América Móvil To Bring iPhone To Latin America

América Móvil has signed with Apple to bring the iPhone to Latin America bringing the iPhone to Mexico and other Latin Caribbean countries this year.

The company said it plans to bring the iPhone to all of its Latin American operations, but didn't say whether it would be the exclusive iPhone provider in the targeted countries.

The deal mark's Apple's fourth international distribution deal for the iPhone in recent weeks; in addition to the Vodafone deal in Europe, it has also announced a separate arrangement with Telecom Italia and Canada's Rogers Communications. The new distribution deals could be important for the future of Apple's iPhone product as it moves the line forward.

So far, Apple has sold about 5.5 million iPhones; the company has a goal of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008. A new 3G version of the iPhone is expected in North American markets and possibly overseas by mid-year.

At the end of March, América Móvil had 159.2 million subscribers in 16 countries. The company operates in the USA, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico and Uruguay.

References:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aJsxrJg.xNpg

AT&T Profits Rose Mainly By iPhone Sales

AT&T the largest communications holding company in the world (by revenue) has unveiled their quarterly results. Their first quarter results rose by 22%. According to AT&T such profits were in part driven by gains in its wireless business. And of course the main reason of it is the iPhone, which doubled the average revenue per subscriber that AT&T gets from other wireless customers.

The company said it gained 1.3 million net wireless subscribers for the quarter, the majority of which were new iPhone subscribers.

AT&T announced that net income jumped to $3.46 billion, or 57 cents a share, from $2.85 billion, or 45 cents, a year earlier.

AT&T didn’t break out the numbers of iPhone additions as earlier. The number could still be around 1.5 million because other carriers besides AT&T are selling it internationally, and about 30 percent are unlocked. By the end of last year, AT&T had activated two million iPhones. Here are the iPhone details AT&T provided:

iPhone continues to be very popular with customers, feedback is very good. ARPUs are in the mid to upper 90s across the base. We continue to see customers adopting iPhone. Over 40% are new to us. Continued, solid growth. Through Q1 stable.

References:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/22/apple-shares-slump-as-att-gives
-vague-details-on-iphone-growth/

http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/4/att_q1_solid_waiting_on_guidance_t

Lotus Notes E-Mail for iPhone 2.0 By IBM

IBM is working on Lotus Notes e-mail application for iPhone 2.0, as IBM spokesman Mike Azzi announced. But there are some details that are not revealed yet.

There are 140 million Lotus Notes and Domino users worldwide, according to IBM, and it would be very wise for both Apple and IBM to release it faster. So far Microsoft Exchange is number one platform.

Lotus Notes developers would build a Notes e-mail application for the next-generation iPhone by using Apple's SDK announced last week and would distribute it over Apple's new AppStore. AppStore allows developers to wirelessly deliver their applications to iPhone and iPod Touch users.

Apple plans to allow developers to charge whatever they want and to allow the developers to keep 70% of the revenues, while Apple keeps the other 30% to cover the cost of running AppStore.

Apple Inc. officials would not comment on Notes for the iPhone either, but released a statement saying that 100,000 developers had downloaded the beta SDK (software development kit) for the iPhone in the first four days since its release. Several developers are named, but there is no mention of Lotus Notes.

Reference:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,143440-pg,1/article.html

Japanese VS. Iphone

Japanese analysts are doubtful whether the iPhone will catch on in markets like Japan, where consumers favor smaller and sleeker multifunctional handsets. They also question whether Japanese carriers will accept ceding to Apple's tight control over handset design and agree to its demand for a certain share of subscription fees.

“Most Japanese consumers are more likely to remain content with what they already have” - said Nahoko Mitsuyama, a telecom analyst at Gartner Japan who attended the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, in February.

However, Japanese analysts are doubtful. Current iPhones won't work in Japan, where the faster third-generation network has become the mainstream. Industry watchers believe 3G iPhones will be released in the latter half of this year.

Apple hopes to reach an agreement with a Japanese mobile phone operator to achieve its goal of selling 10 million iPhones worldwide by the end of 2008. It sold some 3.7 million iPhones throughout the world in 2007.

"Most of the world's Internet users via mobile phone are Japanese, so success in mobile services here can be applied to other markets."- said Noritaka Kobayashi, an information and communications consultant at Nomura Research Institute in Tokyo.

