Apple’s plans for global iPhone domination have been shifting up a gear or two over the past couple of weeks, with the trend-conscious tech giant revealing upcoming iPhone deals for Australia, Latin America and Italy. The expansion of that trend appears set to continue with the iPhone now making its way into the huge Asian market.
Can Apple replicate its US iPhone success in the Asian marketplace? Image: b_d_solis/Flickr.
Moreover, Singapore Telecommunications Limited has this week announced that several of its operating companies are preparing to carry the diminutive touch-screen iPhone across multiple countries throughout the Asian region.
Those companies, which include the likes of SingTel, Globe, and Bharti Airtel have agreed to bring Apple’s hugely popular and iconic smartphone to Singapore, India and the Philippines before the close of 2008.
Following its initial June 2007 launch in the United States, the iPhone has only officially expanded its reach into select European regions such as France, Germany and the United Kingdom. However, it has largely failed to replicate the same consumer popularity created in the US, which has led to significant iPhone price drops in Germany and the UK in order to drum up improved market interest.
The sudden wave of international iPhone announcements arrive just prior to Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, which will take place in San Francisco this coming June. It is expected that Apple CEO Steve Jobs will use the conference to unveil the new second-generation 3G iPhone to the world ahead of a more wide-ranging rollout.
The current iPhone runs on the substandard 2.5G EDGE network (still popular in the US), yet it is due to be replaced in the coming months. Another probable reason as to why European carriers are attempting to shift old stock and consumers are not readily jumping on the iPhone bandwagon is that 3G is the prominent network across Europe.
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