Price comparison: iPhone 3G Prices

Buying a mobile phone, especially if you are in the USA, can be a complicated and frustrating exercise when your purchase must include a service contract as in general, mobile phones without service contracts are considerable more expensive. However, the Asian Wall Street Journal’s weekly Arbitrage column has recently conducted a survey of prices for the iPhone 3G without a service contract and as expected, iPhone 3G prices were much higher in Europe than in Hong Kong (the only Asian city included in the survey).

Of course, business travelers or expatriates relocating to Asia will generally not have a difficult time finding someone who can unlock just about any mobile phone along with plenty of knockoff versions of popular mobile phones for sale. However, buyers should always be wary of mobile phone deals to good to be true and be careful about trusting their phones with someone who can “unlock” them.

Price Comparison*

Paris	€509	US$738
Rome	€499	US$723
Brussels	€475	US$689
Hong Kong	HK$4,488	US$579
London	343 Pounds	US$566

* An 8GB without a service contract. Prices are based upon foreign exchange rates as of September 9, 2009