In a previous post I said that it was highly unlikely that we would see a legitimate first-generation Apple iPhone release in South Africa. And I was right. Of course, many South Africans have managed to get hold of iPhones via alternative routes, but this option means running an unsupported device that needs to be hacked to work and inevitably costs more than it should.

Rumours circulating on the web now suggest that Vodafone is on the verge of confirming a deal with Apple that will see the iPhone being released in India later this year; around September. Vodafone’s CEO Arun Sarin has also repeatedly said that Vodafone would be trying to make the iPhone available to its subscribers. Unfortunately for Vodafone the battle in Europe was lost. But in other Vodafone territories there is still hope and the fact that India shares a lot with South Africa in terms of Apple, such as the lack of an iTunes Music Store and other services, means that we could well see the successful roll-out of iPhone in that country preceding a South African release. Vodafone is the majority shareholder in Vodacom, who would be the local carrier, unless MTN pulls something out of the hat.

In fact, I would imagine that we would see a simultaneous release to India, should the latter really be set to receive the device.

My only concern is that Vodafone as a network is not the kind of partner Apple necessarily wants; roaming between Vodafone in other territories is simply too easy and will compound the regional locking problems that Apple suffers at the moment. Hopefully Apple will come to its senses and realise that there is no real way to control the device’s proliferation. There will always be a way to hack the iPhone and the obvious solution to me would be to look at releasing the device worldwide in quarter three of this year, putting it in retail alongside the iPod. This wouldn’t prevent standard network agreements from taking place either. Apple’s problem is that they are raking in revenue from partner-networks and also have a proprietary voice mail system that must be integrated into host networks. Not that you need it…

Another stumbling block is Google Maps which has very poor support of South African roads. Apple do not believe in rolling out product with limited functionality and would undoubtedly see the lack of maps, which the iPhone uses for navigation, triangulation and location functionality, as a problem. Fortunately a little bird has told me that Google in South Africa are working on their local Maps representation.

So hold fingers with me and lets hope that by the time the 3G iPhone is announced later this year we will have some indication of plans to make the Jesus phone legitimately available in South Africa.