Vodafone Australia has announced that it will be selling the iPhone in Australia later this year.
Apple's 3G iPhone will hit Australia on 11 July, with Vodafone and Optus confirming they will offer the device. With Telstra also expected to join the party, what is the likelihood of a price war over data costs?
Optus will sell Apple's 8GB 3G iPhone for the outright price of AU$729 and AU$849 for the 16GB model, when purchased with Optus prepaid SIM cards.
A study released this week has predicted that around 1.3 million iPhones will be shipped by Apple to Australia over the next five years, as the appetite for converged devices continue to grow.
Despite the introduction of a range of enterprise-friendly features, don't expect the 3G iPhone to be welcomed with open arms in your office unless you're a SME.
One of the more curious aspects of the iPhone phenomenon has been the disconnect between the device's capabilities and carriers' willingness to support them.
Around one third of Australia's telcos have shut their doors over time, but that isn't stopping new ventures hoping to chip away at carriers' mobile call bonanza. By fighting carriers at the smartphone rather than the home phone, could the latest two contenders be onto something big?
Given that the new iPhone 3G S is rated at up to 7.2Mbps, you'd think Telstra would be all over it as a potential show pony for Next G's purported high-speed performance. Yet the opposite seems to be true.
So we have answers. The iPhone is coming to Oz, it's 3G, it's cheaper, and it's available via multiple carriers.
Although 3G phones have been around for years, it appears the iPhone 3G has successfully rewritten the rules of competition in Australia's mobile sector whetting the nation's appetite for data.
Word of tiny queues in the US and UK didn't stop Australia's iPhone faithful from braving the cold to queue for the iPhone 3GS.
Is it finally time to ditch Optus' buggy network and go back to the dark side? Is it time to take my iPhone to Telstra's Next G and hang my head in shame?
At midnight 11 July Optus became Australia's first mobile carrier to sell the iPhone 3G. We were on hand to witness the festivities and to finally play with Apple's much hyped handset.
2008 was a cracker year for telco in Australia, with so many huge events happening that those at the beginning of the year have been drowned by the importance of those at the end.
Singapore Telecommunications last week shed light on the difficult industry dynamics that lay ahead of VHA, the mobile phone business being formed from the merger of Vodafone Australia and Hutchison Telecommunications.
While parts of the iPhone 3G are superb, there are still some big features missing from this device. If you add up the extras the iPhone doesn't seem like a phone that everyone can afford.
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