alfabytes

Singapore Looking to Sell Camera-less iPhone 4S

Who would want to buy them? Apparently Singapore’s national servicemen. The military has guidelines regarding electronic devices and that includes the restriction on camera-equipped gadgets. Seems that it is often the case that military personnel would use one phone for personal use and another during active duty.

Taking out the camera from the iPhone clearly is an unsanctioned modification and as it happens, will void the warranty although it is likely that the telcos who modify the phone may be required to foot the bill on service requests, depending on how Singapore’s consumer protection laws work.

Since the camera is one of the iPhone’s most significant highlight, it makes no sense why anyone would want to buy a camera-less iPhone regardless of military regulation. If anything, these servicemen who may already have an iPhone since half the country apparently does already, or those looking to buy one, could just buy another phone that has no camera.

There are plenty of camera-less phone in the market and it would be much less costly than having to buy two iPhones or even just one “blind” iPhone. With a two year contract, the 64GB model supposedly will go for S$900 (US$700). A basic phone would fetch for S$50-$70 and switching SIM cards between the phones, if you don’t want to keep two numbers, isn’t that complicated.

This reminds me of the tall tale of the NASA pen, which, although humorous, was mostly false.