Japanese consumers are amazed by the iPod, which controls 54.5 percent of Japan's digital portable music player market - well above Sony's Walkman with 26.2 percent, according to market research firm BCN. The iPhone could benefit from an emotional attachment to Apple among Japanese.

"Japanese like anything new and trendy, so the thing is how many customers Apple can attract beyond Apple fans," - Gartner's Mitsuyama said, noting that Japanese on average change their handsets every two years.

Still, Japan is expected to be a difficult market. Here, mobile phone carriers control the release of new handsets and dictate specific features and functions of new cell phones to satisfy consumers who are picky about product usability, design and quality. Foreign makers account for only about 10 percent of the roughly 50 million handsets sold annually in Japan, although their market share is on the rise, according to Yano Research Institute.

Changewave Report On iPhone Satisfaction Level In Corporate World

Changewave did yet another survey on iPhones popularity. This time they were interested not in the regular consumers but in corporate users and once again the absolute winner is Research In Motion’s (RIM) Blackberry.

In fact 73% of responders used Blackberry.

However what’s interesting is customer satisfaction. While iPhone has around 5% of market share in corporate world, its satisfaction level is 59%. This means that so much people are `very satisfied~ with their device. RIM ranks second with 47% followed by Nokia with 40%.

Apples market share in corporate world won’t be an easy one, but there are good news. Firstly iPhone is already number two Smartphone in planned purchases. And secondly upcoming SDK might bring some apps which will make iPhone more usable in the corporate world.

Looking ahead to the 2nd Quarter, RIM (77%) is the dominant leader in planned corporate smart phone buying - having jumped 3-pts since the previous survey in November. Apple (11%) is second, down 3-pts from its previous high.

The other manufacturers are also down vs. market-leading RIM.

Palm (8%), Motorola (7%) and Samsung (4%) have each experienced a 2-pt decline in terms of planned purchases, with each company registering its lowest level of the past year.

P.S. Let’s see which manufacturer would be the winner for the second Changewave survey.

References:

http://blogs.computerworld.com/changewave_iphone_enterprise_business_blackberry_rim
_symbian_nokia_sony_motorola_palm_treo

Apple Hits Lowest Level Since June; New iPhone Worries

Apple (AAPL) shares are down sharply to their lowest level since June, as several analyst reports have triggered fresh concerns about the state of demand for iPhones and iPods.

Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Bernstein Research, has published the transcript of a recent conference call he held with investors on the subject of unlocked iPhones, what they mean to Apple, and what options the company has to deal with them. In a summary of the call, he contends that, while the iPhone has the potential to drive material earnings growth for Apple, the company faces two “significant challenges”: demand appears to be falling short of expectations, and the incidence of unlocking is much higher than expected.

Sacconaghi admits that the iPhone will be 6% of Apple’s revenues in FY ‘08, but could be nearly a quarter of the total by FY 2012, driving half of the company’s revenue growth over the next four years; and he notes that since the iPhone has a higher gross margin than other Apple products, it could drive 70%-80% of the company’s profit growth.

Sacconaghi says that weekly run-rate sales in the December quarter were about 180,000 units or less than 10 million on an annualized basis in the busiest quarter of the year for consumer electronics sales. That leads him to conclude that the goal of selling 10 million units in 2008 is optimistic, “particularly if Apple insists on carrier revenue-sharing, without significant price cuts or new model introductions.” He says European sales of the iPhone have been “particularly disappointing,” falling short of carriers’ initial expectations. Sacconaghi is projecting 1.45 million units in the December quarter, 6.9 million for the September 2008 fiscal year and 7.9 million for calendar 2008.

Sacconaghi, who kicked off the “missing iPhones” debate in January, pointing out the wide gap between the number of iPhones Apple has sold and the number of iPhone customers AT&T (T) as the exclusive U.S. carrier has signed up, repeats his previous estimate that 25%-30% of iPhones sold to date have been unlocked for use with carriers other than the one authorized by Apple. He notes that, if Apple sold 10 million iPhones this year but 30% were unlicked, the company would be losing out on $1.1 billion-$1.3 billion of revenue and 80-85 cents a share in EPS over the following two years. He also notes, not for the first time, that the unlocked phones pose a strategic issue, limiting the company’s ability to provide a truly exclusive relationship to carriers, and so reducing their willingness to kick back some subscriber revenue to Apple in return for an exclusive deal.

