The iPhone 5 is here

A number of retailers and distributors have started selling Apple’s new iPhone 5 in the UAE, but — as expected — its price is way above what one would be paying in countries where the product has been officially released.

The iPhone 5 was announced on September 12 and was officially released on Friday in the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, the UK, France and Germany. It will be available in 22 more countries this week.

The sixth incarnation of Apple’s flagship handset comes with a major redesign, including a four-inch Retina display screen, the new A6 chip and iOS 6.0, and a slimmer, taller body.

As far as the UAE is concerned, Apple’s only official channel to the country — store.apple.com/ae — indicates that the iPhone 5 is “coming soon”.

Late on Friday, UK-based Siasa Telecom sent a release announcing that it will make the iPhone 5 available at Siasa Dubai over the weekend, “and will be distributed through the Siasa distribution channels in the UAE and the GCC this week”.

“I can’t confidently say we are the first to bring the iPhone 5 here, but we’re definitely one of the first to do so,” Siasa director Mohammed Sadiq told Khaleej Times in an interview on Saturday.

While admitting that iPhone 5 prices in Dubai are indeed above selling points in other markets — he was initially hesitant to divulge prices because it may “perceive a negative impression that we were taking advantage” — Sadiq said that these are due to other costs that they have to deal with, such as import duties, taxes and transportation costs.

“Coming from us, from a wholesale point, we will sell the [16GB] iPhone 5 for Dh4,500,” he said. “At what price our resellers would sell it, that we don’t know.” The 32GB version from Siasa would come at Dh4,700.

On Apple’s US website, the 16GB iPhone 5 is selling at $199 (Dh731), although this comes with a two-year contract from a wireless carrier. In the UK, the basic, unlocked unit fetches for £529 (Dh3,155).

Over at Souq.com, an online shopping website in the UAE, iPhone 5 units are being sold anywhere from Dh3,845 to Dh5,500.

Other major Dubai electronics retailers also started selling the iPhone 5 on Saturday. Jacky’s Electronics and Jumbo Electronics were offering the 16GB version of the handset for over Dh6,000.

“Sales are going good, and we expect to have more shipments coming in soon,” Jacky’s chief operating officer Ashish Panjabi told Khaleej Times on Saturday.

“We expect prices to come down in some weeks, and maybe that’s a better time to buy it,” he said. “But still, we’re receiving a lot of queries since yesterday [Friday] because a lot of people want one.”

As at Press time, Jumbo did not return text-message queries. Sharaf DG, another major electronics retailer in the UAE, had a “coming soon” message on its website with regards to the iPhone 5.

Too high?

While the iPhone 5 is indeed being sold through what is called the “gray market” in the UAE, Sadiq said that there is nothing wrong with this and it is part of the industry.

“Yes, this is the gray market, but there’s nothing illegal in that,” he said, adding that this shows how consumers are very keen on getting the latest in technology, even if it comes with a premium.

The bright side of all of these though, Sadiq said, is that prices will consistently go down; as with basic macroeconomics, the concept of supply and demand will always come into play.

“As soon as more supply comes in, definitely prices will have to follow suit and go down,” he said, adding that he expects the price of the iPhone 5 to fall and stabilise to around Dh3,500 “in some weeks’ time”.

• alvin@khaleejtimes.com