iPhone Australia countdown

Vodafone

The Vodafone store near North Sydney station told me today that all they know is that iPhones will be available on July 11 and that there will be new data plans announced soon.

I pre-registered and just received the following email:

"Here at Vodafone, we’re eagerly counting down the days until the launch of the new iPhone 3G - and we bet you are too! We are keen to make sure that we can give you the very best deals on your new iPhone 3G and we are putting the finishing touches to these offers.

So, what next?

Since you have taken the time to pre-register, you are now at the front of the line. We will be rolling out these exciting offers very soon, so make sure to keep an eye on your inbox to stay ahead of the game.

Stocks will be limited so you will need to be quick.

Regards

The Vodafone Direct Deals Team"

Well, I'm standing by...

Optus

Optus was taking $50 deposits for existing customers and $100 deposits for customers proposing to "churn" from another carrier. Shouldn't that be the other way around?

They have now ceased taking deposits, presumably if you've paid a deposit you'd expect to get your hands on the device on July 11. I guess they don't have enough stock coming in to meet that expectation.

They've now sent out the following email to people who've registered:

"Thanks for your interest in the iPhone 3G with Optus.

Apple has released details of the new iPhone, and it's exciting! With fast 3G wireless technology, maps with GPS and the new App store, you have even more features at your fingertips.

Check out the full features and tech specs today.

We'll be back in touch in the coming weeks to give you more information on Optus' great coverage, great content, great service - and most importantly, the Optus iPhone plans. All reasons why your iPhone 3G will be happy with Optus.

Stay tuned!"

Telstra

They've come to the party, although they'll pay the penalty for being late. When the iPhone launched in the US it's estimated that sales in the first weekend were at least 700,000 units, with 200,000 on the first night. Now, Australia has a much smaller population but we are known as "early adopters" so it's likely that there will be a big pent-up demand.

If the opening of the Sydney Apple store is anything to go by, I can see overnight queueing for iPhones on July 10/11.

Telstra will miss out on this surge and further are likely to suffer the loss of customers who churn over to Optus or Vodafone just to get an iPhone without delay.

Let's not forget that Telstra's operations chief Greg Winn famously predicted that the iPhone would meet stiff competition from the incumbent mobile phone makers and he advised Apple to "stick to it's knitting".

More than a year has passed and while we are starting to see phones with large screens, I don't think anything so far has come close.

Perhaps Mr Winn should stick to his knitting and get Telstra operations working competitively? (Go to a Telstra shop around lunch time and try to get anything done...)

Update

It's December 2012 and Vodafone's Search Engine Optimisation Manager contacted me asking me to fix a link to their iPhone page. Of course this article is now very old so I've removed the link. Thanks for your interest.