Appletell

Vodafone, one of two carriers of the new iPhone in Australia, has gotten an average of 40,000 pages views per day on their pre-registration site for the iPhone 3G. Through the site, people can pay for an iPhone and then pick it up at the time of release. Optus, the other Australian iPhone carrier, also has a pre-purchase site. Their site, in fact, has seen so many visitors, that they have closed the site and are no longer offering a pre-order option. “Due to an overwhelming response, we have removed the deposit-taking mechanism from the http://www.optusiphone.com.au website,” an Optus spokeswoman said.

These overwhelming responses to the 3G iPhone are good signs for Apple’s goal of 10,000,000 units sold by the end of the year. And, for what its worth, Australia will be one of the first countries to receive the iPhone. 

Via [Australian IT]

Watch out for those unsubsidized 3G iPhones in Italy! If you want to buy an iPhone in Italy without a plan from Vodafone, you’re going to be paying some heavy premiums. Those premiums are coming in to the tune of €499 and €569 ($773 and $881) for the 8 GB and 16 GB versions respectively. No info on calling rates from Vodafone is available as of yet. According to an Engadget report, those prices may seem high to us, but that is around what the average smart phone will set you back in Europe. So much for affordability! Sorry, guys.

Via [Engadget]

The iPhone is finally rapidly expanding into more worldwide markets. Vodafone has just made an announcement stating that it has signed a contract with Apple, and will start selling iPhones in 10 new countries: Australia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey. No specific date has been given, but expect the phone to be out later this year.

The fact that Apple has chosen Vodafone for all 10 of these countries speeds up the process of deploying the iPhone. It means Apple doesn’t have to deal with 10 different carriers for each country, as they have previously. Apple chose AT&T in the US, O2 in the UK, Orange in France and T-Mobile in Germany. It’s good to see Apple meeting their goals with bringing the iPhone to the rest of the world, especially where it has huge demand. This should also prevent iPhones being exported from the US, and being hacked to work on local networks.

Via [Engadget]

According to an ArsTechnica report, Apple COO Tim Cook’s promise earlier this year that the iPhone is headed to India “some day” seems to be coming true.  As this is still a rumor (this information was leaked from Apple and Vodafone inside sources), there is very little information about the release, other then that it will cost 27,200 rupees ($685) and 28,000 rupees ($710) for the eight and sixteen gigabyte versions, respectively.  Vodafone and Apple would probably be pretty happy if these were the prices, as they are both fairly large markups from the price paid in the US.  No other information about quantities, terms of the deal, targets, etc. has been released, but the official release date is rumored to be sometime in September.  An announcement by either Apple or Vodafone has not been made, but one is expected soon to talk about the veracity of these claims.  Also included in the rumored deal is rights to the iPhone in Australia. 

Via [Infinite Loop]