Dubai: Telecom provider etisalat will launch the new iPhone 4 for its pre- and post-paid customers from Saturday, the company said Saturday.
However, it did not give a price range for the sought-after device. According to spokesman Mohammad Okour, the prices will depend on the packages offered by etisalat and will be announced in the coming days.
He also told Gulf News that etisalat will be competitive towards unlocked iPhone 4s which have been available on regional markets for several weeks through diverse grey channels.
"Etisalat will offer a range of price plans tailored for iPhone customers," he said.
Since its official launch by Apple in June in the US, there has been great hype about the device. In the UAE, independent traders and online shops soon offered iPhone 4s for prices as high as Dh6,000.
The official price in the US is $199 (Dh730) for the 16 GB or $299 (Dh1,100) for the 32 GB version. In the UAE, prices have come down to a more realistic level in the meantime.
The second telecom provider in the UAE, du, has not announced it will launch the iPhone 4 yet. "Etisalat has been the first in the region to offer the iPhone series from the start," Okour said.
Brisk business
The iPhone 4 allows video calls, features a 5 megapixel camera with HD video recording and can be upgraded with more than 200,000 applications.
At the US launch in June, 1.7 million iPhone 4s were sold in the first three days, exceeding the company's expectations by far. In its report for the second quarter at the end of July, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said iPhone sales had reached 8.4 million (including the iPhone 3G).
There were problems concering iPhone 4's antenna reception, though. Apple offered customers a free fix and assured that all newly sold stock is fine.
