
Apple’s newly appointed vice president of Internet Services (iTunes, and now App Store and MobileMe), Eddy Cue wastes little time getting his name in the press (at least compared to how long it took Big Media and Apple to get the service in place!). Says Cue, via Apple PR:
“Movie fans in Australia and New Zealand can choose from a great selection of over 700 films for purchase and rent on the iTunes Store. iTunes provides an incredibly easy and fun way for people to discover and enjoy movies, and has quickly become the world’s most popular online movie store with customers renting and purchasing over 50,000 movies everyday.”
No word yet on whether these are 24 hour rentals like in the US, or 48 hours like in Canada and the UK, but presumably HD will remain Apple TV exclusive just like the existing regions. (And it’s not like Apple blessed us with a 720p display — or even 480p — in the iPhone 3G anyway… I’m just saying…)
Any Australians or New Zealanders out there eager to get their movie on? Let us know what you’re buying/renting first!
Posted on Tuesday, Jul 8, 2008 by Rene Ritchie
Tags: AT&T, canada, fido, iPhone 3G, Mexico, new zealand, orange, portugal, rogers, usa, vodafone
File Under:News

WOW! iPhone plans and prices are dropping faster than Rogers stock these days. With a 22 country launch on Friday (and a few days later in France — vive la difference, eh?), some with multiple co-exclusive carriers, each with different tiers of service (from cheap, all-you-can-eat unlimited to tiny $$$ per byte ultra-rip-offs) it’s a lot to keep track of — but we’re still going to try!
Read on for the good, the bad, and a lot of ugly!
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Tuesday, May 6, 2008 by Rene Ritchie
Tags: australia, czech, egypt, greece, india, iphone-risk, italy, new zealand, portugal, south africa, turkey, vodafone
File Under:Uncategorized

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:
| |
Europe |
North Am. |
South Am |
Asia |
Africa |
Oceania |
Antarctica |
Total |
| Launched |
5 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
6 |
| Announced |
5 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
11 |
| Rumored |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
| Total |
12 |
3 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
21 |
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?)