Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

iPhone returns to Indonesia after a year's absence

JAKARTA — The iPhone 7, Apple's flagship smartphone, will be available in Indonesia by the end of this month, after the whole iPhone lineup went missing from Southeast Asia's largest smartphone market for more than a year.

Reuters file photo

Reuters file photo

Follow TODAY on WhatsApp

JAKARTA — The iPhone 7, Apple's flagship smartphone, will be available in Indonesia by the end of this month, after the whole iPhone lineup went missing from Southeast Asia's largest smartphone market for more than a year.

The tech giant has not been able to sell the previous iterations of its iconic iPhone — the iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus and iPhone SE — in Indonesia since January last year after the government imposed a rule requiring all makers of 4G smartphones to establish local manufacturing or research facilities.

But early this year, Apple finally agreed to build research and development facilities in three cities in Indonesia, paving the way for its return to the Indonesian market.

Smartfren, conglomerate Sinar Mas Group's mobile phone operator, will have several plans available for the iPhone 7, spokesman Yondi Hartanto said on Friday (March 17).

"We are the official telco partner for iPhone 7 ... and (the plans) are exclusive to Smartfren,” Mr Yondi said.

Smartfren announced on its website pre-order for the iPhone 7 will start from March 24 at all Smarfren galleries across Indonesia, but did not say when the company will start delivering the iPhone to customers.

Telekomunikasi Selular, or Telkomsel, Indonesia's largest mobile phone operator, currently does not have a plan to release the iPhone 7, according to Mr Adita Irawati, vice president for public relations at Telkomsel.

The iPhone 7 will also be available without a plan at all iBox stores, a chain of stores selling Apple products owned by Erajaya, starting March 31, but customers can start placing orders for the phone by March 24, Antaranews.com reports.

In Indonesia, rival Samsung remains the dominating force in the market — despite being hit hard by its Galaxy Note 7 exploding-phone recall — with Chinese manufacturer Oppo coming close behind. They and other rivals like Xiaomi, LG and local smartphone maker Evercoss had already set up their 4G manufacturing facilities in Indonesia in 2015.

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.