Israel, aka Silicon Wadi, considers itself the second most important tech center next to Silicon Valley. As self respecting techies, many Israelis need or at least covet an iPhone. Although Apple signed selling agreements with more than 70 countries including our Arab neighbors, it did not sign one in Israel.
Thousands of Israelis have banded together on Facebook to protest to Apple. In my opinion. they are protesting to the wrong corporation. I suspect that the two major cellphone providers in the country, Cellcom and Partner, have refused to make a deal with Apple because they do not want to subsidize the cost of the iPhone.
The problem with living in a county with no competition and many oligopolies is that service and new product introductions suffer. Each of them has more than 30% of the nation’s mobile phone calls. The iPhone probably will not bring them much more.
June 27, 2008 at 2:02 pm
[...] Nakedisraeli’s Weblog placed an observative post today on Israelis asking where is the iPhone?Here’s a quick excerpt I suspect that the two major cellphone providers in the country, Cellcom and Partner, have refused to make a deal with Apple because they do not want to subsidize t he cost of the iPhone…. As self respecting techies, many Israelis need or at least covet a n iPhone….The iPhone probably will not bring them much more…. [...]
June 27, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Just wondering if this is the same Laura that said, “Last week the FCC finally approved the iPhone and it should be on the market by June. I am putting a sell on Apple, the company that created the iPhone,” Laura Goldman writes for McClatchy-Tribune News Service. I think the value was around 120 at the time.
Just curious.
June 27, 2008 at 8:45 pm
[...] So now you know a little bit about Laura Goldman. She also happens to write for the NakedIsraeli’s Weblog. [...]
June 29, 2008 at 5:19 am
As founder of the group I would like to comment that we did not create the group to protest to Apple. We love apple. We do not know who’s fault it is. it could be the phone providers no one knows for sure. All we wanted is to show that there are a lot of Israelis that would like an iPhone.