Apple moving the iPhone to Europe and Asia ... What about Latin America?
According to Cellular News, Apple also has reached exclusive deals with T-Mobile in Germany and France Telecom, and is expected to reach exclusive deals with operators in Russia and China.
The article points out how Apple's strategy may limit their potential in the long term, since cellphone industry giants are fighting back with cellphones of their own to counter the iPhone.
Apple's strategy is to work through exclusive deals such as AT&T in the USA.
What about Latin America?
We have heard rumors since the hype of the iPhone launch started earlier this year, that both America Movil and Telefonica were in talks with Apple. So far it seems that Apple is only willing to do a negotiation per country, which leaves the door open to different scenarios.
According to Telecompaper, Claro is in talks for iPhone contract. Telcel Mexico officially addressed the issue in June this year through their spokesperson, Patricia Ramirez (source) where she stated the operator's interest in offering this device to their customers, "pending the manufacturere's plans for introducing this product in Latin America" (El Universal, June 12 2007).
Our experience with Telcel tells us that this means they started talks with Apple but had not yet reached an agreement they were happy with. It also seems the issue is not if but when, and Apple seems to be taking its time.
Negotiations between two giants (Telcel and Apple) cannot be expected to be easy but does Apple really need to think about who to go with if they will continue with their strategy of signing exclusive deals? Telcel has ~75% market share and is the largest operator in the region with more than 50M subscribers (per Pyramid's estimate for 2007).
If the question then is when, Apple needs to rethink their launch strategy, we can expect that a sizable number of subscribers in Mexico who want the iPhone probably already have it working on Telcel's or Movistar's network.
Why wait?
The article points out how Apple's strategy may limit their potential in the long term, since cellphone industry giants are fighting back with cellphones of their own to counter the iPhone.
Apple's strategy is to work through exclusive deals such as AT&T in the USA.
What about Latin America?
We have heard rumors since the hype of the iPhone launch started earlier this year, that both America Movil and Telefonica were in talks with Apple. So far it seems that Apple is only willing to do a negotiation per country, which leaves the door open to different scenarios.
According to Telecompaper, Claro is in talks for iPhone contract. Telcel Mexico officially addressed the issue in June this year through their spokesperson, Patricia Ramirez (source) where she stated the operator's interest in offering this device to their customers, "pending the manufacturere's plans for introducing this product in Latin America" (El Universal, June 12 2007).
Our experience with Telcel tells us that this means they started talks with Apple but had not yet reached an agreement they were happy with. It also seems the issue is not if but when, and Apple seems to be taking its time.
Negotiations between two giants (Telcel and Apple) cannot be expected to be easy but does Apple really need to think about who to go with if they will continue with their strategy of signing exclusive deals? Telcel has ~75% market share and is the largest operator in the region with more than 50M subscribers (per Pyramid's estimate for 2007).
If the question then is when, Apple needs to rethink their launch strategy, we can expect that a sizable number of subscribers in Mexico who want the iPhone probably already have it working on Telcel's or Movistar's network.
Why wait?
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