Compare Maxis & DiGi iPhone 4 Plans - Calculate Your REAL Cost!

[AndyKoh]

Find out which is the BEST iPhone 4 Deal for you!

"Which telco offers the best deal, and which plan should you choose?" You might ask. The answer is: Depends.

Really, there is no fixed answer, as it depends largely on your current mobile usage. Do not be overwhelmed by the bells and whistles, and mind-boggling calculations that the telcos present you. In the end, it all boils down to how much more you need to spend in the coming months to acquire that seemingly irresistable iPhone 4, compared to your current monthly usage.

To help you get a clearer idea of the actual cost, we have created a simple calculator for you.



Calculate & Compare Maxis & DiGi iPhone 4 Plans Now >>


What's this gotta do with homeless animals at PetFinder.my? Nothing.

But who says us animal lovers can't have a little fun crunching some numbers?

[blackie007]

Cool application!

Originally Posted by AndyKoh

What's this gotta do with homeless animals at PetFinder.my?

Answer: If they throw their iPhone 4 at us if they ended up spending more money than needed, we get free iPhones! And if they managed to save money, they can donate a little to the animal shelters and help the homeless animals! (paraphrased)

[AndyKoh]

Oh no, you saw through my scandal of obtaining a free iPhone 4, Charlene!

Haha, I created this calculator thingy 'cause many of my friends were asking around which deal is better, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone - to create this app to help them make a more informed decision, and at the same time introduce PetFinder.my to more people.

[adrianng87]

wow! this calculator here is very cool! not even maxis or digi provide this!
*goes calculating again

[AndyKoh]

Thanks Adrian!

Ah, I doubt the telcos would show you such calculations, as their plans are structured in a complex manner that gives you a lot of perceived value and features, and each telco always "wins" when comparing itself to the competitor, making consumers confused haha.

But ultimately, I believe what matters is the bottomline of how much you end up spending in addition to your current monthly usage, so the ideal plan varies for each consumer. Hopefully this calculator will help some people make a more informed decision and save a bit of money for them.

Please feel free to share this with your friends so more of them have a reason to visit our cute animals here!

[nurkasih]

Originally Posted by AndyKoh

Thanks Adrian!

Ah, I doubt the telcos would show you such calculations, as their plans are structured in a complex manner that gives you a lot of perceived value and features, and each telco always "wins" when comparing itself to the competitor, making consumers confused haha.

But ultimately, I believe what matters is the bottomline of how much you end up spending in addition to your current monthly usage, so the ideal plan varies for each consumer. Hopefully this calculator will help some people make a more informed decision and save a bit of money for them.

Please feel free to share this with your friends so more of them have a reason to visit our cute animals here!

Andy

That is why I am only attach to data plan ( RM38 Celcom ) and the voice + text is pay per use. Tho some people will say 20cents per text message is expensive compared to the plan yet my usage amounted only to RM30 per month max. Luckily I do not sign up for the plan..if not I am paying more than I use.

And as per Iphone plan. I still strongly believe that everything that comes in a package is 'cut throat'. I am strongly suggest to people to get your iphone or other smartphones to buy in cash ( once and for all ) and subscribe to only the data plan. You can just cut the line whenever you decide to stop using it. Activate today and deactivate tomorrow with no penalty. It is not hurt to save up bits bits, hopefully by the time you reach the amount, the phone will decrease in price also.

1 year on package plan is suicide, 2 years package plan is putting your head to be cut perhaps..

[AndyKoh]

Nurkasih,

Yes, you are wise indeed. We should only spend what we need, and not succumb to heavier expenditure on perceived value that the merchants make us think we need.

Similar tactics are often employed in a supermarket's so-called irresistable bargains where you have to buy more than you need (sometimes the value is real for that item, but you would likely also end up buying other things along the way, ultimately spending more and boosting the supermarket's bottomline).

Yup, in many cases, it is more economical to fork out a little more to buy the iPhone 4 outright, rather than commit to a long-term plan. In fact, one could see that it is cheaper to purchase it without any contract from Singapore's online Apple store, if you have a friend that resides in Singapore.

[azmyrax]

andy,

Why is it when I click calculate, then nothing happens?

[AndyKoh]

Azmyrax,

Hmm, that's weird.

What browser type and version are you using? Weird that nothing happens.. what figures did you fill in at the Calculation Box? Maybe you can try reloading the page again.

Any others experiencing this problem?

[azmyrax]

Originally Posted by AndyKoh

Azmyrax,

Hmm, that's weird.

What browser type and version are you using? Weird that nothing happens.. what figures did you fill in at the Calculation Box?

Any others experiencing this problem?

Im using Google Chrome 6.0

[AndyKoh]

Hmm, I just tested it with my Google Chrome 6 and it works fine too.

Can you try reloading the page? In any case, please give me your monthly usage, call mins and SMS count, I'll generate the table directly for you to see.

