So. It seems that Safaricom started selling the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+ late last week which is around a week after Airtel’s launch of the highly coveted and super expensive smartphone in Kenya. What is apparent is that the mobile networks are both trying to out-do each other by offering the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+ with various value-adds for the express purpose of creating some level of differentiation in their offers. This is not the first time this has happened as they did the same thing when the Samsung Galaxy S5 launched in Kenya as well.

Being the unashamed Apple ‘fanboi’ that I am, I could not help but do a comparison table as below that shows ‘side- by-side’ how Safaricom’s and Airtel’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+ offers in Kenya stack up:

The below rationale breaks down the Safaricom and Airtel offers into a little more detail:

• Device Only Pricing: Safaricom is offering the 16GB & 64GB versions of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+ which is the same as what Airtel is offering. However, Safaricom’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+ plus offer is Kes. 1,000.00 cheaper than the same models from Airtel whereas the iPhone 6+ 64GB is going for the same price as Airtel’s. UPDATE: I have also found out that Safaricom is also offering the 128GB iPhone 6+ for Kes. 110,999.00. Therefore, from a a pure ‘device only’ price perspective Safaricom wins this round.
• Device Range: Airtel is offering both the 16GB and 64GB versions of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+ whereas Safaricom is also offering the same PLUS the 128GB iPhone 6.  Therefore, from this perspective, I would call this a tie.
• Free Data Offer: Safaricom is offering 1.5GB of free data per month for a period of 3 months or put another way 4.5GB for 3 months across all its iPhone 6 devices. On the other hand, Airtel is offering 3GB of free data per month for 3 months or 9GB for 3 months for the iPhone 6 16GB and 32GB. At the same time, Airtel is offering 4GB of free data per month for 4 months or 16GB of free data for 4 months. In this respect, and quite convincingly so, Airtel absolutely hammers Safaricom on free data for the iPhone 6 & iPhone 6+ across the board by offering double the data or more compared to Safaricom.
• Free Insurance Offer: Safaricom is offering NO free insurance at all as part of their iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+ offers. However, Airtel is quite amazingly offering not one but two years worth of free insurance. Given how expensive iPhones are it seems a no-brainer that you would want to insure it so Airtel beats Safaricom on this one as well.

The Verdict

Whereas Safaricom is the least expensive ‘device only’ iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+ offer here, a wider device range, loads of free data and free insurance for 2 years makes the Airtel offer the one to grab. I seriously wonder how Airtel is making any money with all the free extra value-adds unless their rationale to make it back via data and airtime revenues from the subscribers who will buy and use the iPhones on their mobile network? Certainly looks that way. Its worth considering since Airtel’s prices are NOT significantly higher than those in the grey market PLUS you get all these value-adds. However, its still really expensive to buy ANY of these iPhones whether its via Safaricom or Airtel but Kenyans are peculiar like that so I expect them to fly of the shelves irrespective.