iPhones in Switzerland, Spain, Poland and beyond
News and rumors about the iPhone's global expansion keep rolling in.
Citing a source at Swisscom, Lausanne-based Le Matin Online reported on Thursday that Apple had concluded an agreement to bring the 3G iPhone to Switzerland this summer (link, in French). Swisscom, with 5.1 million subscribers, is the country's largest mobile carrier.
Meanwhile, France Telecom CFO Gervais Pellissier said on Wednesday that his company was in talks with Apple (AAPL) to extend their partnership beyond France and into "more than just two countries." He was responding to a journalist's question about whether the company was hoping to secure rights to sell the iPhone in Spain and Poland, the largest countries in Europe still without an iPhone carrier. (link)
Also on Wednesday, America Movil (AMX) confirmed that it had signed a deal to bring the iPhone to 16 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. America Movil, based in Mexico City and controlled by billionaire Carlos Slim, has 159.2 million subscribers. (see here)
Earlier this week, Vodafone (VOD) announced that it had signed an agreement to carry the iPhone in 10 countries, Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey. The same day, Telecom Italia announced that it had also secured the rights to sell the phone in Italy, leading to speculation that Apple had abandoned its original iPhone business model and was no longer demanding revenue sharing in return for exclusivity. (see here)
But France Telecom's Pellissier said that his company was sticking to the terms of its original agreement, which gives it the exclusive right to sell the iPhone in France for another two and a half years. France Telecom is resisting pressure to lower the price of the original iPhone — as O2 and T-Mobile did in the U.K. and Germany, respectively — at least until the 3G iPhone arrives. "We’ll see with the next model,” said Pellissier, according to Macworld, adding that the arrival of a new iPhone “will boost sales.” Pellissier declined to give exact sales figures, but said his company had sold more than 100,000 since November, 2007.
According to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, exclusivity agreements may soon be the exception, not the rule. He notes that the Vodafone announcement, unlike press releases issued by the first wave of carriers, "did not reference any exclusive terms." He expects Apple will start to feel the impact of the loss of revenue sharing from these nonexclusive deals in 2009, but still views them as a net positive for the company.
"While we expected an international rollout in CY08 (with the exception of China), this announcement is both sooner and more expansive that we were expecting. … The iPhone's international rollout is about 6 months ahead of our original expectations."
On Tuesday, April 29, Rogers Wireless, Canada's largest cellular carrier, announced that it too had signed a deal to carry the iPhone "later this year." (link)
Meanwhile, stocks of first-generation iPhones are running low. Spot shortages continue in the U.S., and Engadget reports that O2 on Thursday posted a notice on its website that iPhones — both the 8G and 16G models — are no longer available in its stores. The 8G model was on sale in the U.K., but the 16G model sold at full price until the shelves ran dry.
[Thanks to reader David C. in Switzerland for the tip.]
It suddenly hit me. The 3G will arrive on June 27! Bet you anything.
iPhone came out last June 29, so did Pixar's Rattatatoui.
Guess what? Wall-E arrives June 27!'
Duh!
Larry Fritzlan
Mill Valley
Iphone with Movistar (Telefonica), was confirmed:
http://e-global.es/b2b-blog/2008/05/08/iphone-con-movistar-confirmado/
"Everyone who wants an iphone has one?" bwahahahaha.
So when Apple sells 20 million iphones next year, will you go home quietly and realize the WIN & MS are dead?
Yes, WIN & MS have a place when you are buying a subsidized phone at $29 or $59 but just Vista on a $399 PC, no one wants MS at any higher price point, it's the "free OS" and nothing more.
Meanwhile, people will purposely fly to America just to buy an iPhone at FULL PRICE . Apple makes money whether you unlock it or not – the rest is a BONUS because …
How many other phone manufacturers get any add'l revenue?
hat's that? ZERO?
Just think how loud a laugh you will hear is MS walks up to Vodafone and asks for a cut of the revenue – MS & WIn – the laughing stock of technology.
This is ridiculous. So what if Apple is making deals to sell Iphones in countries that I and many others have been ebay selling unlocked iphones to for years. Just about who wants an Iphone has one. And I said before elsewhere two better smartphones are coming soon, with more to come, all running windows mobiele 6.1. We don't get? No! You itards don't get it. It's the software stupid. Why would I want a lockdown proprietary mediocre smartphone when I can choose better cheaper smartphones for less that i can use with my existing wireless account. People the Apple revolution is all in your heads.
