France Telecom to carry Apple’s iPhone to Africa and beyond
Napoleon would be proud.
France Telecom’s wireless subsidiary Orange laid out expansion plans on Friday that will extend its iPhone market beyond France’s borders and into Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Caribbean. The news came a one-sentence press release:
“Orange today announced a new agreement with Apple to bring the iPhone to Orange customers in Austria, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Jordan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland and Orange’s African markets later this year.” (link)
Orange’s African markets include — in addition to Egypt — the Ivory Coast, Jordan, Cameroon, Botswana, Madagascar, Mali, Senegal, Mauritius, and Réunion.
In the Caribbean, Orange services — in addition to the Dominican Republic — Martinique, French Guiana, Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, but those islands were not mentioned in the release.
Also missing from the announcement was any word about Spain, the largest European country still without an iPhone carrier.
Some or all of these deals are nonexclusive. Swisscom has already announced plans to offer the iPhone in Switzerland, Vodafone will carrying it in Portugal and Egypt and America Movil has already called the Dominican Republic.
[UPDATE: According to AppleInsider, a spokesperson for France Telecom says that the carrier will be the exclusive iPhone provider in Belgium and Romania, with co-exclusive or non-exclusive deals in other countries.]
All told, France Telecom (FTE) has more than 172 million customers in five continents, two thirds of whom are Orange customers.
The real empire builder in all this, of course, is Apple’s (AAPL) Steve Jobs, who has timed each news release over the past few weeks so that his cards are laid on the table one deal at a time. It’s all part of the build-up to his June 9 keynote and the expected unveiling of a second-generation, 3G iPhone.
Signing these agreements gets market penetration for Apple, but not guaranteed sales. Many of the markets that they are entering have had 3g phones for sometime. The question is whether they can get customers to switch from the 3g phone they already have. The reason you haven’t seen Apple’s stock take off (as many have questioned), is because of this. They will hit their sales goals because of the breadth of the market they now have.
And yes RIMM has announced the “Thunder” which appears to be going head to head against Iphone in the “touchscreen” segment of the market. Should be very interesting. If executed properly by the engineers this could put a dent in Iphones corporate push.
So, how many Newly listed countries will be selling the new iPhone?
Dude, there no continent called “Middle East”, the Middle East is just a political region that includes countries in Asia and Northeast Africa. You were supposed to be educated, I guess?
ex ped: Did someone here call it a continent?
Jordan is not in Africa, it is part of the Asain continent.
ex ped: I’d call Jordan part of the Middle East.
RIMM IS HYPED RIMM at 62+ P/E and $400.00 split-adjusted stockprice goes up on, what, the rumor of an iPhone model wannabe sometime in the future?
Aplle stock earns every single cent, without the hype that pumps RIMM.
That stock is gonna tank hard!
Go Apple.
funny how news like this one or the others similar in the past few days would have moved Apple up 5% or more and now the market is just not responding .. i predict a jump next week , Apple is going to brake $200 by June
- Apple shares could be in for a rough ride
- Reports: Apple is No. 3 PC maker in U.S., No. 6 worldwide
- iPhone profits: Apple cleared estimated $330 million in three days
- iPhone 3G: Sold out in 21 states (updated)
- Apple: 1 million iPhone 3Gs sold
- Piper Jaffray analyzes first weekend iPhone sales
- Bottom line: iPhone sales projections roll in [update]
- “iPocalypse” now: The perils of event marketing
- Video: Applauded — and roughed up — in the iPhone 3G line
- Live! From the Fifth Ave. iPhone line
- One reason Apple Stock will disappoin... More
- inept propaganda... More
- When it gets down to it, a stock that... More
- Apple is the ultimate pace setter for... More
- After reading this article i sure am... More
- I am not against or for Apple product... More
- Thank you for this great article. In... More
- Vermont? I thought we sold Vermont t... More
- I often think of an old adage when th... More
- At its most superficial level, the Bl... More
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.
How did we get to geography question, I do not know.
My opinion, consumers will shift from mobile hardware to applications on mobile hardware. Looks like Apple doing all the right things, i.e. putting well integrated platform.
At the end it will be the fight between platforms and not hardware. How many platforms for mobile devices we have now - I can count over 5.