“Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. is launching iPhone in September, but the telco has declined to confirm or deny that it has struck a deal with iPhone maker Apple Inc, local broadcaster Channel News Asia reported, citing industry sources,” Jonathan Burgos reports for Thomson Financial.
“‘The news, if true, is positive for SingTel. Given iPhone’s (appeal to consumers), we believe iPhone would lead to higher market share for SingTel. However, the impact on SingTel’s bottom line should not be very significant given Apple’s hard bargaining tendency and tough competition from StarHub,’ said DBS Vickers in a note to clients,” Burgos reports.
“Even though iPhone is not yet available in Singapore, DBS said Singaporeans have bought an estimated 10,000 units since the mobile phone was launched in the US in June last year, with some paying as much as 1,000 Singapore dollars for a unit,” Burgos reports. “If the news is true, SingTel would likely be the first telco to officially launch iPhone in Asia.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Markkus” for the heads up.]
Lah! And you can bet it’ll be 3G by then, too.
international rollout of the iphone is sooooooooo slow, no carrier wants to share the revenue and apple is not selling millions of iphones along the way. so stupid to insist on that greed.
@ralph from berlin
Who’s greed are you lamenting about? Apple’s or the phone companies? And could please be so kind as to explain why you think that they are greedy?
Yes, the iPhone international rollout is slow, but Apple is also having to deal with a multitude of licensing and registration issues. Plus, this is not the same distribution model that other mobile phone companies are using, so Apple has to convince the telecomm companies to follow its model. That requires time and negotiations, very likely with multiple potential partners.
@ralph
If it is Apple’s greed your are talking about (which is the way I read it), I would suggest that is less greed than creating a viable R&D;budget for the iPhone. Let’s face it, the old model of telcos keeping all user revenue while demanding cheaper and cheaper phones has contributed to a stagnation in development. iPhone broke that mold and Apple can continue fund continued improvements in a better fashion of the telcos share. It also allows them to have exclusivity which differentiates their (carriers) brand. Everyone wins, including he consumer.
I read somewhere that it is more regulatory issues than revenue sharing that is the main culprit for the slow rollout. Don’t know if that is true.
its a lot of things that make the process slow for roll-out, remember its the 1st to offer the manufacturers music download service and not the carriers, etc, they are still re-writing the rules
Well O2 seem to be doing very nicely thank you out of this ‘greedy’ deal. This is the start of real mobile computing and media devices the old stale telco model is totally unsuitable for this revolution which is why they are all struggling to improve profits even on dull dumb phones let alone anything much, much better which is inevitably more expensive to develop.
Majulah Singapura.
It’s a paradigm shift and so it takes a while to introduce the iPhone to the ROW.
Think future, not just now.
And when it’s ready, there’s a cleaning cloth included with the iPhone for the unwashed masses.
If this is true, then that means Optus in Australia is in a good position to get the down-under iPhone exclusive.
Optus is a subsidiary of SingTel.
Hello ?! Japan ? What about Japan ?!!! I WANT MY iPHONE !
Ah, that means that Thailand’s AIS is getting closer to getting it since they’re part of SingTel nowadays…might still reach us before end 2008..
@ Ampar
“Majulah Singapura”
Nice one!
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@ MDN Take
“Lah! And you can bet it’ll be 3G by then, too.”
Another nice one! Welcome to the land of the “Lahs”!
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For anyone interested, a little bit more detail here.
Hopefully, the fact that SingTel owns (or at least is a major shareholder) of several telcos in other countries will help tip the scales in their favour in those countries too.
I personally don’t care too much if its 3G or not. But i guess it could be a “bonus”. Especially since the wife just bought a 3G Samsung phone yesterday. In any case, I’ll just be super glad to finally replace my Treo 650 with something good. None of the currently available phones appeal to me so far – a side effect wanting the iPhone since it was announced!
Come on SingTel, on the double!
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DOES ANYONE KNOW THE ESTIMATES AS TO WHEN IPHONE IS COMING TO MALAYSIA? GOSH THOSE PIRATES ARE SELLING HERE FOR RM2200/ 1000 SG Dollar…
Julian:
Read the first line of the article at the top of this page.
And stop shouting, please.
@ Julian
NOBODY KNOWS FOR SURE. EVEN THIS SINGAPORE NEWS IS JUST RUMOUR SO FAR.
Sorry for shouting…did you get that?
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@sparks
Why is it when Apple Inc was making no money it was called “Beleaguered” but if they make money they are called “greedy” What a “country”
woohoo!! finally its coming… taking apple forever to do so…