iPhone4 in Taiwan: Cost of Ownership

Aside from the fact that the iPhone 4 is pretty expensive, I'm still a bit unsure about the deals available in Taipei.

iPhone photo from OSXDaily

To help myself and anyone else who cares, fanboi or not, I did a quick total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis below using the current offers from Chunghwa Telecom (CHT), which some say are better than the ones from all other local providers, specifically Fareastone and Taiwan Mobile. These prices are currently valid until 10/2010.

View the full spreadsheet here.

You can follow the guide below to nail down the plan you should get:

• Am I willing to get stuck to a 2-yr plan?
• If no, get a phone with no plan. You basically pay full price for the hardware. CHT phones are unlocked so you could use them with any SIM.
• If yes, get one of the plans. The TCO is much lower considering that you get voice and data.
• Do I care for unlimited data (3G)?
• If you are almost always in a Wi-Fi hotspot, maybe you do not need unlimited 3G, which is much slower than Wi-Fi. Consider plan A for NT$649 a month. Note that this and all other plans provide free access to CHT's Hinet public Wi-Fi (not 3G), which covers some restaurants and public areas.
• If yes, consider plan C (NT$1349 monthly). It's the cheapest way to get unlimited 3G, which means you have Internet access wherever you have a CHT cell signal.
• Do I need a 32GB phone?
• If no, get the 16GB. From my own experience, unless you keep all your music in your iPhone, it's pretty hard to fill up all this space.
• If yes, make the big jump and get the most expensive iPhone unit with your preferred plan (or no plan).

Good luck and hope you enjoy shopping for the iPhone 4!