BELGIUM — It wasn’t long ago that Americans bemoaned the price of the iPhone — the latest status symbol mobile phone to hit the market. But even the most poorly planned domestic iPhone purchase doesn’t come close to what the average Belgian will likely pay for their new phone when it’s released to the market this Friday.Thanks to a Belgian law designed to keep companies from keeping some product prices low by boosting the cost of others, a new 8-gigabyte iPhone will retail for $825, compared to the U.S. more-than-reasonable-by-comparison $199.
Those purchasing the beefier 16-gigabyte model will dig even deeper, pulling out an impressive $966 for what their friends in the states are paying a mere $299 to boast about owning.
Ironically, those living in The Netherlands can pay a mere $1.57 for their iPhone if they sign on with T-Mobile.
According to the Associated Press, Belgian iPhone carrier, Mobistar doesn’t think having the highest iPhone prices in the world will be a hindrance to saturating the market. The AP reports that Mobistar expects lines on Friday, when the phones finally go on sale. Shoppers will be limited to one iPhone per person, regardless of how much money they have available for tech toys.
Belgian Enterprise Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne has promised to work to overturn the product subsidy law because it makes it impossible to sell telephones inexpensively, with fixed service contracts, like the rest of the world.
