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Ah…the iPhone…you want it? You’ll
probably get it soon, as Apple closed several new agreements with carriers
around the world to bring the iPhone to markets across Asia, and all the way to
Australia. The new carriers include SingTel, Bharti Airtel, Globe and Optus,
and the markets to benefit from the deal are Singapore, India, Philippines and
Australia, SingTel unveiled in a statement today.
It’s been almost a year since
Apple introduced the mighty multimedia “does-it-all” phone in the United States
(unfortunately for the rest of the world, they had to wait longer to get their
hands on an iPhone, or just unlock one if they didn’t want to wait). The iPhone
became available in the United Kingdom, Germany and France as of November 2007,
and reached Ireland and Austria as of March 2008.
This year, Apple went on from an
exclusive deal with one carrier, to deals with new carriers, covering markets
across Europe, Asia and even Australia. Just last week, Vodafone unveiled an
agreement with Apple to sell iPhones in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt,
Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey. Similar
to the Vodafone deal, the financial terms of the agreement remain unknown, as
well as the specific dates when the iPhone will become available on the above
markets.
Apple has been highly criticized
for its strategy to slowly introduce the iPhone on other markets around the
world, especially considering the high demand at the time (the iPhone was
considered to be “the best invention” of 2007), and everyone expected the
iPhone to be introduced on a global scale before its “magic” wears off. Better late
than never…
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