A UMTS iPhone might come to Italy soon. At least according to the Monday edition of the Italian newspaper “La Repubblica”.
No concrete release date was given by the newspaper’s sources inside Telecom Italia Mobile, just that it’s coming in the next several weeks and that it will be a UMTS version.
And in a sign that Apple’s sales strategy is changing rapidly, Telecom Italia Mobile is no longer bound by a multi-year exclusive deal with an ongoing revenue share for voice and data usage. Apple will just get a cut from the initial (slightly higher) sales price. In return Telecom Italia Mobile gets a six month head start in Italy but then the iPhone will be sold through other providers.
Looks like Apple is adjusting after the somewhat disappointing sales of the iPhone in the UK, France and Germany and trying to find other sales strategies to still reach the goal of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008.
I think apple should simply sell the iPhone directly to customers, most non-US and non-CDMA countries are buying unlocked phones. That’s how it is here, almost no SIM locked phone us being sold here.
and the iPhone is selling here like hotcakes, and apple’s dustributor can’t do anything about it.