14 DAY TRIAL // When Apple officially presented its new iPhone 3G, on June 9, it also unveiled the carriers to sell the handset around the world, starting July 11. At that time, only Optus and Vodafone were announced to offer the iPhone 3G in Australia, leaving out Telstra, the country's largest mobile operator.
But Telstra surely doesn't want to skip the advantages that the iPhone 3G can bring and, according to Australian IT, the T carrier will also sell the new smartphone. Unlike Optus and Vodafone, though, who will be offering the 3G handset as of July 11, Telstra is only starting to sell the device on July 22. Which is not that bad after all, as users who are Telstra-only customers and really want to have an iPhone 3G are not forced to sign contracts with another operator, as they would have if their carrier had remained iPhone-less.
For the moment, there are no pricing details for the Australian iPhone 3G, although both Optus and Vodafone are proudly presenting the upcoming release of the handset on their official websites. Anyway, with a contract agreement for two years (which must include a data plan), Apple's new iPhone will probably have a price similar to the one AT&T is offering it for, in the US: around $200.
With all the three major carriers from Australia selling the iPhone 3G, Apple's new handset will be available for about 20 million Australian users. Of course, only a small part of them will actually buy the device, but even if we're talking about 5% of 20 million, Steve Jobs will surely be pretty happy.
Apple has packed in the iPhone 3G several new features, like HSDPA connectivity, GPS, Microsoft Exchange and App Store, hence the device is obviously better than the first generation one. The iPhone 3G seems like a good handset for Telstra's new "coaching service", which allows users to call for the help of mobile experts when they're overwhelmed by the multitude of features packed in their devices. I can already imagine users calling and saying stuff like "I'm not sure I get this slide to unlock thingie".