SingTel to offer iPhone out East; TIM chief says 3G model in June
In a brief statement to the press on Monday, SingTel said it has signed an agreement with Apple to offer the iPhone in Singapore, India, the Philippines and Australia through its subsidiaries — Bharti Airtel, Globe and Optus— later this year.
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The announcement indicates that SingTel will be the second wireless provider to offer the touch-screen handset in India and Australia, joining Vodafone which previously announced its intention to service those countries in the near term, along with eight other markets.
Meanwhile, ElectronicsWeekly's David Manners is reporting on a conversation he had with TIM chief executive Luigi Licciardi, in which the Italian mobile headman is said to have confirmed that a 3G iPhone will be available for purchase in Italy during the month of June.
"We will be selling an iPhone with 3G capability next month," he told Manners on a bus ride to dinner following the first day of the International Electronics Forum in Dubai.
Over the weekend, Apple's online stores in both the U.S. and U.K. abruptly stopped taking orders for the current versions of the iPhone.
23 Comments
just can't believe Apple won't be selling phones till late June. I thought Steve was smarter than this . He sure screwed up this time. Maybe we can piss him off if he reads this and he will change his mind .
With the Apple Store, Carphone Warehouse & O2 all out of stock, common sense that would suggest the 3G handset announcement is imminent, with or without the media hype build up. What is Apple up to? Do they have an ace card up their sleeve? Time will tell I guess...
just can't believe Apple won't be selling phones till late June. I thought Steve was smarter than this . He sure screwed up this time. Maybe we can piss him off if he reads this and he will change his mind .
Where did you read in this article that the phone wouldn't be available until late June?
Where did you read in this article that the phone wouldn't be available until late June?
No mention in this article but AT&T talks about vacation time refusals on june 15th and 27th was mentioned as most expected time .
I thought Steve was smarter than this . He sure screwed up this time. .
It is possible that he is much smarter than you think.
1) He is clearing out inventory of a previous generation product;
2) He is minimizing the number of product returns that he has to deal with and providing at least a two-week window before stopping sales on the current version and introducing the new product (as has been pointed out by others many times before);
3) If you were possibly in the market for a smartphone/iPhone these past few weeks (or the next few), you'd have to be illiterate and living on Mars if you didn't know that there was a 3G iPhone coming. Apple is being very smart in recognizing that the cat was well out of the bag (see, e.g., the loudmouth from TIM), and that people's purchase decisions would be affected.