iPhone’s SA future uncertain
Local cellular providers are positive about Apple’s iPhone, but no concrete details about when the device will hit our local shores are available. The silence may indicate that for now Apple has bigger fish to fry than the African market.
MTN, which has a very strong presence across the continent, says that it strives to make the best handsets available to their customers, but no iPhone details are given.
“MTN strives to ensure that the best handsets are made available to our customers and we continue to evaluate new technology and vendors to ensure this. The iPhone represents a new generation of cellphones which we believe will definitely be of interest to our customers,” said MTN.
“Phones available from MTN right now include the HTC Touch which includes a number of similar features such as a touch screen, graphical menus & icons, and a patented gesture control system called TouchFlo,” MTN pointed out.
Cell C said that they are still waiting for Apple to make formal presentations with regard to the iPhone. It is however unlikely that Cell C, which targets the lower income LSM 3 – 7 market, will be a distributor of choice for Apple.
Cell C may want to leverage its partnership with Virgin Mobile to target the higher end of the market with the iPhone, but with a relatively poor distribution chain the struggling virtual mobile operator will have to put a very sweet deal on the table for Apple to take note. Virgin Mobile did not respond to requests for information regarding the iPhone.
Vodacom also does not seem to have made any more progress than its competitors in South Africa. The company previously said that it will “continue to offer our subscribers the very latest in technology and looks forward to trialing the new iPhone when it launches with a view to introducing it to our subscribers,” but once again no further details are provided.
It seems that local consumers eager to walk around with the hottest new mobile phone may have to take their chances with a hacked device – or wait a while before an official deal is brokered between Apple and a South African provider.
Loading ...