Vodafone gets its hands on iPhone
06 May 2008
Vodafone gets its hands on iPhone
The world's largest mobile operator in terms of revenue, Vodafone, said Tuesday that it has struck a deal to get its hands on the Apple iPhone later this year.
It still looks however, like Apple is maintaining operator exclusivity in markets where it launches the device.
No details about when the carrier would begin offering the phone were given, but the Big V said it has agreed to offer the iPhone in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey.
There was also no word on whether this would be the much anticipated 3G device, although the announcement does counter a number of other rumours.
For one, it doesn't look like Telstra will be carrying the device in Australia, as expected. And it also looks like reports that the next version of the iPhone will not be tied to operators is untrue, given that Vodafone said users will be able "to purchase the iPhone for use on the Vodafone network".
It does seem reasonable to expect that Voda will be carrying the 3G iPhone however. We are only weeks away from Apple's big summer event, at which the company is hotly tipped to announce new hardware to go with its next generation software.
Update: We've just seen an announcement from Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM) revealing that it too "has signed a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Italy later this year". So this suggests that Apple is indeed licensing the device to more than one operator in each market, and means that the earlier rumours might indeed be true.
It's possible that the Vodafone deal didn't extend to the UK and Germany because of the existing exclusivity agreements with operators in those markets.
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