Last year when Steve Jobs announced Apple’s intention to
sell 10 million iPhones until the end of 2008, some analysts were doubtful that
the company would be able to reach this milestone.
Now as the iPhone is spreading around the world like a
wildfire, I guess that maybe the company should revised its initial target.
According to its latest financial results, since the last year’s
launch, Apple has sold 5,4 million iPhones. During this period, the iPhone has
been made available only in the United
State and three European countries: Germany, UK
and France.
However, in the last two weeks it seems like Apple has
started a real offensive with an unique goal: to sell iPhone everywhere.
This month, Apple went on from an exclusive deal with one
carrier, to deals with new carriers, covering markets across Europe, Asia and
even Australia.
Few days, Vodafone unveiled an agreement with Apple to sell iPhones in
Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New
Zealand, South Africa and Turkey.
Shortly after Apple closed several new agreements with
carriers around the world to bring the iPhone to markets across Asia, and all
the way to Australia.
The carriers include SingTel, Bharti Airtel, Globe and Optus, and the markets
to benefit from the deal were Singapore,
India, Philippines and Australia.
Today, Orange, which is the iPhone’s distributor in France, 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.
Meanwhile, Apple seems to be on
the verge of launching the widely-rumored and expected 3G iPhone.
Rumors have it that Apple prepares to unveil two versions of
the 3G iPhone, the 8GB and the 16GB models, and this June could be the perfect
time to release them, at least considering the developers conference that is
set to take place around that time. Of course, as always, Apple isn’t very
chatty about their plans, but now with new deals all over the world it could be
the perfect time for a new launch.
Earlier this week, the company unveiled that the iPhone is
no longer available on its online stores in U.K. and U.S., without giving any
insight on whether it plans to restock, which is another reason to believe that
they have something “in store” for us.
Still Apple should conquer two important markets: China and Japan. In the past six months,
there were several reports that Apple is negotiating deals with China Mobile
and NTT DoCoMo, but there are no official confirmations on the status of the
talks.
Unlike the iPod, Apple was more aggressive in promoting and
selling its iPhone. The company’s officials are aware that music and mobile businesses
are two different markets.
There is no smoke without a fire and maybe in June Jobs will
announce some new distribution deals for the iPhone.
While Apple is already a well-established brand in music, it
has to prove its ability to play at the same table with the telecom giants. And
reaching the 10 million target is the best way to prove it.
With all these new deals and with a 3G iPhone up in its
sleeve it is very possible that Apple will exceed even its own target. It
remains to be seen, but I guess that it quite safe to say that it will not miss
it.