Apple to add more mobile operators to official iPhone distribution

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freitasm

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#91791 20-Oct-2011 12:50

I saw in another thread that Apple is planning to add more mobile operators to the "official iPhone distributor ranks". I also noticed today that C Spire wireless, a small mobile operator with one million customers is about to start selling the iPhone 4.

"Volume" (or scale) was always cited as the reason why Telecom New Zealand was not a distributor. Perhaps this is changing, since Appple themselves are scaling?

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wellyg33k

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#535610 20-Oct-2011 14:10

freitasm: I saw in another thread that Apple is planning to add more mobile operators to the "official iPhone distributor ranks". I also noticed today that C Spire wireless, a small mobile operator with one million customers is about to start selling the iPhone 4.

"Volume" (or scale) was always cited as the reason why Telecom New Zealand was not a distributor. Perhaps this is changing, since Appple themselves are scaling?

I always thought Telecom didn't distribute it because they pissed Apple off when they offered those massive bonuses to people switching their iPhone to XT?

edit: do you think this also means carriers that don't sell it but have a few iphone customers will be added? Having issues with ios5 not liking my 2d card and saying that it needs to come from an unlocked provider (even though the phone isn't locked)

alsta

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#537249 25-Oct-2011 11:47

Small but possibly significant change I've noted with iOS5. Whereas in the past in the "about" settings page the carrier bundle name was a generic "Carrier 9.0" for Telecom. It now reads "Telecom NZ 11.1"

I've not read anywhere that this is a specfic carrier bundle for Telecom or whether iOS 5 now replaces the name with the currently inserted SIM's name. It'd be interesting to see what a Two Degrees user on iOS 5 had in the same place.

FWIW XT users upgrading to iOS 5 did receive a carrier bundle update after upgrading which sorted out contacts listing issues that had previously existed on earlier betas.

From all of this I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Telecom being an official supplier when the 4S launches. I doubt Vodafone would lose the ability to sell the iPhone, but the dropping of NZ to a 3rd tier release certainly suggests they're not in Apple's good books....

sbiddle

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#537254 25-Oct-2011 11:57

I think it's just a clear sign of Apple's business model changing.

Remember in the early days the iPhone was sold by telco's who had to pay Apple money for every device sold and then used on their network. Apple were in effect getting a kickback every money for you using their device. This model is clearly not wanted by telco's and a result we've seen Apple change their model and now offer direct sales.

Ragnor

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#537270 25-Oct-2011 12:43

sbiddle: I think it's just a clear sign of Apple's business model changing.

Remember in the early days the iPhone was sold by telco's who had to pay Apple money for every device sold and then used on their network. Apple were in effect getting a kickback every money for you using their device. This model is clearly not wanted by telco's and a result we've seen Apple change their model and now offer direct sales.

Yeah their old model is not sustainable with competition from Android and Windows Phone 7.

One of the main reasons Android got a bit push in the US were the networks left out in the cold by Apple's exclusive deal with AT&T.

I believe the US exclusivity deal with AT&T was originally for 5 years, starting in 2007.

Wonder if the Vodafone group has some kind of deal in various countries which is now lapsing.

JoshWright

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#537903 26-Oct-2011 19:03

alsta: Small but possibly significant change I've noted with iOS5. Whereas in the past in the "about" settings page the carrier bundle name was a generic "Carrier 9.0" for Telecom. It now reads "Telecom NZ 11.1"

I've not read anywhere that this is a specfic carrier bundle for Telecom or whether iOS 5 now replaces the name with the currently inserted SIM's name. It'd be interesting to see what a Two Degrees user on iOS 5 had in the same place.

FWIW XT users upgrading to iOS 5 did receive a carrier bundle update after upgrading which sorted out contacts listing issues that had previously existed on earlier betas.

From all of this I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Telecom being an official supplier when the 4S launches. I doubt Vodafone would lose the ability to sell the iPhone, but the dropping of NZ to a 3rd tier release certainly suggests they're not in Apple's good books....

2degrees still says "Carrier 11.0" So I think there's a high chance of the iPhone coming to Telecom.

Kyanar

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#538116 27-Oct-2011 12:25

alsta: Small but possibly significant change I've noted with iOS5. Whereas in the past in the "about" settings page the carrier bundle name was a generic "Carrier 9.0" for Telecom. It now reads "Telecom NZ 11.1"

I've not read anywhere that this is a specfic carrier bundle for Telecom or whether iOS 5 now replaces the name with the currently inserted SIM's name. It'd be interesting to see what a Two Degrees user on iOS 5 had in the same place.

FWIW XT users upgrading to iOS 5 did receive a carrier bundle update after upgrading which sorted out contacts listing issues that had previously existed on earlier betas.

From all of this I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Telecom being an official supplier when the 4S launches. I doubt Vodafone would lose the ability to sell the iPhone, but the dropping of NZ to a 3rd tier release certainly suggests they're not in Apple's good books....

Since the 5.0 release, XT phones have actually had a couple of Carrier Bundle updates (and you can no longer set APN settings for XT) which would lead me to believe that it's now official.

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b9e31390a

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#538152 27-Oct-2011 13:51

JoshWright:

2degrees still says "Carrier 11.0" So I think there's a high chance of the iPhone coming to Telecom.

I agree. I don't see any other reason why a Telecom carrier bundle would be pushed out.

scottjpalmer

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#538179 27-Oct-2011 14:52

matts231:
JoshWright:

2degrees still says "Carrier 11.0" So I think there's a high chance of the iPhone coming to Telecom.

I agree. I don't see any other reason why a Telecom carrier bundle would be pushed out.

Unless it is purely to deal with the contacts name display issue identified in the early iOS5 betas which would appear are related to the Telecom SIM.

It would be rather nice of Apple to fix this for them if they weren't a "supported/official" carrier though.