I may be biased but calling Italy a secondary market for a mobile operator is off the mark!

Too true. A country where you have to swerve constantly to avoid people who are riding scooters while having a cigarette in one hand and a mobile phone in the other must be a primary market...

Mine's the one with the Vespa embedded in the radiator...

The common for all of these markets is that the local vodafone franchise in them did not try to make a political issue out of Edge vs 3G. They simply went out and deployed Edge so they have working 2.5G networks with sufficient capacity.

I don't know about Italy and the others but, from that pack, at least Portugal have nation wide 3G coverage.

So... for Vodafone, if you are a customer in one of this markets you are a SECOND LEVEL CUSTOMER, and if you are in one of the "good countries", you are a TOP LEVEL CUSTOMER, but not too good to deserve an IPhone.

I love this guys.

Vodafone-lover.

More than that, Portugal al least doesn't even have EDGE, so I would guess giving the timing of the agreement that at least some of those countries are only getting them now because of the 3G iPhone. Given Vodafone's investments in 3G tech, I think you might be reading this move wrong. Check whether those countries' providers have EDGE.

Well definitely Italy is 3G all over the place. Not sure about Vodafone but when I left Italy 3 years ago TIM had 3G coverage almost everywhere.

Regarding the cigarettes and other stereotypes mentioned by the AC above: I don't know where you are from but if you are from England you should avoid the subject of cigarettes when you think that less than a year ago people could still smoke in pubs here!

Australia may be far away but its hardly secondary. Australia's largest operators also have had 3G for years, and Hutchinson '3' had it in Oz for years before the big players too!

do the italians know how to use a mobile phone?

I thought the only thing they could do was make Ragu and cars from recycled washing machines

These anonymous cowards are really putting Bernard Manning to shame!

First cigarettes and now cars!

What a pity that the red cars made from recycled washing machines actually run faster than the high-tech turds from Woking.

AFAIR, all european countries including Easter European ones have one or more 3G networks. However, in many of these countries Vodafone does not have any 3G coverage. Thus for Vodafone, some countries are "secondary market" indeed. As to Italy - they invented espresso and continue to build best espresso machines in the world.

Well South Africa, for one, has a much much bigger 3G than Edge presence in Vodacom, its Vodafone affiliate. And personally I'm really not interested in picking up the first world's unwanted leftovers thanks. Will continue to wait for the 3G iPhone.

(Anon because I work in the industry :))

What I know for sure is that TIM will be selling the 3G iPhone in Italy in June.

Oh and ironically Italians should know how to use a mobile phone, since they invented the telephone *and* radio transmission :P

that makes more use of video calling that any other in the world, so that you can show the people you are talking to how chic and good looking you are while smoking and riding your Vespa.

So if TIM has said it will sell the iPhone in Italy - and T-Mobile claimed to have rights for Czech Republic, does this mean exclusive deals are dead?

Technically, radio transmission is americano-croatian: the theory was invented by Nickola Tesla . Marconi just built the box according to plans...

Get a life son.

Making jibes about ones European neighbours is all part of being "European".

If you think Bernard Manning was bad, ask your average German what he thinks of Italians, Poles about Germans, Dutch about Spaniards, French about English, etc. et bloody c. :-)

Paris, cos even she has a sense of humour.

Italians care about how they look, and if there is something that makes them look cooler, they'll have it. Italy is the reign of status symbols. There are more Porsche CayenneS in Forte dei Marmi than in Dubai

If the italians will accept the iPhone as a status symbol, Apple will reach the 10 millions iPhones target just with the Italians.

Paris, because she would be a perfect italian.

An Italian

Stuff the iPhone, this must be cleared up.

Italian cars are not made from recycled washing machines, and haven't been for years.

The standard these days is tin foil, with snot and pasta sauce to stick them together.

Hope that helps,

Steven "would rather have an NSX Type R than a Ferrari 360 F1, because it doesn't need a clutch pack change every three thousand miles" Raith.

If Vodafone had it their marketing wonks would have mentioned it in the PR, I suspect that when the current carrier deals run out they won't be replaced with exclusives either.

>I thought the only thing they could do was make Ragu

The most popular brand in the UK is actually made in Holland (though advertised with the usual folksy Italian accent etc.)

Having owned a Punto Im not commenting on cars ;)

I don't think the Voda network in Australia is EDGE. As far as I know, only Telstra has EDGE in Australia. But all the carriers have 3G, Telstra has HSDPA over 98% of the population, Optus in capital cities mostly and I'm not sure what Voda's HSDPA footprint is.

As far as secondary markets is concerned, we need to take a reality pill. A country with a population of 22M is certainly secondary compared to the USA and also compared to major European markets. And certainly compared to major Asian populations. It's an insult. Australia is one of the earliest adopters of new technology out there but that doesn't stop us being small in number which, from a business point of view, makes us a secondary market.

Relax :-)

While I agree with your assessment that Australia qualifies as a secondary market I'd bet that as far as 3G goes we do quite well on a world scale - possibly more 3G subscribers than the US due to their wildly varying technologies. We have over 100% market penetration (more than 1 active phone per person) of mobile phones and now the majority are 3G.

Oh and Voda have HSDPA in all the major cities and regional sites, I've been using it since xmas for my home net connection. (A$40 a month for 5 gigs download which is sadly not too bad by Oz standards).

... well I think it does anyway, according to my handset I have a 3G connection (or a 3.5G if in Sydney and Melbourne).

I wouldn't class Australia as a "secondary market", more of a technology-savvy market where new technologies can be trialled before making larger investments in countries that can't play cricket, for example.

I reckon we'll get the 3G iPhone first ...

:-)

An Ex-Pom-now-turned-'straylian

>The most popular brand in the UK is actually made in Holland (though advertised

> with the usual folksy Italian accent etc.)

Italians make their own ragu; it is a skill that 99% of them have.

Only the Brits and the Americans are able to eat canned, ketchup based ragu, wherever is made.

Forgotten much about 2004 and the ghost phone numbers in a country called Greece !

It would appear some choices are lethal to some !

Stephen, agree completely. In tech uptake we're right up there. Hey, about 1 in 1000 people have an iPhone here and it hasn't been released yet :-) And in mobile network technology we're way out there with lots of competition and some of the leading technology deployments in the world - building a mobile network to bring HSDPA & HSUPA to 99% of a population as sparsely populated as Australia is an incredible achievement that I don't think very many people comprehend.

Simon, I think we're both. We're extremely tech-savvy but as a market (ie a region into which you can SELL product), we must consider ourselves secondary. There just aren't enough of us to drive manufacturers & suppliers to change direction (or base their decisions on what we want) - except in very specific circumstances.

I don't think it's an insult or anything, just a recognition that we're not a huge population. But a tech-savvy one, for sure.