An email just this afternoon pointed me to the press release that Globe Telecom has agreed with Apple to exclusively offer the iPhone in the Philippines. Announcement was made at 1PM this afternoon.
On the Globe Corporate site:
Globe, SingTel, Bharti Airtel and Optus to bring iPhone to the region
Manila, 12 May 2008 – Globe, SingTel, Bharti Airtel and Optus today announced that they have signed an agreement with Apple to bring the iPhone to the Philippines, Singapore, India, and Australia later this year.
More information will be released at a later date.
Finally!
A call to people inside Globe turned out nothing. They’re all mum about it. Not even a clue. All they told me is that it will be offered later this year. That’s it. No details on the plans, prices and release dates. Will have to dig deeper. *heh*
Wait, does that mean Apple will open up iTunes in the Philippines as well? Remember that Apple ties up your iTunes account with your iPhone subscription. But iPhones are already available in the Philippines. Just visit Virramall in Greenhills. Now, I’m more excited with the prospect of getting an iTunes account than an iPhone being legitimately available with a local telco.
Will the iPhone muster enough influence to make people switch providers? (That’s what happened with AT&T in the US.)
{Hat tip: Andre John & Mobius}
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good news! so can we put into the globe iphone a prepaid globe simcard? o mga postpaid lang kaya? pag jailbroken siguro pwede.
at bakit kaya Globe ang nakakuha sa deal? dahil sa singtel? sayang! mas maganda sana kung smart. lalo na sa 3G services. globe sucks big time pagdating sa 3G. i bet na yung 3G iphone ang ilalako sa pilipinas.
most likely it’s because of SingTel. but i’ve heard from Globe insiders as early as last year (when the iPhone hype was still fresh) that they were sure about releasing the iPhone through their network. in my opinion, there may be a possibility that they will release the non-3G iPhone first followed by the newer 3G model.
not surprising especially that all mentioned Asia-Pac carriers are sister companies.
Anyhoo, I sure am going to trade my N95 8gig for this one.
Globe nabs the iPhone deal. Man! I’ve been a SMART user for more than 10 years and I’m very happy with the service. What does this mean for SMART users who want an iPhone? Does this mean we need to switch?
But will the iPhone for Globe be available for prepaid or just post-paid? Besides, the iPhones come to the same price range as the high Nokia N series (like N95) so it won’t necessarily be a ‘masa’ phone.
As for me, I just want Apple to enable the Philippines to iTunes. I mean, I may not have an iPhone but I do have a iPod Nano Video and I am willing to pay for the tunes in iTunes. Not to mention, register my podcast.
Oh well. Time will tell.
Dapat 2k per month lang diba?