Chunghwa will start selling iPhone Dec. 13

The Taipei-based phone carrier plans to offer the 8 gigabyte handset, which has storage capacity for 8,000 minutes of music, free to subscribers who sign up to its NT$2,549 (US$76.50) a month plan for two years, the company said in a statement yesterday. The same package for the 16 gigabyte iPhone will cost NT$2,990 for the handset, according to the statement.

In the U.S., an 8 GB model costs US$199 (NT$6,567) if bundled for two years with an AT&T plan that starts at US$69.99 (NT$2,310) a month.

Customers can pre-order the iPhone from today for guaranteed delivery on Dec. 13 while those who don’t pre-purchase can buy the handset on the same day if stocks are available, the statement said.

The debut of the iPhone in different parts of the world, such as the U.S. and Japan, was often met with strong enthusiasm from consumers, who lined up in front of Apple stores for days to get the device.

Shih Mu-piao, Vice President of Chunghwa’s Mobile Business unit, declined to give a forecast or minimum amount of iPhones it expects to sell.

Customers can also buy the 8 gigabyte handset without a contract for NT$26,600, or the 16 gigabyte model for NT$29,900, which includes six months’ access to Chunghwa’s third-generation and Wifi wireless-Internet networks.

The iPhone, along with the iPod Touch, is Apple’s flagship product. Slim and light, the iPhone revolutionizes the mobile phone industry with an all-touch interface. The device comes with no keypad — the system is controlled by the touching and movement of the finger on the phone’s touch-screen.

The iPhone hasn’t been available in Taiwan, despite its presence in the world for some years. Chunghwa earlier this year announced it would sell iPhones in Taiwan.

Chunghwa rose 0.6 percent to close at NT$52.5 in Taipei trading before the announcement, compared with a 0.2 percent gain by the benchmark TAIEX index. The company’s stock has fallen 2.1 percent this year on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, outperforming the 37 percent decline in the 33-member MSCI Asia-Pacific Telecom index and a 48 percent drop by the TAIEX.

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