J.P. Morgan’s Bill Shope on Friday wrote that “with relatively slow unit growth in the holiday season” and the recent price cut for the iPod Shuffle, “signs point to iPod saturation and some macro sensitivity.” He says the Shuffle price cut “is likely intended to boost Shuffle momentum and iPod units overall.” In a separate note, Shope also says that Apple “still seems comfortable with Mac momentum, which remains the critical component of the story at these levels.” He says that Apple execs in a recent meeting would not comment on iPod and iPhone demand concerns, but did say that Mac product family is better positioned than in the last economic downturn.

Morgan Stanley noted Friday that MacBook distributor inventories are “near all-time lows” for the third straight week, but that iMac units are above historical average levels. The iPod Touch, they say, is selling well, with low channel inventory, while Shuffle inventory, which had accumulated in recent months, is down sharply ahead of the arrival of recently unveiled 2GB model.

The iPhone is an Internet-enabled multimedia mobile phone designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It has a multi-touch screen with virtual keyboard and buttons. The iPhone's functions include those of a camera phone and a portable media player ("iPod"), in addition to text messaging and visual voicemail. It also offers Internet services including e-mail, web browsing, and local Wi-Fi connectivity. It is a quad-band mobile phone that uses the GSM standard, and hence has international capability. It supports the EDGE data technology.

Following the success of iPods, Apple announced the iPhone in January 2007. The announcement was preceded by rumors and speculations that circulated for several months. The iPhone was introduced, first in the United States on June 29, 2007 with much media frenzy and then in the United Kingdom, Germany and France in November 2007. It was named Time magazine's Invention of the Year in 2007.

Is Apple iPhone the Main Target Behind Microsoft-Yahoo! Pact?

The technology market is afire with news of Microcrosoft acquiring another giant Yahoo! But industry experts find it hard to consider it merely an acquisition bid for just the money coming from advertisements. Besides benefiting from Yahoo’s online capabilities, they believe that ‘Microsoft has had more success with mobile operating systems than in mobilizing its Internet properties; and experts feel that Yahoo! Go platform would work extremely well for Microsoft.

Now, talking of market share, Apple which is said to have shipped nearly 4 million iPhones in 2007 with the target of achieving 10 million sales in 2008 has been one of the prime promoters of the Multitouch technology. Microsoft on the other hand says it will ship around 20 million smartfones in 2008 for Windows Mobile.

While experts consider Apple a much innovative challenger gaining a considerable mindshare over market shares. It regular innovation and up gradation of the iPhone since its launch in mid- 200 7 has been a constant threat to competitors like technology giants like Microsoft.

Therefore, this coming together of Microsoft and Yahoo! is like sending a signal out to Apple iPhones of probable market redistribution. However, Apple is all set to take the challenge, as it launched its 16 GB double storage capacity iPhone model, upgrading from the usual 8GB and that too at attractive prices with the hike of just $100. Now you can buy a 16 GB memory iPhone with just $499 while an 8GB model is available for $399.

It is expected that Apple will leave no stones unturned to maintain the sizable market share it is enjoying, even if the threat of a Microsoft-Yahoo! attempt to take on Apple iPhones. Moreover, Apple is also contemplating expanding iPhones worldwide market share from countries it holds presently – United States, UK, Germany to countries like Italy, Spain and Switzerland in the coming months.

Reports indicate that Apple Inc’s usage share of mobile devices online is rapidly-growing at the rate of 0.17% which is almost triple that of Microsoft’s stagnant rate of 0.06%, which stays affected since the launch of Apple iPhone in June 2007.

iPhone Open Application Development - Book For iPhone Developers

If you wanted to do some programming for iPhone but didn’t have any learning material, now here is your chance. O’Reilly has published a book called “iPhone Open Application Development: Rough Cuts Version” by Jonathan Zdziarski, developer of the first fully functional application using the open iPhone toolkit. So this book is written by a man who knows his stuff.