[azmyrax]

Originally Posted by AndyKoh

Can you try reloading the page? In any case, please give me your monthly usage, call mins and SMS count, I'll generate the table directly for you to see.

i closed the page and open it again but still nothing happens.

i put monthly bill: 100, minutes and count i wasnt too sure so i put 300 both

[AndyKoh]

Azmyrax,

Sorry, I don't know why the page is having trouble with your Chrome browser. Maybe you can try loading it with Firefox, IE or Opera and see if it works?

Here's the link for your calculation:
http://www.petfinder.my/iphone_calcu...l=300&msms=300

You can also directly tweak the figures in the URL to reflect other values.

[azmyrax]

Originally Posted by AndyKoh

Sorry, I don't know why the page is having trouble with your Chrome browser. Maybe you can try loading it with Firefox, IE or Opera and see if it works?

Here's the link for your calculation:
http://www.petfinder.my/iphone_calcu...l=300&msms=300

You can also directly tweak the figures in the URL to reflect other values.

thank you! i managed to do it in IE. but this morning my google chrome 'buat perangai' not allowing me to comment on facebook. must be something wrong from my end. but hey, thanks!

[AndyKoh]

No problem, Azmyrax!

Ah I see.. you better scold your Google Chrome and tell him if he doesn't behave himself, you'll sayang IE more than him

Originally Posted by azmyrax

thank you! i managed to do it in IE. but this morning my google chrome 'buat perangai' not allowing me to comment on facebook. must be something wrong from my end. but hey, thanks!

[blackie007]

azmyrax,

Try clearing Chrome's cache & browsing history. I sometimes face this problem, and clearing those helps.

[adrianng87]

anyone knows the color set of iphone 4 from digi and maxis are just only black? i heard rumors said only black is available now until this coming xmas only they will launch a white one here in m'sia.

[AndyKoh]

From what I heard, the white iPhone 4 would only be available in the US during Xmas. Malaysia as always is one of the late countries to get it, so I wouldn't be so optimistic about it being available by Xmas here.

You could potentially purchase one from Singapore's Apple online store if you have a friend residing there though. Singapore usually gets the products much faster than Malaysia.

[adrianng87]

Originally Posted by AndyKoh

From what I heard, the white iPhone 4 would only be available in the US during Xmas. Malaysia as always is one of the late countries to get it, so I wouldn't be so optimistic about it being available by Xmas here.

You could potentially purchase one from Singapore's Apple online store if you have a friend residing there though. Singapore usually gets the products much faster than Malaysia.

oh i didn't even know that happened to US too. so i bet the white set is more like a special or rare set compared to the black one? and now i know why some of the second-hand white iphone 3gs are still a lil' expensive than the black sets.

to compared again and again from the calculations provided, at the moment that i can think of is that digi offers more beneficial rates comparing maxis'. this is only when you are seeing it from the given voice minutes, sms, mms and internet access that digi is providing allows us to use for all m'sia network (celcom, maxis, umobile & etc), whereas maxis only allow one benefit which is it's voice minutes to all m'sia network. say digi's either rate plan, regardless of the lowest or the highest rate plan, it's internet data to surf using the iphone set its limit to 1GB, but it appears now that they have a new benefit which says their internet is iGet no bill shock after exceeding monthly quota with No extra charge after monthly quota, i think for people like me who surfs the net all day long will actually find this the most attractive selling point from digi.

but if you are judging from it's coverage perspective, i hope i wont get bombarded by my ex-colleagues by sharing this here , i've been working for few ad agencies and i've worked for 2 of the telcos ad, digi's coverage is only positioned 3rd throughout m'sia, but still not bad though.

[AndyKoh]

Actually I have no idea why the white set takes longer. I suspect that the casing manufacturers have limited production capacity, and due to most demand being the black version, they can barely accomodate the demands for just the black one, and probably are now in the midst of increasing their factories' production lines and machineries to cater for the white ones. But that is purely my own speculation haha.

I initially omitted the Maxis Free SMS from the calculation as I thought that most people would not be able to give an accurate estimation or would be confused to what it means and cause more calculation deviations. But come to think of it, you are right, it does make a difference, especially to heavy SMS users. I've added this parameter into the iPhone Plan Calculator, you can try it out now. I'm defaulting to the assumption of 50% non-Maxis SMS as that is roughly the market share of other networks.

As for data bandwidth, I did not include it as I believe even the minimum offer of 1Gb is good enough for most users - that is 33Mb/day, which is pretty sufficient for internet surfing considering that most people won't do heavy downloads on the phone (i.e. videos and songs are mostly downloaded through PC, then transferred over). Moreover, 3G speed is not really that fast, and it'd be more efficient and economical for them to turn on Wifi should they wish to do larger downloads or faster browsing. Nowadays many places have free wifi available as well, so people get to save on 3G usage. Also, most (especially new) users would not be able to give a good estimation of their bandwidth usage, so they are unlikely to give any meaningful figures that contribute to the calculation.

Thanks for your insightful feedback, Adrian!