Cape Town – Vodacom has announced the South African launch of the Apple iPhone 4 on its website, but has not specified an exact date.
Moneyweb reported that Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys tweeted the iPhone 4 would be available in SA at the end of September, despite Apple’s Alan Hely saying that no date could be given for local release.
Vodacom has also not released pricing information, but iPhones usually sell at a significant mark-up in SA over their US prices.
The highly anticipated smartphone went on sale in June overseas, and had its share of controversy. Apple announced recently that it would issue a free pouch to users who complained that the phone dropped calls when held in the so-called “death grip”.
The financial impact of the pouch expense would be “fairly insignificant” to the company, said Abhey Lamba of the International Strategy and Investment Group.
Recently, Apple spokesperson Steve Dowling announced Mark Papermaster, senior vice president of iPhone and iPod hardware engineering, was leaving the company in the wake of the problems related to the iPhone 4.
“Apple hardware is almost indestructible. I’ve heard of people who have put their iPod through the washing cycle and it survived,” Apple engineering project manager for Mobile Me, Erin Caton, told News24 at the Tech4Africa conference.
Apple built a solid worldwide following for the iPhone and recently overtook Microsoft to be the biggest technology firm in the world.
