World of Apple is reporting T-Mobile Austria earlier today posted a link to a 32GB iPhone. The link didn’t show a price or even a picture, just a listing of “iPhone 32 GB”. Here’s a screenshot of the the site below.
The link was only up for a short time and quickly removed from public view without explination.
This on top of recent rumors is a strong indicator of an imminet iPhone refresh, and is expected to be announed during the WWDC keynote on June 8th.
We’re all sitting here waiting for the unveiling of the new 3G iPhone… and while the wait continues, more and more deals are being made over in Europe that are providing some hints as to Apple’s attitude towards service providers. New deals have been made with providers in Italy, Austria and a small group of other countries as well. Looks like Apple is mixing things up, exclusivity is no longer the word of the year.
On Friday, Orange announced it will sell the iPhone in Austria, Belgium, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Jordan, Portugal, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland, and a few African nations. Good on ‘em.
These multiple supplier deals can only mean one thing. Apple has broken down on their insistence to have exclusive marketing agreements wherever the iPhone is sold. The ‘big iPhone launch’ is still rumored to be in the works, a huge launch including all sorts of counrties around the world… So perhaps Apple is gearing up to get the iPhone into as many hands as possible. More carriers means more plan options and choices… and a little healthy competition amond providers has to be a good thing.
No word yet whether this new attitude will affect AT&T’s 5-year deal with Apple… But note this: AT&T and T-Mobile have begun offering WiFi side-by-side at Starbucks locations. T-Mobile uses a GSM network (a necessity for the iPhone), while Verizon and Sprint run on CDMA. If a carrier is going to break the non-exclusivity stranglehold that AT&T currently has, look for T-Mobile to step into the ring.
All I know is this. Exciting ‘iPhone’ times are upon us. The iPhone is not only scheduled to go 3G in early June, but it will also (probably) launch in numerous countries around the world at the very same time. Also, with this news of non-exclusivity breaking from Europe, look for more carriers to pick up the iPhone, therefore increasing proliferation of the device and lowering monthly plan prices (fingers crossed!).
[via Yahoo! News]
It would seem that all signs are pointing to a large international roll-out of the much ballyhooed iPhone 2.0. Why? Let me give you the skinny.
Vodafone confirmed yesterday that it has secured distribution rights for the iPhone in 10 countries… Yes, 10 countries. The countries are: India, Australia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey. I’m particularly happy for the folks in Greece… as one of my digg fans recently pointed me towards this site: www.wewantapplegreece.com. Greece is clearly ‘jonesing’ for the iPhone, as is a large majority of the world.
T-Mobile has recently confirmed that it will introduce the iPhone in Austria, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia and Latin America.
Rogers Communications in Canada also recently confirmed their intent to launch the iPhone in Canada during the 2008 calendar year. Canadians, can I get a w00t!? (pray for reasonably priced data plans)
See how everything appears to be lining up for a huge international launch? I’m glad I’m not in charge of co-ordinating such a thing. However I would think that getting carriers on board in the above countries would not be such a hard task… at least not compared to China.
*smooth segue*
China would be the next monster to tackle. According to our friends at MacRumors and AppleInsider, the latest version of iPhone Software 2.0 has handwriting recognition for Chinese.
Exciting stuff indeed. 2008 is looking more and more to be the year of iPhone Proliferation… er, the year of the International iPhone… um… well you know what I mean.
[via MacWorld UK]
T-Mobile has cut the price of the iPhone in Germany from €399 to only €99 (for the 8GB model). Surely this is to clear out stock with the impending release of the 3G iPhone coming soon? This price cut went up on the T-Mobile website last Friday…to get the price you’d need to sign a 2-year contract.
This deal is running from April 7th through June 30th. June 30th you say??? Hmmm… With all of the rumors seemingly pointing at an early June release of the 3G iPhone this would line up nicely. 3G comes out at the beginning of June, and for those that want to still purchase a cheaper, older gen iPhone they still can till the end of the month. Makes sense to me, but who knows if that will happen! I suppose I will be more convinced once I see other Apple stores around the world doing the same thing… Especially the U.S.
Big things coming in June for the iPhone for sure! 3G iPhone, Firmware 2.0 perhaps… App store anyone? We’ll just have to hold onto our hats (or old iPhones) and see what happens.
[via eCanadaNow]
The iPhone is going to start selling the in Germany for 999 EUROS ($1,477) without a contract. Are you kidding me? $1,500 for an iPhone!? The catch is you can pick one up for a more respectable price of 399 euros with a two-year contract.
This has all come about after Vodafone challenged T-Mobile’s exclusive lock on the iPhone. To make things more fair (I suppose?), other carriers can now sell the iPhone without a contract for the inflated price.
Good on Vodafone for winning this ruling, but it still doesn’t make sense to me why anyone would go anywhere else other than T-Mobile to pick up their iPhone/contract… Unless they plan on hacking the phone of course.
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