iPhone 4S by Smart

Official iPhone 4S in the Philippines by December 2011!

Yes, you heard it right! While some of you have already heard this news but the iPhone 4S will finally hit the Philippine mobile market next month, December 2011(well, officially) with Smart Communications, Inc. as the official mobile carrier in the Philippines.

For years now, Globe Telecommunications has been the country's official iPhone distributor, offering bundled mobile data plans to Philippine mobile subscribers. But guess now, Smart has snatched out the Apple deal from Globe. After acquiring Digitel (Sun Cellular) earlier this year, Smart is now considered the largest mobile telecommunication provider in the country with almost 50 million mobile subscribers nationwide. This may have made a great impact on Apple's decision as to who among the two Philippine mobile networks (Smart and Globe) will carry the latest iPhone.

In an interview with Manny V. Pangilinan, chairman of PLDT-Smart, the big boss himself confirmed the deal which was also published in a Philippine newspaper right after. Apple, after learning this premature announcement, expressed their disappointment about it which, for them, shouldn't be disclosed to the public at least one or two weeks before the official launch date.

Well, what's done is done. So, the next thing to look forward now that Smart already won the deal is how the Philippine subscribers will respond to it. 

Smart iPhone 4S Pricing

What most aspiring Filipino iPhone 4S users are looking into now is how much will iPhone 4S be priced. iPhone 4S was already available as preorder for some mobile gadget shops nationwide with not less than Php 45,000 pesos price for the cheapestiPhone 4S (16GB) model. Smart's pricing for the iPhone 4S was not revealed yet although there are claims that it will be available for for premium Smart subscribers with UnliData 4000 or All-In Plan 3500 (with definite amount as cash out). I will update this as soon asSmart officially releases the iPhone 4S next month.

Will iPhone 4S Siri work in the Philippines?

iPhone 4S: Siri

One of the major iPhone 4S features which sets theiPhone 4S apart from its predecessors is the exclusive use of its voice assistant called Siri. But another interesting question Filipino iPhone 4S users asks is whether Siri will or will not work in the Philippines. Well, the answer is YES but NOT ALL. Siri can read for you your messages & emails, and even you can ask it to write any message by dictating it. Simple tasks such as this can be done by Siri but when you ask it for any location-depended inquiries like finding the nearestrestaurant in the vicinity will not give you the best result.

Siri connects to an online database (thus requiring an active internet connection for Siri to work) for every user query which then searches for possible answers on the database. Unfortunately, locations stored in their database are mainly US locations; thus, if you are outside US, such location-based inquiries probably will not work. So, if you are planning to buy an iPhone4S solely for Siri, then its best to get an iPhone 4 instead.

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