TAIPEI: At the end of an alley in the most violent city in Taiwan, a black Mercedes-Benz sedan blocks a sliding-glass door that opens only from within. Inside, technophiles can buy iPhone knockoffs for two-thirds the legitimate price.

With a touch-screen and Apple’s logo on the back, the “iClones” look just like the real thing, but Apple does not plan to offer iPhones, which combine a phone, music and video player with wireless Internet, in Asia until 2008.

read it here iht

Rogers Communications Inc., operator of the only wireless network in Canada that uses the same technology as Apple Inc.’s iPhone, said consumers may have a while to wait before the handset goes on sale there.

While Rogers would ``love’’ to sell the device, Apple hasn’t set a release date in Canada, Rogers Chief Operating Officer Nadir Mohamed said at a conference in Toronto today.

read it here bloomberg

For many technology geeks it’s a given that Australia sits at the end of the rollout queue. But it hasn’t stopped many from getting their hands on Apple’s iPhone.
Since it was launched six weeks ago, several iPhones have made their way to our shores, and Australians are paying a high price to get their hands on one.

read it here thewest.com.au

Past a guarded gate on the outskirts of this city sits one of the world’s largest factories. In dozens of squat buildings, it churns out gadgets bearing technology’s household names—Apple Inc.’s iPods and iPhones, Hewlett-Packard Co.’s personal computers, Motorola Inc. mobile phones and Nintendo Co. Wii videogame consoles.

Few people outside of the industry know of the plant’s owner: Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. With a work force of some 270,000—about as big as the population of Newark, N.J

with video and photos here wsj

They’re not easy to find, and if you have to ask how much they’ll cost to run in the Great White North, you probably can’t afford one.

Getting Apple’s slick new iPhone to work in Canada is easy—at least for an expert—an Ottawa software engineer has found.
But paying the stiff bill for iPhone service in this country could be more of a challenge.

read it here canada

Beijing, China (AHN) - China, the world’s largest market for cell phones, is now the latest market for unauthorized iPhones, nearly a year ahead of the official Asia launch of Apple’s popular device.

Dian Nao Bao, a local electronics newspaper reported Monday the $499 and $599 device launched in June in the U.S., is selling for up $1,170 in China’s capital city, as well as Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

read it here allheadlinenews

After two long weeks back in Australia with my WiFi only iPhone I’m pleased to say I’ve finally got it working on an Australian GSM network. And it works perfectly (albeit with no visual voicemail - but I’ll survive).


read it here apcmag

Freelance journalist Gabriel Pollard interviewed John Ballinger who has what is believed to be the first unlocked iPhone working in New Zealand on the Vodafone New Zealand GSM network.

Ballinger, director of Bluespark Ltd., managed to unlock the iPhone without having to solder anything. This is unlike George Hotz, the first person to unlock the iPhone, who had to by using a different method involving soldering.

read it here afriquenligne.fr

KT Freetel Ltd. (032390.KQ), South Korea’s second-largest mobile service provider by sales, said Friday it is in talks with Apple Inc. ( AAPL) to get the rights to distribute the iPhone in South Korea.

read it here money.cnn

Announcements that Apple has signed three operators for provision of the Apple iPhone in Europe make it doubtful that South Africa will see a local launch of the product any time soon - if ever. There are several factors making it unlikely that the iPhone will be made available in South Africa for the foreseeable future - and now with network operators being announced for Europe that have no ties to South African operators, it seems more doubtful than ever.

read it here simon.co.za

It seems the iPhone is big in India. So big, it has it’s own website offering a pay-per-touch service.

read it here bigmacky.wordpress

The Chinese have done it again. This time managing to add simplified/traditional Chinese and Japanese support to the iPhone with the 8 GB costing around 1100$ USD…

check it out justamp.blogspot

haha. one can dream. sh*t, i would drop six bills on a second iphone any day over paying seven bills for a razr 2. phones are sooo damn expensive in korea! ...

see it here flickr

I have just returned from a ten-day family trip to Japan in which I brought an Apple iPhone along and want to share my experience. I purchased my 8GB iPhone as a “laptop replacement” so that we could travel as light as possible. The primary role of our iPhone was as a casual Internet and email device. The secondary role was as an entertainment device for my children while on the airplane. (You can run out of things to pass the time for a three year old and a six year old during a twelve-hour flight from New York to Tokyo.)

interesting read macdailynews

Eugene Butman, General Director of Apple IMC Russia has stated while answering the question of iPhone shipment to Russia, that nobody knows when the shipment would take place. “With all responsibility I can declare that there is no a single person on the territory of Russia and Europe who knows when iPhone will appear in Russia”, - he remarked.

