At the Reuters Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit in Paris today, T-Mobile CEO Hamid Akhavan said he expected to continue being the exclusive iPhone provider in Germany, citing the company's strong relationship with Apple.

He also noted that "if and when" there is a 3G iPhone, T-Mobile anticipates selling it exclusively in Germany as well. Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile's parent company) will sell the iPhone in Austria, but Orange will carry the iPhone in Germany's southern neighbor as well.

[Via Reuters]

In June of last year, we wrote about the Apple Store that has been planned for Munich, Germany. At the time, rumors identified an opening date of "...the 2nd half of 2008."

Today, Apple has posted several retail job openings for Munich, from concierge up to store manager; eleven in total. If they've begun looking for employees, the store must be near completion.

The iPhone was made available to Germans in November of last year, and a June store opening would coincide nicely with the rumored 3G iPhone release.

If you're a TUAW reader in Munich, head down to 1 Rosenstrasse (formerly home to Sport Schuster sporting goods) and let us know what you find! The time has almost come for Germany's first Apple Store!

Thanks, Chris!

Was is los in Deutschland heute? First the iTunes video store finally makes a German-language debut this week, and today we receive word via a T-Mobile press release that the first tiered-discount plan for iPhone purchases is now in effect. German buyers can take advantage of a limited-time offer (April 7 to June 30) to purchase an 8GB iPhone for as little as 99 euros, if they sign up for the top 2-year contract on a service plan (the Complete XL, 1000 minutes and 300 SMS for 89 euro a month) at buy time. Translated offer pages here and here. Lower-priced plans offer a comparatively lower discount, with the top price for an 8GB iPhone at 249 euros. Note that the 16 GB iPhone remains full freight at 499 euro.

Is this another example of the iPhone shortage phenomenon, or just some clever promotion by T-Mobile to enhance sales of the lower-end handset? Ach du meine Gute, ich bin völlig verwirrt.

Thanks Thorsten & c0caine

As Brett posted earlier, guess what's neu over at the Deutschland iTMS? TV Sendungen! Finally, TV has macht its way over the channel from England and für nur €1,99-€2,49 an eppy, you can get your TV on with South Park and Desperate Housewives. As far as the new hinzugefügte goes, I had a bit of trouble getting it all working this morning. You might have to wait until the store gets fully sorted. Here's a direct link to the new TV section, which features TV so wie Tramitz and Friends, Kaya Yanar, und Sechser Pack. Bitte forgiven Sie mein Deutsch. Despite having taken Erste Jahr Deutsch dreimal, not a lot of it stuck with mich. Kostenlossen/Gratis heute gibts jetzt in TV:

Deutschland: Ladyland, Staffel 1
Ihre Frauenfiguren in "Ladyland" geben ihr die Möglichkeit, in die verschiedensten Rollen und Charaktere zu schlüpfen. Dabei stammen die Geschichten direkt aus dem Leben: überraschend, spannend, zum Schmunzeln, haarsträubend, verrückt und manchmal auch tragikomisch. Eben (fast) so, wie sie jeden Tag irgendwo auf der Welt passieren könnten. Anke Engelke schlüpft in jeder Folge in ganz unterschiedliche Rollen: Mal ist sie eine arrogante Immobilienmaklerin, die sich plötzlich in einem Kuhstall wiederfindet, dann die kleine kaufmännische Angestellte, bei der sich ein Scharfschütze auf dem Balkon einquartiert, mal eine angehende Ministerpräsidentin mit Alkohol-Problem, dann eine Hotelrezeptionistin mit künstlerischen Ambitionen oder ein einfältiges Blondchen, das tatsächlich eine SMS von Gott erhält.

Deutschland: Pastewka, Staffel 3
In der 3. Staffel von "Pastewka" zeigt sich, dass das Leben eines Promis nicht nur extrem aufregend ist, sondern vor allem auch unglaublich kompliziert sein kann: Bastians Bruder Hagen ist immer noch mit der launischen Nachbarin Svenja Bruck liiert und führt diese - trotz Bastians massivem Widerstand - auch noch offiziell in die Familie ein. Vater Pastewka und Nichte Kim sorgen ebenfalls für Zuwachs: Kim hat endlich ihren ersten Freund und Vater Pastewka eine neue Putzfrau, die sich ganz offensichtlich nicht nur um seine schmutzige Wäsche kümmert. In der Beziehung zwischen Bastian und Anne kriselt es, und Annes dauerfröhlicher Ex-Freund Jo provoziert bei Bastian Eifersuchtsausbrüche. In all dem familiären Chaos dürfen natürlich auch in der 3. Staffel die lieben Kollegen nicht fehlen. So gibt es Gastauftritte u.a. von Michael Kessler, Maddin Schneider, Bully Herbig, Til Schweiger und Barbara Salesch.

