Nearly after one and a half months after Steve Jobs pulled out the iPhone 3G from the back of his jeans at the WWDC in San Francisco, Apple has begun its much awaited second phase of 3G launches. The 22 countries that have received Apple’s 3rd generation golden baby are (in alphabetical order):
Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras. Hungary, India, Liechtenstein, Macau, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania Singapore, Slovakia and Uruguay.

The original release included the following countries  (alphabetical order) -Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States and France

The interesting trend here is both geographical and demographic. Note that the first phase of release included the US, the strong European and Asian economies. This phase expands the range with a significant inclusion of Latin American countries as well as the India, one of the fastest growing mobile economies in the world. The European countries included in this phase also are somewhat distant cousins of their much stronger continental neighbors -in terms of global presence.

This phase does mean a bit of adventure. It is unlikely that Apple will witness serpentine ques before its stores in India, for instance, as it did in the US. It will be interesting to see what “record sales” will mean in these countries.

43 down, 27 more to go. Significantly, Africa has so far remain completely untouched. Even South Africa. That will be one definite market. Any guesses about the other 26?