iPhone 3G S to hit SA in July

June 9, 2009  |  Apple, iPhone, Technology  |  Share  | 

The iPhone 3G SThe Apple iPhone 3G S was unveiled last night by Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of WorldWide Product Marketing, at the annual WWDC keynote. I received confirmation from Vodacom, the local supplier of the iPhone, that the iPhone 3G S will launch in South Africa in July.

The following is copied and pasted from an email I received from Vodacom Corporate Affairs:

“Vodacom will launch iPhone 3G S, the fastest most powerful iPhone yet, in South Africa in July 2009. For more information on iPhone 3G S please visit www.apple.com/iphone”

At this stage no further details as to pricing, or availability of tethering, are available. But as soon as I hear anything, so will you.

Apple has indicated that it has 22 partner networks worldwide that will provide tethering (the ability to use your phone’s Internet connection on your computer) from the get-go. AT&T is not one of them, but there is no reason to believe that Vodacom will not allow it, as the company does not provide unlimited data packages for iPhone and allows tethering on its network for other devices. It is a near certainty, in my opinion, that Vodacom, or its holding company Vodafone, is one of Apple’s partners for tethering.

The iPhone 3G S extends the storage capacity of the iPhone range to 32GB, adds a compass, vastly improved 3 megapixel camera with video and other new features. All the details of the device are available here.

 
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  • tyme

    The 3Gs is cool, but I'm still a bit ticked at some of the stuff they aren't making available to the standard iPhone 3G:

    1 – Why no voice control? It has all the needed equipment. My only guess is the microphone isn't sensitive enough (doubtful) – the rest should be software.

    2 – Why no video? The iPhone 3G is capable of it, as proven by a few jailbreak Apps.

    I also want to kick AT&T in the arse for not letting us tether.

  • http://webtechlaw.com pauljacobson

    That's a pretty quick roll-out to SA. I haven't watched the keynote yet, are there going to be 2 models of iPhone available now or does the 3GS replace the 3G?

  • minnaarpieters

    This is great news for SAfricans – we are going to finally have a cheaper iPhone model to choose as well. I really hope it will reach us in July, my contract has luckily expired, so I am up for a upgrade.

    Lets just hope Vodacom doesnt overcharge us too much… (and Core doesnt have a hand in it)

  • Mike

    I made official enquiries at Vodacom today about tethering and got the following reply – “Kindly be advised that we have liaised with our Advanced Data Support Desk who advised that the iPhone OS Version 3.0 will not support the tethered modem feature in South Africa. They have advised that this would be available on the next software release.”

  • Greg

    I don't see why Vodacom won't support tethering, its such a shaft. Every other device has compatible tethering, my last 2 phones were able to do it and now the 'revoutionary mobile phone' is met with archaic SP's.. It will mean more data usages for vodacom/fone so I don't see how it doesn't stand to benefit them.

  • http://twitter.com/justin_lawrence justin_lawrence

    I'm really hoping that this round of SA pricing will allow this phone to reach the users. Here, I'm one of 3 within my entire circle to own one whereas they're quite pervasive in other countries.

  • Andrew

    That is a load of crap! I have OS 3.0 and got the same response from Vodacom… But I then put my MTN card in which should have similar problems and nothing, works perfectly. Have mms and tethering working perfectly!!! So there is no excuse from Vodacom that it wont work… If you want I'll post photo's of it working for all to see!

  • http://www.mpieters.com/ Minnaar Pieters

    Still waiting for a formal announcement by Vodacom. Who gave you the confirmation?

  • http://en-gb.facebook.com/simondingle Simon Dingle

    The confirmation came from Vodacom's communications director. Obviously Vodacom is at Apple's mercy in terms of stock and the likes. I am enquiring though.

  • http://www.mpieters.com/ Minnaar Pieters

    Still waiting for a formal announcement by Vodacom. Who gave you the confirmation?

  • http://www.simon.co.za/ Simon

    The confirmation came from Vodacom's communications director. Obviously Vodacom is at Apple's mercy in terms of stock and the likes. I am enquiring though.