In sharp contrast to how the North Americans have started off, the Europeans (yup, including the UK) seem to be handling the whole iPhone 3G “second coming” with a lot more grace and — frankly — customer care. Witness Vodafone on the iPhone in Italy:

The 3G iPhone will be available to both contract customers, based on particularly simple price plans, and to pay-as-you-go users, and will include a wide range of data offerings. By choosing a contract price plan, such as iPhone Vodafone Facile, it will be possible, for example, to have an Apple phone at a particularly attractive price. People preferring a pre-pay plan for private users can buy the 8Gb iPhone for €499 or the 16GB model for €569.

Sure, the unsubsidized option sound expensive (around $750 for people on the left side of the pond) — but at least they’re giving it as an option! (AT&T, Rogers, look and learn!)

Meanwhile, Vodafone’s co-exclusive Italian iPhone 3G carrier, Telecom Italia and Apple have thus far announced the following:

Telecom Italia will be selling the 8GB and 16GB models of iPhone 3G to prepaid and contract customers. Telecom Italia will also be selling iPhone 3G with the “Tutto Compreso” [all included] package tailored to meet customers’ needs.

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iPhone 3G in Italy: Pre-Order Now, No Contract Needed!

No sooner did Vodafone announce it would be carrying the iPhone in 10 countries, then previously rumored Telecom Italia chimed in with a hearty “anche io!” (”Me too” for you non-Romantics)

Apple Insider quotes:

“Telecom Italia announces today that it has signed an agreement with Apple to bring the iPhone to Italy within the year.”

Mama mia, Tim Cook wasn’t joking around when he said Apple wasn’t tied to any particular business model, now was he?

Is this something particular to the specific Italian market? A test-case for carrier non-exclusivity? Or a sign of how business for Apple will be done from now on?

What do you think?

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iPhone Risk: Italy Redux + No More Exclusivity?!

Figures. Right after I go to all the trouble of cut and pasting together an April iPhone Risk Roundup, Vodafone goes ahead and announces 10 more countries, more than doubling the amount of countries having, or set to have, the iPhone! Apple Insider goes on locations:

“Later this year, Vodafone customers in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey will be able to purchase the iPhone for use on the Vodafone network,” the carrier said in a statement without providing further detail.

A look at our newly overpopulated score board:

Vodofone, of course, owns Verizon in the US, which is rumored to have taken a pass on Apple’s iPhone, leading to the current AT&T exclusivity deal. Back with a vengeance much?

Like the Canadian detail-free announcement from Rogers, it’s also likely these deals will involve the as-yet-unannounced-but-widely-expected 3G iPhone, though given the rest of the world’s 3G-centricity, it certainly should. Also unknown is whether these will be the exclusive deals involving revenue sharing and pressure towards unlimited data plans Apple pioneered with the initial iPhone launch last year.

What do you think?

(PS – Apple, help a blogger out and release more of your little flag circle icons. Those things don’t Photoshop themselves, b’okay?)

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone Risk: And Then There Were 17!

Engadget, via typically credible Italian newspaper La Repubblica, reports that a 3G iPhone will be coming soon to Telecom Italia, and what’s more: without carrier or contract lock-in.

Ch-ch-ch-che?

First, a quick look at our scoreboard, if this be true:

Next, Apple Insider brings some details:

[A] formal agreement on the matter was signed last week when Franco Bernabè, chief executive officer of TIM’s parent company Telecom Italia, met with Steve Jobs at Apple’s Cupertino-based headquarters. Under the terms of the deal, TIM will reportedly receive a several month exclusive on sales of a 3G iPhone through its retail shops [...] Apple is also reported to have agreed to terms by which the new iPhone will be sold at a higher price than in other European countries, but without a carrier lock and two-year service agreement.

Apple Insider further notes that, given the high percentage of pay-as-you-go plans in Italy, this unprecedented arrangement would give both the carrier and customers multo-flexibility in selling units and either using them on TIM, or with other providers, with plans or with pre-purchased bundles/minutes.

No comment, of course, from either Cupertino or Roma, but we’ve repeatedly repeated Apple COO Tim Cook’s comments on being open to other business models, and this particular one is very intriguing to say the least.

How does the idea of a contract-free 3G iPhone coming soon (albeit to Italy) grab you?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone Risk: Italia Independant! 3G Senza Una Lock-In?