and the 2G is officially RIP.
At USD$199, I ‘envy’ those who had paid could afford over HKD$4K for the cracked 2G model against my advise, and couldn’t help but laughing wondering WTF that newly announced dealership of the 2G model by 3 for the HK and Macau market was all about.
Although Apple has switched the 3G model back to their usual selling outlets as with all other Apple products, ie screwing all the local gray marketeers, the 3G model is on the HK Apple online shop without a price and looks like they are not taking orders at this moment. That means one can still get the closed to HKD$5K 2G model from HKSincere and pretend to be the coolest dude for awhile still.
Unlike the 2G model, I am able to find one or two great features on the iPhone 3G though; talk time in 3G mode (only manual switching, no auto hanging switching between 2G/3G for this phone) is a whopping 5hrs at a great USD listed price!
Which reminds me, perhaps a Whopper for lunch today or very soon. Yum. 
Oh! Ah…. one more thing…
This iPhone 3G is like an iPod Touch at about HKD$800 less with a free 3G phone attached albeit without a video call camera … Sounds GREAT to me!
I suspect that a long and expensive contract will be imposed by Hutchison 3, which is IMO the biggest concern.
Given the low cost of the new devices, suddenly the prospects of other mobile phone manufacturers don’t look so good.
At USD$199, the iPhone 3G is less expensive than my 4GB iPod Nano noir I for crying out loud. IMO, other than being a mobile net browser, WM5/6 is no phone at all. This iPhone 3G pricing might just have driven the final nail to WM phones’ coffin (and perhaps to the iPod Touch’s as well).
It would be interesting to see what Crackbarry 9000 and the Google HTC would do with their pricing.