iPhone here, iPhone there, iPhone everything. Apple’s iPhone, an Internet-connected, multimedia GSM smartphone, has become very popular globally since it was launched in the United States around June 2007. It is now the standard-bearer among keyboard-less smartphones and has inspired several very similar designs from leading mobile phone manufacturers like Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Samsung Instinct etc.
What makes iPhone most appealing to me is the wide variety of available applications that have been designed to run on iPhones. iPhone now seems to be the standard phone for geeks. In addition to the cute looks and exciting user interface, I am curious to use those applications as many of them are only available on iPhone.
The sleek iPhone is not necessarily the best smartphone out there but for iPhone to be the most popular camera on Flickr (a photo-sharing website), Apple Inc must be doing something right. The iPhone is social-media friendly; it includes many features that make it easy to connect to & share content on social media networks in real time.
You would then wonder, why haven’t I got myself an iPhone before now? iPhone’s marketing model is to make the device available through contracts with cellular networks only. The phones are thus locked to the supplying network and cannot be used outside that network. Unfortunately, Apple does not have such a contract with MTN Ghana, Tigo Ghana, Vodafone Ghana, nor Zain Ghana. I am aware that there are a few unlocked iPhones on the mobile phone market in Ghana but I am not willing to take the risk. I have read reports of iPhones going dead after a software upgrade because they were unlocked.
In May 2008, Vodafone announced that it had signed an agreement with Apple Inc to sell the iPhone in ten of its markets around the globe. Vodafone customers in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa (Vodacom) and Turkey will be able to purchase the iPhone for use on the Vodafone network. There lies my hope. I am hoping Vodafone would extend the agreement with Apple, to cover Ghana since Vodafone has a network here in Ghana. An iPhone is the only thing that would hook me to the Vodafone Ghana network.
Should MTN sign an agreement with Apple and supply iPhones in Ghana, then I’d be among the first to sign a contract and grab the ubiquitous iPhone.
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