Meanwhile, Apple’s set to work with Korea Telecom and NTT DoCoMo to launch the device in Japan, South Korea, India, Indonesia and China; and Apple’s existing iPhone partners in the UK, France and Germany seem set to keep their exclusive status, even while the company makes deals with multiple carriers in other territories.
June 9 launch Straight to the big deal, though, with Gizmodo this morning citing the usual shadowy “sources” to definitively claim the next generation 3G iPhone will be announced during the WWDC keynote – and will be available worldwide directly after launch, staggered across June/July (we suspect). “In Spain, for example, the 3G iPhone will be available for sale at the June 18 grand opening of Telefonica’s megastore in Madrid,” the report explains. Even better, “the 3G iPhone will no longer be available at a fixed price point—at least in some countries,” the Gizmodo gasps. Apple and Asia CNN Money reveals the Telecoms Korea news service claimed late last week that Apple plans a special joint release of the next-generation device with two carriers whose names are synonymous with 3G: Japan’s NTT DoCoMo and Korea Telecom Freetel. That covers Japan and Korea, with the latter firm also offering mobile phone services in China, though not necessarily the iPhone. T-Mobile keeps Germany Finally, T-Mobile Chief Executive Hamid Akhavan said today that the carrier will stay the only one in Germany to offer the next-generation 3G iPhone according to Reuters. “If and when there is a 3G iPhone we expect to have it exclusively in Germany as well,” he said.