However the sources of CNews in Apple IMC are saying somewhat different information, that long awaited device may appear in Russian market in September-October of 2007.

read it here eyelinecom

SINGAPORE: Some say it is probably the most coveted gadget of the year!

Mobile phone users in the US queued overnight just to be the first few to own it!
And even before the much-touted iPhone is released in Asia, someone in Singapore already has it!

But there’s a catch.

channelnewsasia

A newly-launched Apply iPhone has created a huge impact world wide. Now there are rumors flowing about India launch of the iPhone.

Apple India unnamed sources revealed that Apple’s phone-cum-ipod will soon enter the Asian market. It would first hit Japan, followed by India and China in early 2008.

read it here techgadgets.in

TUAW reader Nathan spotted this banner ad at the bottom of South Africa’s Cellucity’s home page. As you can read, Cellucity states that the iPhone will be available for sale this September and that it will be the exclusive distributer. Cellucity is a retailer for Vodacom, one of the four South African mobile networks. It looks like the global iPhone roll-out is moving forward.

Read it here tuaw

While Americans have been blitzed with news about the iPhone’s debut, many in South Korea’s and Japan’s technology industries initially greeted Apple’s flashy new handset with yawns.

Cellphones in these technology-saturated countries can already play digital songs and video games and receive satellite television. But now that analysts and industry executives are getting their first good look at the iPhone, many here are concerned that Asian manufacturers may have underestimated the Apple threat.

Read it here boston

Apple Inc will launch its latest offering, the iPhone in the US tomorrow. Apart from functioning as a phone, the device can function as a media player and also as a wireless web surfing device.

Officially, it will not be available in India for at least another year.

But for those who really want it, the wait might be as short as a fortnight or, at the most, a month. This is not just because of efficiently smuggled shipments but a technical ‘feat’ as well.

read it here business-standard

I just stumbled upon this site called toboc.com where the iPhone is offered for sale. The price is 250 USD and the minimum order quantity is 3 pieces.

How can this be real? Steve, if you read this, call you legal department.
Robin.

By the time the iPhone is launched in Australia and other overseas Countries in 12-18 months the cost of the device may have dropped by as much as 40% from the US launch price. The answer to this may not come until late in 2008 to 2009.

read it here smarthousenews.com.au

Although it was previously thought that AU Optronics (AUO) and Innolux Display would be the manufacturers chosen by Apple to fabricate the iPhone’s “multi-touch” displays, a DigiTimes report citing “sources at panel makers” said the major suppliers for the panels may be “two Japan-based players while an unspecified Taiwan-based company may be a secondary source for the iPhone panels.”

read it here zdnet

Apple will start sales of iPhone in Russia in autumn 2007, a source in the company’s Russian partner told CNews. Experts believe Apple’s decision is connected to its fears to miss the market, while many of the company’s competitors are already entering the marked.

A source in the company working with Apple on the Russian market told CNews Apple iPhones will appear on the Russian market in Spetember -October 2007. “The sales channel hasn’t been determined so far, but these will most likely be federal chains, such as Euroset, Svyaznoy, Dixis, etc”. The phone was expected to appear on the Russian market not earlier than 2008.

read it here cnews.ru

Helio is a new US MVNO whose business model is to provide the type of super-smartphones that Korea is used to the US market. In fact, as a partnership between Earthlink and Korea’s SK Telecom, that’s exactly what it’ll be doing: taking the best Korean mobiles and releasing them in the US using superior marketing strategies aimed at the hip and geeky yoof market - exactly the same demographic as the iPod’s.

read it here mobilementalism