MANILA, Philippines--Despite the hype surrounding Globe's forthcoming launch of the iPhone 3G, one analyst believes Apple's latest device is coming to the Philippines at a very bad time.

"The iPhone's roll-out in the Philippine market came at a very bad time," said Benedict Ferrer, analyst for XMG Asia Pacific.

Globe is scheduled to launch the iPhone 3G on August 22.

The operator initially announced earlier this month that it would sell the device for prepaid accounts at P41,899 and P48,899, for the 8-gigabyte and 16-gigabyte models, respectively.

Last Friday, Globe announced price rollbacks and said it would sell iPhone 3G prepaid kits starting at P37,599 (8Gb) and P43,799 (16 GB).

"Despite of the price cuts made by Globe, technology consumers are now very cautious on spending for high-end luxury items due to spiraling food and transportation costs," Ferrer said in comments e-mailed to INQUIRER.net.

He believes Globe's revenue growth from iPhone subscriptions will still be limited due to "application cost, value proposition and application usage acceptability among consumers."

In terms of preference, he said consumers in general will still prefer prepaid plans primarily because these do not have a "lock-in" contract with Globe.

The iPhone 3G is also available via postpaid subscriptions ranging from P1,599 to P4,999 in monthly fees.

"iPhone's brand recognition, market positioning and loyal followers will provide the strategic advantage in capturing high-end techno savvy consumers versus other smart phone brands," Ferrer said.

Globe's prepaid plans come with P1000 in load credits spread over five months, or P200 per month. Also, the first 1,000 phonekit purchases will get an additional P1,000 discount off the purchase price, Globe said in last Friday's announcement.