By ReutersInformationWeek
Agreements with Singapore's Singapore Telecommunications and three of its affiliates will bring the iPhone
to Singapore, India, the Philippines and Australia, SingTel and
Apple said.
Bharti Airtel, India's top mobile operator,
will carry the iPhone in the world's fastest-growing wireless
market, which already has more than 260 million mobile users.
SingTel owns more than 30% of Bharti Airtel.
SingTel unit Optus will offer the iPhone in Australia, and
Globe Telecom will be the Philippine partner. Globe
Telecom is owned by SingTel and domestic conglomerate Ayala.
An Apple spokeswoman said the iPhone would make its debut in
those countries "later this year," and declined to comment on
plans to bring the iPhone to Japan and China.
In its quarter ended March 31, the company sold 1.7 million of
the devices, which combine a mobile phone, iPod media player and
Web surfing; Apple's goal is to sell 10 million iPhones by year's
end.
A flurry of deals with European partners last week prompted
American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu to raise his
profit estimates for Apple Monday, saying he expected 2008
iPhone sales of 11 million units, up from his previous forecast
of 7 million units.
"IPhone is a relatively minor contributor today at only 2-3
% of revenue, but we believe it has the potential to
become a very significant driver over the next 2-5 years," Wu
wrote.
Apple shares rose 2.6% to $188.22 by mid-afternoon
on the Nasdaq. The stock has soared 50% over the past
three months as investors regain confidence that Apple can
sustain growth even amid a weakening economy.
(Reporting by Scott Hillis in San Francisco and Jennifer Tan in
Singapore, editing by Phil Berlowitz)
Copyright 2008 Reuters. Click for Restrictions
As per UBM LLC's agreement with Reuters, this story will be removed from this site after 30 days.
See original article on InformationWeek
0 comments:
Post a Comment