will test it out again.
iPhone 2.0 is not really 3G, it usues hspda which also is not quite available in Vietnam.
I do not like the new plastic design of the iPhone, the aluminum backing was nice but I can see how switching to plastic may cut the costs.
Expect a hack from Vietnamese programmers within a couple months :-)
I m waiting for an I Phone 3G coming from australia and i just wonder if we can use 3G here in Vietnam on the I Phone. It is actually available with 'S-Phone' provider.
The proof is: I'm right now in Can Tho and am connected to the internet through 3G via a USB device.
Last I heard they were still testing 3G service. One of the big providers (Mobi, Viettel) had rolled out beta service.
There isn't a whole lot of bandwidth, so the government has encouraged the smaller providers (HT, S-Fone, etc.), to band together and offer 3G over the same frequency spectrum. But perhaps such encouragement isn't needed as the smaller providers are gonna drop out of the mobile game in Vietnam all together.
My understanding is dated by a few months though.
Do you guys have an idea how the 3G works on the IPhone. Does it have to be part of the carrier subsription contract?
Or does it work like wifi? Meaning we just need to enter username and password to connect it?
3G is a cellular data standard, so as such you need to be subscribed to a cell carrier that provides such data plans.
I do not know if in Vietnam you can do a 'pay-as-you-go' 3G service (if and when such service becomes available).
Even if one does not subscribe to the cellular data plans (such as the GPRS plans on the iPhone 1.0), one can still use wifi for free (where there is an available signal).
Of course this assumes a jailbroken / unlocked v 2.0 phone.
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