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iPhone's reach expands further into Middle East, Africa

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

May 16, 2008, 11:27 AM

Cellular operator Orange announced Friday that it will sell the iPhone in most of the markets it serves sometime later of this year.

Two of the countries, Portugal and Egypt, will also see the iPhone available from another carrier, Vodafone. This continues Apple's apparent strategy of choosing broader deployment over exclusive deals.

Other countries listed in the announcement were Austria, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Jordan, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland, and African markets. In Belgium and Romania, Apple has granted Orange exclusive rights to the phone.

Two other companies have also announced deals in the past week. Swisscom will be selling the phone alongside Orange in Switzerland, and SingTel will offer the phone in Singapore, India, the Philippines and Australia.

It is fairly likely, considering the current stock of the device, that these markets will not see the phone until after the launch of the new 3G model, widely expected to happen in June.

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By tscar13

posted May 16, 2008 - 8:03 PM

I think that most of Africa has more serious problems than getting a Phone. I don't know but food, medicine, watches to know when to take their medicine, water and sewer treatment plants and governments that don't hack off your limbs if you disagree come to mind but who knows...Jobs is a marketing genius and maybe talked these dictators into taking the IPhone to lead them to the promise land..

Score: 0

By foxfyre

posted May 16, 2008 - 4:59 PM

Amazing.

Since when should anyone be surprised that the iPhone, or any other phone for that matter, should be offered in any compatible market?

Yet we get a neighborhood by neighborhood accounting of the iPhone's offering!

How about equal coverage for every other model phone? This has grown old.

Score: 0

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