That didn’t take very long, did it? Even before the official pre-order for the new iPhone 8 has gone live, pre-order listings for the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus has appeared on Lazada Malaysia – here’s your chance to be one of the very first owners in Malaysia.
So far, there’s only one seller offering the iPhone 8 pre order, and it’s none other than the popular DirectD (though its store name on Lazada is Wow Phone). Surprisingly, the “reseller fee” imposed on these new iPhones are not as high as they used to be – DirectD’s decision to source the phones from Hong Kong instead of Singapore may be a reason.
For both models, all three colourways (Silver, Gold, Space Grey), as well as both storage options (64GB and 256GB). So, how much is the iPhone 8 pre order units being sold for?
For the iPhone 8, the 64GB option is listed at RM3,999, while the 256GB model is priced at RM4,799. As for the iPhone 8 Plus, the 64GB variant costs RM4,599 while the 256GB unit is yours for RM5,399.
Since the seller stated that the units are sourced from Hong Kong, where the pre orders are happening at the same time as the US (15 September), we can calculate the mark-up more accurately.
In Hong Kong, the 64GB iPhone 8 goes for HK$5,988 (about RM3,220) while the 256GB variant costs HK$7988 (about RM3,920). Meanwhile, the iPhone 8 Plus 64GB is priced at HK$6,888 (about RM3,700) and the 256GB model retails at HK$8,188 (about RM4,400). In general, the markup rate is somewhere between RM800 to RM1,000.
As we mentioned, the markup isn’t as high as previous years, where some guy made the news for buying the iPhone 6 Plus (64GB!) for RM7,800.
And, these prices are noticeably lower than individual sellers in the forum, who are sourcing their units from Singapore. Interestingly, these sellers are also opening pre-orders for the iPhone X, which is not available for pre-order until 27 October.
In any case, we would still recommend that those interested to purchase the new iPhone 8 to hold for a little and wait for the local availability – there is less worry about warranty issues. After all, the local telcos have already posted teasers on their websites that the devices are “coming soon”. And, if last year’s launch is to be benchmarked, the wait for the new iPhone may not take too long: the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus went from international launch to local availability in just over a month.