It is designed to teach users how to write Native C Applications for the iPhone. He also explains how to use iPhone toolkit and open-source toolkit which was developed by him.

Book Description:

Certain technologies bring out everyone's hidden geek, and the iPhone did so instantly upon its release. Thousands of programmers want to provide applications on the iPhone. This book shows them how to achieve the spectacular effects that made the iPhone an immediate hit. The book covers both Apple's toolkit and an open, community-developed toolkit that has been widely downloaded and used.

In iPhone Open Application Development, Zdziarski explains how to use Apple’s iPhone toolkit and the open-source toolkit, with which he developed the first fully-functional third-party iPhone application, to create third-party iPhone applications for use with jailbroken iPhones. The book will teach iPhone developer-wannabes how to actually code applications in Objective-C and the iPhone API.

The book is going to be released in May and will cost around $40.

iPhone Data Booms at T-Mobile

European carriers may not sell quite as many Apple Inc. iPhones as AT&T Inc. but there's still a good reason to have them on the books, according to René Obermann, CEO of Deutsche Telekom AG. He says the device is driving up average wireless data usage as much as 30 times higher than on other phones.

The CEO revealed the data figures this week as the German carrier revealed key metrics around its T-Mobile International AG cellular operations in Europe and the U.S. In Germany, T-Mobile has sold 70,000 iPhones with contracts.

“These phones are helping to drive up mobile data use for the operator. iPhone customers retrieve weather reports, stock prices, and YouTube videos from the Internet on the go all as a matter of course. The average Internet usage for an iPhone customer is more than 100 MBytes. This is 30 times the use for our average contract-based consumer customers," - Obermann says.

Note that Obermann doesn't specify if that is per month. Carriers, however, do generally measure users' data consumption on a monthly basis.

The ability to watch TV and download video and music on a phone can dramatically increase the volume of data that a mobile user burns through anyway, notes Unstrung Insider senior analyst Gabriel Brown with a personal example: "I used 100 MBytes in an hour and a half listening to Internet radio on my phone the other day."

Ramping up data usage rates is extremely important to Western European carriers since they need to replace voice revenues and find alternatives to text messaging, which is expected to reach saturation point over the next few years.

Heavy Reading senior analyst Patrick Donegan suggests that such potential data increases may also be a reason for wireless carriers to re-examine their backhaul capabilities in the near future.

"Data points like this suggest that many operators are still underestimating the impact that data is going to have on their backhaul networks. The ability to support these data volumes flexibly and cost effectively in the backhaul network is going to differentiate mobile carrier performance just as much as their ability to win over the end user market at the front end," - says Donegan.

O2 To Boost Business By Slashing The Costs Of iPhone

With all the coverage about Apple ‘allegedly’ gagging its UK partners from not revealing poor iPhone sales figures, it’s not surprising to see that O2 is hoping to boost business by slashing the cost of running Apple’s stylish device.

O2 has taken the wraps off a new tariff structure that will apply to new users and – get this – existing customer too. How generous. Either that or they’re merely sidestepping the media shit-storm that would ensue if they ignored those ever-faithful early adopters.

Entry-level £35 per month owners now get their call allowance tripled to 600 minutes and texts boosted to 500 minutes. Those paying £45 now get the £55 package with 1,200 minutes of calls and 500 monthly texts. The £55 per month package is being replaced by an uber-caller £75 per month package for 3,000 minutes of calls and 500 texts.

Here’s the official statement and details:

*Existing £35 iPhone customers

We will be automatically upgrading you to the new £35 iPhone tariff which offers you 600 anytime minutes and 500 anytime texts a month. You will also continue to receive unlimited* UK data. All of this will be done for you without you having to do a thing and we'll text you to let you know when it's been done.

* Existing £45 iPhone customers

We will be automatically upgrading you to the new £45 iPhone tariff which offers you 1,200 anytime minutes and 500 anytime texts a month. You will also continue to receive unlimited* UK data.

*Existing £55 iPhone customers

We will be reducing the price of your 1,200 anytime minute iPhone tariff from £55 to £45. You will continue to get 500 anytime texts and unlimited* UK data at this new price.

The deal with The Cloud for free Wi-Fi and unlimited data use remains unchanged. Smart move, but will it boost sales?

