iPhone’s coming to South Africa

Get a second job if you need to, or be extra specially nice to your nearest and dearest, because according to reports in http://www.ioltechnology.co.za/ and http://www.thetimes.co.za/, the Apple’s popular iPhone is coming to South Africa soon.

The British cellphone giant Vodafone announced on 6th May, that it has signed the rights to sell the iPhone in 10 new countries including Australia, India and South Africa.

The handset, as many of you know, combines Apple's popular iPod music player, a video player and web browser with a nifty touch-screen device, and you can make a call just by pointing your finger (nicely please) at a name or number in the address book.

Shortly after its limited release last year, many people bowed down in reverence, hailing the handset as nothing less than revolutionary. A cellphone that is truly a mobile PC. Other technophiles, especially in South Africa, were left to turn a putrid shade of green in envy – some even imported the iPhone to have it cracked.

But no more. This desirable looking device should be available sometime later this year, although details about pricing and contracts have yet to be released.

So why has there been a time warp? Well, Apple was demanding a cut from iPhone users’ cellphone bills from the networks. “The limited release was due to a delay in establishing tie-ups with cellular operators, from which Apple receives a cut of call and data revenue,” reported Toby Shapshak writing for The Times on May 07, 2008.

Why are we drooling?
It’s a multi-band, internet-enabled multimedia cellphone. It’s got internet services, e-mail, web browsing and Wi-Fi connectivity. It features a virtual keyboard in the form of a multi-touch screen, and buttons. There’s a capable camera, an iPod media player, text messaging and visual voicemail.

Oh, and it’s not so shabby to look at either.

Now you can stop hyperventilating because there are a couple of “downers”.

What’s not so cool?
It’s not 3G or HSDPA-enabled, which makes connecting to the Internet slow. Currently the iPhone uses the slower 2.5G Edge data standard.

Although a 3G phone is scheduled for release this year, some say June, the question is, will this beefed-up version also be released in South Africa?

And if you’re not used to a touch screen you might find it takes a little time to get used to the navigation.

Will it work with MXit?
Currently MXit won’t run on the iPhone. The good news is that sometime in the future, we might make a special version for it.