I read on the nzherald web site tonight that the iPhone will officially be released in New Zealand, seeming to give weight to the rumours that Apple have been secretly trialling the new 3G version in New Zealand for the past couple of months.
I have to say that I’m both happy and sad about this announcement. On the downside I’m a little annoyed that I probably paid too much for my imported phone just to have it a few months early. On the upside I guess it’s now only a matter of time before my SMS conversations become private again, with hopefully fewer and fewer people grabbing my phone just to see how it works!
I do hope that the new 3G version has better reception in New Zealand, as my iPhone kinda sucks in that regard compared to my old Nokia.
This announcement also makes the idea of creating an iPhone app for the New Zealand market more viable. I predict that we’ll see a lot of cool apps made for the iPhone, but before today it just didn’t seem worthwhile creating anything exclusively for New Zealand since the market would be so small. If the uptake of the iPhone in New Zealand is anything like the iPod, I guess we’re set to see that change.