First Aussie iPhone vendor revealed

After months of frenzied speculation and rumour, Vodafone has revealed it will be the first to sell the iPhone in Australia.

Vodafone confirmed yesterday that it has reached an agreement with Apple to stock the iPhone, but provided little if any information on when the in-demand mobile device will hit the shelves, only saying it will be available “later this year”.

The Australian deal is part of a 10-country agreement between Vodafone and Apple that also covers the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey.

The question on everyone’s lips now is whether Vodafone will be the exclusive Australia supplier. Previously, Apple has had a policy of only selling through one mobile service provider in each nation, but the Vodafone announcement has cast doubt whether it will continue with that approach.

iTWire’s argument on this makes a lot of sense – if the iPhone were going to be sold by only one mobile provider in the country, surely Apple would have done a deal with one of the big two telcos, Optus and Telstra, which between them control 75% of the Australian handset market.