Today in a somewhat surprising move, Apple today announced that it has selected Vodafone and Telecom Italia to distribute its 2nd generation iPhone in Italy. Speaking on the subject, "An Apple spokesman declined to comment on the apparent shift in strategy of having two, rather than only one, operator in each market.
"Today's news is about the iPhone coming to ten new countries later this year," he said. "Our goal is to sell 10 million iPhones this year."
Italy is one of the most attractive mobile phone markets in the world, though Italians overwhelmingly choose pre-paid plans as opposed to contracts. At Vodafone, for instance, 91% of its Italian customers don't have contracts.
In the U.K. and Germany, prices have been cut on the iPhones as Apple struggles to win over European customers who are reluctant to spend for the touch-screen device when they can get aggressively-subsidized phones from rivals.
