America Movil to carry iPhone in Latin America
Another day, another subcontinent.
One day after Vodafone (VOD) announced it would be carrying Apple's (AAPL) iPhone in 10 countries in Europe, Asia and Australia, Reuters reports that America Movil (AMX) will be bringing the iPhone to Latin America.
America Movil is a big player. With more than 150 million subscribers, the Mexico City-based Fortune 500 company is the largest mobile operator — and the largest corporation — in Latin America, with subsidiaries in Central America, South America and much of the Caribbean. Its founder and chairman is Carlos Slim Helu, one of the richest men in the world, with an estimated net worth $67.8 billion (link). This is the kind of CEO — and the kind of company — Steve Jobs likes to partner with.
As with yesterday's terse announcement from Vodafone, there is no word on when the deal starts, what models are covered and whether it is exclusive.
"one of the richest man in the world"
Minor, but it should be "men" not "man", man is singular, you are talking a group of men, so it should be plural.
No offense, but I see these mistakes a lot on this website, does anyone proof read, or do you guys just run spell check and ignore grammar?
ex ped: No offense taken. These posts are often dashed off in a hurry and lightly edited. Thanks for the catch. As usual, readers are the best proofreaders.
I took a peek at the data + voice packages for 3G on the Telcel site. Telcel is America Movil's Mexico subsidiary. Unlimited Data plans are around $240/month. I sure hope this comes down for the Mexican iPhone launch.
One of the ways that Telcel has achieved such high penetration in a developing country is that it's actually cheaper to have a cell phone than it is to have a land line. Also, airtime for most people is prepaid.
Despite Mexico's growing middle class, Apple and America Movil risk letting the iPhone become just a status object for the super rich if the phone plan is out of reach of 95% of customers.