iPhone set to launch in up to 29 more countries — Update
There are 29 colorful little buttons displayed on Apple's "Coming Soon" page — its official list of countries where the iPhone 3G is scheduled to launch before the end of the year — and carriers in some of those countries have let it be known that their launch day is Friday, Sept. 26.
Whether the phone will come to the entire list — which runs the alphabetical gamut from Botswana to Venezuela — remains to be seen. It's definitely coming Friday to Latvia and Lithuania, according to a press release issued Thursday by TeliaSoneria, the largest carrier in the region. Turkcell, Turkey's largest carrier, announced Thursday that it was launching the iPhone there on Friday. And on Tuesday AppleInsider reported that local readers had confirmed that the device will be launched Friday in Brazil and South Africa. (Vodacom would only say that it expects to bring the iPhone to South Africa before the end of September.)
No news yet out of the biggest market on that list — Russia, with 127 million mobile subscriptions as of 2007 — and still no deals in China or South Korea.
[UPDATE: Russia's three major carriers will begin selling iPhones through at least two electronics chains starting at midnight Wednesday Oct. 3 for $923.60 (8 GB) and $1,084 (16 GB), without a contract, according to several reports (see, for example, here and here). Meanwhile, Voxmobile announced Friday that "Le iPhone 3G est arrivé a Luxembourg!" -- which is odd given that Luxembourg is not a country that appears on Apple's "Coming Soon" list.]
Apple has promised to bring the iPhone 3G to more than 70 markets before the end of the year. It launched the device in 22 countries (or in the cast of France, shortly after) July 11. It followed up with launches in 22 more countries on August 22, bringing the total to 44.
Its official list of "Now Available" countries, shown below, has 47 buttons, but that's because Apple (AAPL) counts Belgium, Canada and Switzerland twice each.
If you get wind of a launch date in a country near you, drop us a line.
The iPhone is also coming to Luxembourg, today on Friday, 26th September (6pm local time).
The carrier is VOX Mobile. (www.vox.lu)
The iPhone 3G is finally launched in South Africa!It's available on Prepaid for R6389 ($788)for the 8GB and R7569 ($934).There are also contract options starting at $55/month, with a once-off cash pay-in starting at $222 for 8GB and $357 for 16Gb,depending on the contract.
This Friday in Brazil:
US$670 for the 8Gb phone, with a monthly fee of US$80 for a 200Mb data plan.
(Sorry, I'll let it pass. It's supposed to be the ONLY iPhone release day in the whole world without queues, haha.)
Brasil to be carried by Vivo and Claro… at astronomical rates:
http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/informatica/ult124u448784.shtml
The phone is definitely coming out in South Africa on the 26th.
At 9pm CAT today (1hr 30min away), Vodacom is starting its pre-launch party at Vodaworld that will see the launch of the iPhone 3g at Midnight today.
From an anthropological point of view, that chart of flags is essentially the "A list" of countries.
If you look at that list and you live somewhere that isn't on it, chances are you are working with hand tools and chewing dried pig fat in the winter to keep warm.
Obviously that is a broad generalization, and it is totally not meant to offend the masses of good folks who, through no fault of their own, and with no reflection upon their personal character, happen to live in suck nations.
So the ruski's are finally going to get a bite of the golden Apple. And note that Georgia is NOT.
If Putin or Medvedev want to stir some political trouble in the western computing world (and I understand it must be very high on their list of things to do), they would pose for press photos with their new, legitimate, Georgia-doesn't-have-them, iPhones.
Joking aside, Apple is basically with Obama on one basic issue: They are something American that the rest of the world really likes.
And Jack Daniels. Can't be forgetting Jack.