The iPhone already gets a new pricing plan in Japan
Although the Japanese data plans were quite reasonable in comparison with other smartphones, Softbank today issued a press release (in English) in which the company announced a quite significant price drop. From this month on, iPhone owners in Japan will be charged a minimum of $27 per month, down from a monthly minimum of $72.
But the lower prices are only applicable to a certain segment of customers. Softbank changed the so-called “packet flat-rate full fixed charge”, adding two ceilings in data usage. The iPhone is now more attrative to the non-hardcore users and Softbank itself says it aims at making the device “available to an even larger public”.
This may be a sign the intitial buzz has worn off already and Japan is a difficult environment for Apple after all.