macnn
05/06/2008, 10:10am, EDT
Tuesday, May 6th
NY Times: 3G iPhone in Europe before August
The 3G broadband version of the iPhone should be on sale in at least some European countries before August, according to the New York Times. The newspaper cites an unidentified source "close to the situation," who says that the timing is connected to plans by Vodafone and Telecom Italia to release the phone across the continent. Specifically, Apple is said to want the 3G version on sale in new countries before the peak of the European vacation season, a time when many people might like to make use of functions such as the phone's mobile web browser.
An Apple spokesman in London, Alan Hely, has meanwhile confirmed the Vodafone and TIM deals, but declined to talk about timing, pricing, or the features of new products. Hely has likewise refused to say whether any of Vodafone's deals outside Italy could be exclusive. It is widely believed by analysts that Apple will shed its exclusivity model with the 3G iPhone, and instead turn to subsidized pricing with the possibility of more expensive unlocked devices.
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Needs to be soon
If anything this should appear sooner rather than later in the UK, considering that Carphonewarehouse is totally sold out of both 8GB and 16GB models and (from what one of their reps told me) they won't be getting anymore in now. They're waiting for the 3G model. O2 have flushed the 8GB models from their inventory, and only hold stocks of the expensive £329 16GB model. I can't see many people spending that kind of money at this time with a 3G model round the corner.
If Apple leave it too long, they'll punch a huge hole in their iPhone sales figures for this quarter and jeopardize their 10m sales target for 2008.
Re: needs to be soon
If carphonewarehouse doesn't want to buy any current models and sell them, that's their problem, not Apples. Apple shouldn't be basing their release strategies on what some store has decided to do.