Apple Thoughts - News & Reviews on all things Apple

"Softbank has revealed Japanese prices for the iPhone 4. Prices are unsubsidized -- but the carrier has introduced different data deals designed to ease the pain (a little)."

If you are in Japan and plan on pre-ordering an iPhone 4 on June 15th, you should know they will only have black available, you have to provide ID and the prices will be 57,600 yen ($699.00 USD) for the 32GB version and 46.080 yen ($500.00 USD) for the 16GB version. I'm thinking this isn't out of line with other countries pricing or is it? The bonus here is that SoftBank is offering an unlimited plan for 4,410 yen ($48.00 USD) per month, but they give you a subsidy of 1,920 yen ($20.00 USD) per month, bringing your true monthly cost to 2,490 yen ($28.00 USD). Pay a little more for the iPhone 4 and save quite a bit on the monthly charge for unlimited. You can find out more about this plan and the other ones they offer at the MobileInJapan website.

"Softbank Corp., Japan's third-largest mobile-phone company, will offer new customers Apple Inc.'s iPhone 3GS with 16 gigabytes of memory for free or the 32- gigabyte model for half price to bolster sales."

Sounds like they have a monthly payment plan with their iPhones, the 32-GB runs roughly $5.53 USD after the price drop. I guess if you spend a lot of time in Japan it might be worth it. The offer runs from December 4th through January 31st, 2010.