Apple rings up four new iPhone deals in Asia

The week opens with fresh reports of iPhone agreements with overseas carriers, as Apple (AAPL) continues its push to roll the Web-browsing cellphone out beyond the United States and Europe.

The Wall St. Journal, BBC and other sources reported on Monday that Apple and SingTel have signed deals to bring the iPhone to four countries in the Asia-Pacific region. SingTel, with 124 million mobile subscribers, is said to be the largest Asian provider outside the People’s Republic of China. The deals involve SingTel and three of its subsidiaries:

SingTel will bring the iPhone to its 2.3 million subscribers in Singapore
Bharti Airtel will offer it to its 64 million customers in India
Globe Telecom will offer it to 21 million subscribers in the Philippines
Optus will offer it to its 7 million customers in Australia.

Australia and India were among the countries that Vodaphone (VOD) said last week that it was covering (see here) — further evidence that Apple is signing contracts that don’t offer exclusivity.

Below: an update of CdnPhoto’s map of the iPhone world, redrawn to include the latest developments.

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Is it too late though? You canget unlocked, imported versions of the iPhone throughout Australia and EasyMobiles (www.easymobiles.com.au) are already offering the iPhone with plans and probably cheaper than Optus will…

Posted By AE, Brisbane, Australia : May 14, 2008 4:05 am

Deals in Asia are very important for Apple in order to have over 10mil iPhone units to be sold in 2008.

http://www.ismashphone.com

Posted By iSmashPhone, Philadelphia PA : May 13, 2008 12:16 pm

What would be a better question is: Why the closest Country to US – the largest Trading country to US and one of the Very few Friends that you have left in the whole wide world, CANADA, still doesn’t have the iPhone – but it is even available in Gobi desert!

Posted By PooPsTech : May 12, 2008 4:30 pm

It would be interesting to see a map of all the countries of the world where the iPhone really exists, as opposed to where it ,officially exists!

Posted By Qozmiq, Munich Germany. : May 12, 2008 3:09 pm

Joe, PED…

A quick check reveals that Singapore Telecom partially owns all of the other Asian carriers listed in this article–Optus, Bharti and Globe. Is it possible that SingTel’s total numbers also include the numbers of these subsidiaries?

Posted By Orac, Seattle, WA : May 12, 2008 11:14 am

Steve is taking over the world…

Posted By victor, miami FL : May 12, 2008 10:27 am

India’s borders are marked wrongly, Jammu and Kashmir is still in india and it is completely out of map ( shown in pakistan) even Arunachal Pradesh is show n in china, is there anybody from indian govt. taking note of this changing borders??

ex ped: Thanks. I’ve alerted the map maker and will post his revision as soon as it’s available.

Posted By Rohan , Austin,TX : May 12, 2008 10:23 am

Joe, Read the Article

Posted By kclendaniel : May 12, 2008 10:14 am

Man! watch out the borders!! Eg: India’s border is marked in correctly.

Posted By KV, New York, NY : May 12, 2008 9:56 am

Still missing China.

Posted By Jim, Rotterdam, Holland : May 12, 2008 9:55 am

Singtel with 124 Million Subscribers ? How does the math work for a country with population less than 5 million people.

ex ped: SingTel’s operations extend beyond just Singapore. According to WikiPedia, it’s the largest mobile operator in Asia Pacific outside of China.

Posted By Joe Marie Gomez, Singapore : May 12, 2008 9:48 am

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Silicon Valley veterans like to joke that Steve Jobs must be surrounded by a reality distortion field; if you get too close to him, you start to believe what he's saying. Thanks to the success of the iPod, the launch of the iPhone and the renewed interest in the Mac, Apple has made believers out of millions of customers - and made a lot of investors rich. But Philip Elmer-DeWitt believes that an ounce of skepticism never hurts when writing about the company. He should know. He's been covering Apple - and watching Steve Jobs operate - since 1982, first for Time Magazine, then for Business 2.0, and now for Fortune.