"The pieces are falling into place"?
You reckon? It has taken this mega firm over a year to NOT sell me a freaking phone. I really wanted one, but couldn't have it. Now I am supposed to be happy because it is 3G?
No way. Apple lost me on the iPhone. Too many lawyers, too many exclusive deals. Too many decisions that have nothing to do with selling me the kit I want NOW, and everything to do with what some Ivy league loser in suit thinks is the clever way forward.
I am sticking with my macbook and 7 dollar nokia until unlimited broadband is available for a cheap price, everywhere. There is no way I am playing these games to subsidise telco shareholders and the clever dicks at Apple who think they are more than just a company who sells stuff to folks who want it.
The restriction of broadband is a form of tax farming for telco's. That is, the government allow them to price it like hell because they are collecting massive license fees. So that is tax farming to an elite class, but regardless it has nothing to do with Apple.
Or, it didn't. Not when apple made stuff, instead of clever deals.
Apple should force the issue of publicly available wi fi as an educational issue, or at least stay away from involvement in a crooked game that is bad for the people.
And make no mistake, it is certainly bad to possess the technology that would allow everyone free communication, everywhere, and to restrict that communication so that profit and tax can be collected by a few.
It is called tax farming for a reason. Here we have the technology for freedom of expression, and we end up paying top dollar for everything we say to each other. That is being farmed. Jobs should stay out of that racket, if he is truthful about his ethical business credentials.
Apple x2 is the end result of all this!
Just this week Apple has added 1 billion new subscribers in marketplace terms (countries) and 350 million in client terms (subscribers of iPhone carriers).
And that is only the firm deals, not the rumors.
And that is not counting with the logical deals such as Telefonica getting the iPhone to Spain and to Vivo in Brazil ( Latin America. That's another 300 million subscribers.
Even in my country there's a very high probability all 3 operators will get the iPhone and I will not be surprised to see it sold through the Apple online store unlocked for a premium.
What Apple is silently doing is giving the people what they want – and they seem to want it more than they want bread! IMHO they're going for a double iPhone strategy where they sell it unlocked through Apple reseller chain and locked subsidised through the carriers.
There will be so much hype going around because of the iPhone that it will start making Apple a global brand name – it is just US right now – and start bringing in more Mac sales.
What people and analysts haven't figured out yet is that in a household there are plenty more phones than there are computers. And these are handheld computers. So IMHO, the potential for the iTouch line of handheld computers/phones is immense.
And I predict here and now that the iTouch business will soon grow to be as big as the Mac business making Apple x2 a reality in the short term
Notwithstanding, in a few years time it will easily turn it into Apple x3 because there's the potential for the iTouch to be at least twice as big as the Mac business.
Speculation, rumors, guessing, predicting. Reality in creation?!
I think it would be wrong to say Apple doesn't get revenue sharing if the deal is a non-exclusive one. Maybe it doesn't get as much revenue sharing, but I'm sure it still gets a cut in the revenue like Blackberry does even though it sells its phones to competing carriers.
I would get some confirmation of non-revenue sharing before posting it as fact.
In any case, Apple is counting on volume to make up tthe difference, and all those sales in new places can't hurt mac sales, especially in countries with little mac penetration thus far.
Is Gene the only analyst who gets it? Maybe the only one who has ever bothered to leave his expansive cubicle and actually visit an AAPL store to personally witness the revolution. The iPhone impact this summer is being grossly underestimated – I said when AAPL was in the 120s that it would hit 250 by September. Almost 1/2 way there. It won't be straight up, but it's going there. Enjoy the ride. And be a good friend…take someone you love to an AAPL store, so they can spend their money!
the pieces are falling into place…. Apple's going to grow to epic proportions, the halo effect will spread all over the world as it did here
So what is with the celestial co-incidence of a pixar film release date and the new iPhone? Why is it so?
Surely apple is not simply saving fees on airtime by buying bulk?
My best guess would be that some creepy suit at Apple figured out that there is a statistically higher percentage of movie fans, who like animation, who will be likely to buy an apple gadget. It is probably worth an extra few million in sales to sync them together.
Or a professional publicist knows that when lots of news is concentrated together, it goes further in the editorial sections of the press.
Whatever, isn't the free market grand? You get to choose what the crazy boffins calculate that you are most likely to choose, had you had a choice. And if you don't like that logic, consider I still can't buy a freaking iPhone in Switzerland. After fifteen years or something. Free market yeah.