iPhone in Ireland

Journalist Adrian Weckler is predicting that an Irish iPhone will be seeing release this year, and that the country's 3G Stores will be the distributor for the device. Ireland's Sunday Business Post writes that 3G's CEO Tony Boyle is in talks with Apple to carry the device, after meeting with Steve Jobs at Macworld San Francisco. The chain – which has 23 store locations to its credit – reportedly has a long list of customer's waiting for the MacBook Air, while Boyle anticipates that these numbers may be indicative of interest in the iPhone.

"I think that it’s not going to be a question of whether or not there’ll be demand here for the iPhone,” Boyle said. He continues, ‘‘it’s more an issue of whether they’ll be able to make enough of them to satisfy what we think is going to be huge demand."

Despite weak sales in the UK, which some analysts are attributing to the cost of the iPhone, Boyle anticipates having no issues with selling the device. "The market is lapping up luxury phones at the moment," he said. "We’ve had no problem selling Samsung Giorgio Armani, LG Prada and Nokia Sirocco phones over Christmas, and they’re comparable in cost to the iPhone."

by MacNN Staff