I was at the Kompas Editor's Choice iPad app official launch event at XXI Plaza Senayan last week courtesy of Eddy Taslim who is in charge of Kompas.com, the Indonesian daily's online presence. In attendance were some of Kompas' agencies and other partners among which was mobile network provider, XL Axiata.
Sure, it was an iPad event but XL revealed some interesting numbers regarding iPhone usage on their networks. Yes, iPhone is still currently the sole domain of Telkomsel in Indonesia but since July 2009, the company has unlocked all of its iPhones via software update, this means the handsets can be used with any GSM network in the world without having to use Telkomsel's roaming service.
Telkomsel revealed at the Indonesian 3GS launch last February that they sold 30 thousand iPhone 3Gs in 2009. This year we estimate that they have sold upwards of 15 thousand 3GS models should the sell rate is maintained. Of course, there are also thousands (perhaps tens of thousands) of privately imported iPhones from various other countries.
What XL revealed at the event was that there were roughly 20 thousand iPhones actively using XL's network as of June 2010 and on average they use about 100 MB of data per month.
Handono Warih, General Manager of Sales at XL Axiata proudly declared to the audience's amusement that even without going through the trouble of securing official iPhone distribution deal, the network managed to capture a significant portion of iPhone users in Indonesia
The chart they used to present the data is by no means fully representative, I mean they piled the original iPhone in one bar and the 3G in another but split the 3GS into two, but the numbers were there.
It is surprising that on average, XL iPhone customers only use 100MB per month. Many fellow iPhone users use upwards of 300MB per month and I personally use more than 400MB per month even with wireless internet at home. Most of my non-home use are on the road where almost every Jakartan spend at least 2 hours stuck in traffic every day.
It would be more interesting if they can profile who these iPhone users are and perhaps more importantly how they manage their data usage. XL offers a mobile internet package of 1GB with a throttled speed to 128Kbps if that limit has been reached and even further down to 64Kbps if it passes, if I recall correctly, 2GB in a single month.
Rumors flew several weeks ago that XL was in talks to distribute iPhone 4 in Indonesia but Mr. Warih said that, "It's all still in the dark."