Deutschland: Switch, Staffel 1
Ob Daily-Soap, Talkshow, Nachrichten, Werbung oder Erotikmagazin - nichts ist vor "Switch" sicher und alles wird persifliert. "Switch" stellt mit hintergründigem Humor die Besonderheiten von Inhalten, Formaten und Darbietungen aus der gesamten Fernsehlandschaft heraus.

When the iPhone became available in France on November 29th, the French said, "Oui."

According to a report at Reuters, Orange has sold 30,000 iPhones in the first five days . As Fortune points out, that's nearly 1 iPhone for every 2,000 Frenchmen. Compare that to the 270,000 iPhones sold in the United States' opening weekend (or about 1 for every 1,111 Americans), and it's clear that the iPhone is a hit in France.

What's more, 17 percent of Orange France stores sold out of iPhones in the first 21 hours. It should also be noted that France shoppers can purchase iPhones without a contract that ties them to a single carrier.

Thanks, Eddie!

T-Mobile is reporting that 10,000 iPhones were sold in Germany on the first day of sales. A store in Cologne re-opened at 12:01 AM for the event, and T-Mobile reps distributed blankets, umbrellas and warm snacks to shoppers standing in wind and rain.

No activation numbers have been released yet. It has been speculated that demand will be greater than supply during the holiday shopping season, but a T-Mobile spokesman told Reuters: "We have plenty."

To our German readers: Enjoy your iPhones! Let us know how it goes.

[Via MacNN]

Workers are busily constructing Germany's first Apple Store in Munich. AppleInsider has photos of the 4 story construction project - and surrounding barricade - which is covered with iPod advertisements. There's certainly no question as to what they're building. It's scheduled to open in the 2nd half of 2008.

While we appreciate the sneak-peak that AppleInsider has provided, we know you can do better. If you're near 1 Rosenstrasse in Munich (formerly home to Sport Schuster sporting goods) let us know what's going on! We're excited to see the launch of such a huge flagship store (and Germany's first!).

The evidence continues to mount. Several eagle-eyed readers have spotted the images and links depicted at right on the Quicktime page of Apple's website for Germany. Of course, the links aren't working for me right now (clicking them just brings up the "It's Showtime" message), but they do begin with the familiar "phobos.apple.com..." address. Some of you have argued that these are for soundtracks, but the title of the column is "iTunes Videos." I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

If you're in a country that has not yet had television and/or videos in iTunes and you find such a link on your respective country's Apple site, please let us know!

Thanks to everyone who sent this in

Back in January, we pointed to an article in German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ.net) identifying Berlin, Munich, Cologne, Hamburg and Frankfurt as probable Apple Store locations. Today, an article at  Forbes notes that Apple has now registered the Apple Retail Germany GmbH corporation.

To our friends in Germany: It looks like things are falling into place! Here's hoping you get your stores soon.

[Via ifoAppleStore]

Sales reports from Germany's iTMS show that there were 15.5 million songs sold through the service in 2005. T-Online's MusicLoad claimed 15 million song sales as well, but included free downloads in their estimate unlike Apple.

What shocked me more than those fairly close figures is the figure that the iTMS accounts for 80 percent of all legal downloads in the world. Following high tax levies on digital music downloads, devices and blank CD/DVD's in Europe, it's a wonder people don't just pirate everything. A highly contested new tax on media playing devices in Switzerland is set to go into effect on March 1st.

In other German news, I sure hope that Germany will gain some Apple stores this year as rumored. It would be handier for me to be able to step into an Apple Store to drool over all the new releases in person, rather than virtually.

According to German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ.net), Apple will open five new retail stores in Germany within the next six to twelve months. Berlin, Munich, Cologne, Hamburg and Frankfurt have all been identified as probable locations. Faz states that they gathered this information during last week's Macworld expo, and that they are “...99.9% convinced" of the plans.

Good luck, Germany! We hope your shiny, new Apple Stores come to fruition.

[Via ifoAppleStore]