Deutsche Telekom Signed Up 70,000 iPhone Customers

It appears that Germans are just as interested in Apple Incorporated’s iPhone as American customers. German telecoms operator Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE) said that it had signed up 70,000 iPhone customers in the 11 weeks since November 9, 2007.

Deutsche Telekom's mobile telephony arm T-Mobile is the exclusive seller of U.S. Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) iPhone.

"The iPhone is by far the most sold multimedia device in T-Mobile's portfolio," the head of T-Mobile Germany, Philipp Humm, said in an interview published on T-Mobile's Intranet, or in-house Internet web site.

French operator France Telecom (FTE.PA) had sold more than 70,000 iPhones since they arrived on November 28.

Apple Inc said on January 15 it had sold 4 million iPhones since the launch at the end of June.

Apple's Math Could Point To iPhone Overstock

Financial analysts are looking for an answer to Apple's iPhone mathematics problem. What raised concern on Wall Street is the discrepancy between the number of iPhones Apple says it has shipped since launching the gadget last summer and the number of iPhones sold by AT&T, the exclusive wireless service provider in the United States.

In reporting quarterly earnings this week, Apple said it had shipped 4 million iPhones. During its quarterly report, AT&T said it had about 2 million iPhone customers as of the end of 2007.

Both sides have said they're happy with the product's performance in the market, and Apple remains confident that it can hit its target of 10 million phones shipped within its first year of sales. But financial analysts are wondering whether there's trouble brewing.

Analysts at Sanford Bernstein have come up with some slightly different numbers than the vendors, TheStreet.com reported Friday. Bernstein estimates that Apple shipped 3.75 million phones in total, and telephone companies worldwide have activated 2.35 million. Assuming that 20% of the unactivated phones may have been unlocked to work on other networks that still leaves 670,000 iPhones unaccounted for.

If Bernstein's estimates are correct, then Apple may have to contend with a growing pile of unsold iPhones, TheStreet said.

Apple did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Beyond the troubling iPhone numbers, Apple's stock took a beating in after-hours trading following its financial report, despite record earnings. Investors apparently are getting the jitters over a possible global economic slowdown that could hurt Apple's consumer electronics sales, which include the iPhone, iPod, iMac, and MacBook. Financial analysts also are concerned that Apple's iPod sales may be slowing.

What has been going gangbusters at Apple are Macintosh computer sales? The company reported it shipped 2.32 million computers in the fiscal first quarter ended Dec. 29, which represented a 44% increase in shipments and a 47% boost in revenue when compared with the same period a year ago.

iPhone Looks Ripe For Another Discount

From the latest sales figures from Apple and partner AT&T, the iPhone is looking ripe for another discount. Figures culled from the pair’s releases, there seems to be an inventory glut or a lot more jail breaking than anyone is admitting. So what is Apple going to do?
Simple, do what they did before: drop prices. We know they’ve got the 3G phone waiting in the wings. 3rd party applications are raging to be released. AT&T dropped the no business discount they had going. All these signs point us to new introduction and price drop for current product.

I think Apple found the sweet spot of $399 and will likely put the new 3G phone there. We’ll most likely see some kind of cosmetic change to the design, just to make a visual differentiation and make the masses crave the new.

P.s. How soon? That is the magic question. If Apple stock keeps down-ticking and stock continues to grow, it will be sooner than later. Possibly as early as next month’s SDK kick-off. That is my guess. What is yours?

Apple’s Unstoppable Revenues - It is Myth or Real

Apple’s holiday performance showed signs that the company’s not unstoppable in 2008. In particular, Apple’s cautious outlook, weakness in U.S. iPod growth and the unpredictability of iPhone sales left pessimists plenty of reason to doubt.

Apple turned in revenue of $9.6 billion and profit of $1.6 billion for the holiday quarter, blowing past the average analyst estimate. The company shipped a record 2.3 million Intel (INTC)-based Macs during the period, and actually sold as many iPhones as computers. In the process Apple generated $2.7 billion in cash, bringing its war chest to $18.4 billion.

On the conference call with analysts, Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer admitted that iPod sales merely met the company’s expectations, rather than exceeding them. Part of the reason, he said, was that U.S. iPod sales weakened in December - it took overseas sales to make up the difference. “In the U.S., in the gift-buying season, we saw a slightly different curve, that was made up for in our very, very good growth internationally.” - he said.

