As I said, this is not some wacky site with far-fetched rumors, but a newssite with a record of reliable information.
Poor Belgium. If it isn't the downturn in interest in lace, higher prices in cocoa products, or an upcoming gangster film about Bruges, it's a naivety about being superior enough to be the first to get the 3G iPhone...
1) The article has to be translated from French. You lost some of the nuances of the article
2) From what I can see they're basically saying Belgium's getting an iPhone launch soon, by June. bear in mind that France has shown that some countries will get unlocked phones if required by law, it doesn't suddenly mean that'll force a new version iPhone for the sorry state of Belgium. It will likely just mean very high prices for an unlocked EDGE version.
Is the article useful, or precise?
"In terms of timing, some winds blow us "during May," other "in late May / early June," more "first exclusive Mobistar two months, then all operators."
" By announcing "by the end of June," we should be in the right without taking too many risks
Talk about hedging a bet. We already know there is a time delay between the FCC testing/verification and release, and also a possible time lag between the US and Europe/elsewhere getting new hardware. Factors in terms of chip supplies, peak buying times in the year, minimising "cannibalising sales", optimising news coverage and hype, readiness of the SDK, apps, hardware, software etc all come into play.
Unfortunately, I don't see any firm evidence backing the article. For all we know, Belgium could be the next Austria or Ireland. Ireland had a better reason for a 3G iPhone in a way - it's level of 3G coverage, and the level of other advances is much higher to my knowledge; but they got stung with a whopping handset cost, and a cr@p contract (in terms of minutes & texts).
Whilst recognizing the 6502 status of the OP - the one thing that we know is that Apple don't want to open a new country/market just before a product update, due to the uproar it'd create. The WWDC is highly likely the time Apple will update us on timings for the 3G handset. Whilst the article's timing range does include near June, it doesn't mean too much yet. If it's going to be much hassle trying to get an EDGE handset into Belgium, then maybe they'll just stall it till the 3G handset is launched, and Belgium could then be an indicator of time to market of the updated handset. I'd imagine though, that an O2 or equivalent event would give as much indication of an upcoming new handset though.
Till then, Japan and Spain remain much better markers for a possible (sneak) announcement by Apple, due to the nature of their mobile networks.
Googling Belgium iPhone:
"Benoit Scheen, CEO of Belgiums second largest carrier Mobistar, said that they could make a deal this year to offer the iPhone to Belgian customers. At the same time, he cautioned that Belgium was not a priority for Apple, so it will be many months before we will know more about the Belgian market."
http://www.moconews.net/entry/419-apple-launches-16-gb-iphone/
(5 Feb 2008)
