At the most recent World Wide Developer's Conference, Steve Jobs listed the countries that will see iPhone availability once the 3G model is released. As we approach the big day, more retailers are announcing their plans.
A little birdie flew into TUAW Headquarters (read: Scott's Philadelphia apartment) this morning. In fact, he flew all the way from Australia to tell us that Vodafone will not be the exclusive carrier in Australia.
Earlier today we learned that Vodafone has been tagged to carry the iPhone in ten countries, including Italy. Shortly after that announcement Italian communications company Telecom Italia announced that they, too, will carry the iPhone. 
Yesterday, TUAW posted about using iASign to activate iPhones on non-iPhone AT&T plans. Today, TUAW reader AJ reports that he's used iASign to activate his iPhone with Vodafone. He writes that at first he bought an AT&T prepaid card on ebay and used iASign to get it working. After doing a little thinking (how would he top off the card, and wasn't a US phone number going to be pretty useless in the UK?), he popped the AT&T-branded US SIM out of his iPhone and put it into an old O2 XDA handset, which he brought to the Vodafone store.
At the store, he had them add the phone to his current Vodafone contract. When he returned home, he put the Vodafone-compliant AT&T SIM back into the iPhone, and used iASign to activate it. He reports that he's made a call using the Vodafone network although the iPhone itself still says AT&T in the corner. He's also confirmed that his Vodafone number is assigned to the phone. Visual voicemail is, sadly, a no go but SMS text messaging works fine.
Update: This post is causing quite an uproar over at the #iphone IRC channel. Participants there suggest this method should not have worked. SIM numbers are network specific and Vodafone should not have been able to use an AT&T SIM. Specific questions that remain are: How and why vodaphone accepted the AT&T SIM and "reprogrammed" it and how the network accepted a different CCID (thanks Spoonet). More as this develops.
Update 2: I asked another TUAW reader to try this in Canada. He writes: "Rogers wouldn't take the SIM card number since the network prefix wasn't for Rogers, i.e. 8930. Back to square one." One user, puescho, tried calling T-Mobile in Germany and was told that a technician said this was not possible.
For those of you readers who have been curious, here is the canonical list of carrier logos installed directly on the iPhone. I know we've bandied about a bunch of carrier names here at TUAW. And, yes, it's easy enough for Apple to change its mind as negotiations go on and just do a software update to add or change logos and/or carriers. Leaving all that aside, at this time, the built-in carriers appear to be Cingular/AT&T, T-Mobile, and Vodafone. Each logo appears in two files in /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app, as Default_CARRIER and also FSO_CARRIER using a non-standard png encoding.
Who will win Europe's iPhone distribution deal? I've been hearing Vodafone for a long time now but today TechDigest posts that T-Mobile may have the edge. Those usual suspects, the 'unnamed sources", are back. And this time those know-it-alls are saying that T-Mobile, which is owned by Deutsche Telekom, has taken over the lead.
Unfortunately, T-Mobile does not seem to have a big presence, at least according to the article, in France, Spain or Italy. Also, it's unclear whether the iPhone will have a eurowide release or be introduced in different countries in stages.
There's still, what, eight months or so before the iPhone bows in Europe. Is the iPhone going to get an exclusive deal? Who do you think will be the provider? Or will there be many operators and none of this exclusive nonsense?
While Steve was quick to announce Cingular (or is it AT&T now? Who knows...) as the American carrier for the forthcoming iPhone, they're yet to line up a carrier in Europe. Market Watch is reporting today that Apple is actively courting providers, and may select Vodafone as their sole European iPhone carrier by the end of the year.
One of the things that had us sitting at the edge of our seats during the iPhone introduction was Google Maps integration. Now Mad4 Mobile Phones reports that the Vodafone may scoop Apple on the phone front. According to the article, their mobile version of Google Maps (available as a Java download) will offer "easy to use maps and listings of local restaurants as well as other attractions and services." Yes, but will you be able to pinch the displays to zoom them? I think not. Clearly Google has made a big commitment to mobile information access and the iPhone, as well as Vodafone, are just part of the big picture. Windows Mobile and PalmOS users can already use Google Maps on their mobile device, as you can see at the bottom of the Google Maps Mobile page.
| # | Blogger | Posts | Cmts |
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| 5 | Mat Lu | 40 | 10 |
| 6 | Dave Caolo | 38 | 0 |
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| 11 | Christina Warren | 10 | 38 |
| 12 | Joshua Ellis | 3 | 2 |
| 13 | Chris Ullrich | 2 | 2 |
| 14 | Lisa Hoover | 2 | 6 |
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