It was clear that Apple executives weren’t sure what to make of the iPod slowdown. Maybe it’s the U.S. economy. Maybe the presence of the higher-priced iPod touch convinced people to save up and buy one iPod instead of two, they suggested. And then there’s the possibility that the iPhone is starting to eat into iPod sales. “In the U.S., where iPod unit sales were flat year over year, it could have been one of the factors, but other factors played into that as well, so it is very difficult to say with any precision whether there was cannibalization or not,” - said Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook. Cannibalization would be a bad thing. It would mean that iPhone growth doesn’t purely add to Apple’s results — it also takes away from the iPod.

For this current quarter that will end in March, executives promised revenue of $6.8 billion and earnings of about $850 million. And while ordinarily analysts would take that number with a wink and expect Apple to easily beat it, this year they’re not so sure Apple can.

This post has also been featured on the www.blogvasion.com

iPhone Is Selling Like The "Hot Cakes"

The iPhone is selling like the proverbial hot cakes and has topped 4 million but it’s doubtful that the trendy phone will hit its original, lofty sales estimates of 10 million units in a year.

Steve Jobs said at Macworld Expo 2008 that the iPhone is selling at an average of 20,000 units a day which is impressive but with just five months to go until it turns one it’s unlikely that the iPhone will sell another 6 million. After all, the Silly Season that is Christmas has passed and there’s no other shopping spell like it. So far, UK punters have said the iPhone is too expensive.

A recent story by The Mail on Sunday has just claimed that Apple "gagged" UK iPhone partners, O2 and Carphone Warehouse, from discussing sales figures because of poor UK sales.

It’s somewhat telling that Jobs was expected to break out some European sales figures for the device at Macworld this week but, quite noticeably, didn’t.

Consumer And Business Sides of iPhone

There are two sides to the iPhone: Consumer and business. In true Apple tradition, the iPhone pushes the technology envelope and delivers a pleasing user experience. For businesses, the iPhone introduces a new device for which companies need to set a policy. If they don't, they will find employees purchasing the iPhone and coming in expecting IT to connect them to the corporate mail server and mobile applications.

For consumers, the iPhone is similar to the iPod, though much larger than some models, and includes a screen that rivals any on the market.

But iPhone is different in how the user interacts with the device. There are no hard keys on the phone; it is operated via the touch screen. The interface is clear and intuitive, though some say it is slow at times and lacks features like easy one-touch auto-dialing.

Perhaps the biggest complaint connected with the iPhone is that the battery cannot be changed. This tells that Apple is hoping people will buy it, use it for a couple of years and replace it when it no longer holds a charge.

For businesses, the iPhone has more negatives than positives. It does not support direct connection to corporate e-mail systems, like the Blackberry and Windows Mobile devices. Also, iPhone requires the use of iTunes, so if your corporate IT policy does not allow iTunes to be installed on work PC’s, the iPhone is a no go.

Perhaps, the biggest disappointment is in the wireless carrier. In the Seacoast, AT&T has probably the poorest network coverage of the major three carriers. It's unfortunate that the iPhone will not soon be available on Sprint or Verizon.

Apple's Marketing Strategy is Ruined in Europe

Vodafone may ruin Apple's well thought-out marketing plan. Giving exclusive rights on iPhone to a single operator is a simple and fantastic idea and there is no doubt that this simple strategy has worked for Apple perfectly in the USA.

However, as we have assumed, it would not be as easy in Europe as in the States. Moreover, Vodafone has won an injunction preventing T-Mobile from selling the iPhone in Germany. This fact is a failure of Apple's strategy in Europe's largest market.

Interestingly, as of now, there's some confusion about the extent of the injunction and it seems that even experts are not fully aware whether it is a total ban or SIM-free iPhones can still be sold.

I don't think German's will be left without iPhones. Most likely sales of the device will be resumed shortly and it is expected that German consumers will be able to purchase SIM-free iPhones. If this happens in other European markets (UK, France, etc), it is very interesting to see how this will be reflected on Apple.

As I have mentioned in of the previous posts, the exclusive marketing plan is totally out of question in the Asian markets.