I hate to break it to you, but the
32GB Touch is going for $599 in Tokyo at the
Apple Store as well as most retailers - why would they be willing to sell a 3G iPhone at the same price? Short answer: it won't happen. Expect to pay a minimum of $700 (and I think closer to $1000-1100) for the privilege of owning a 32GB iPhone in Japan.
If you will reread my post you'll see that I was commenting that if there are 16GB and 32GB models introduced, then the difference between the two models will be $100 and not $200, US prices, per the original poster.
I was not commenting on the final price. Only the price difference.
The difference between the US price and the Japan price for most Apple items has been much closer than it was 10 years ago. In most cases, a bad yen rate accounts for the difference.
Using the 32GB Touch as an example, it costs:
- Japan --> 59,800 yen
- US --> $499
About a 120 yen exchange rate. Current rate is around 102 yen. So it is high. Although I must admit, it was nice when you could get 130 yen when Apple was still using around 120 yen.
If the 3G iPhone 32GB costs $599 (a $100 more than the current 16GB version), then I would expect the 3G iPhone 32GB to cost 72,000 yen.
Still well less than 1,000 to 1,100 price you estimated.
BTW, I purchased my 32GB Touch about a month ago for $400 here in Japan. The store that I purchased it from had them on sale for a limited time. So you can find good deals here occasionally.
...yes, I got it for about 30% off.
They only had 5 for sale, and only 1 per customer.
P.S. The place where Japan will be expensive, IMHO, is the cell phone plan with DoCoMo or whomever Apple goes with for the iPhone.