Vodafone to sell iPhone in 10 new territories

Vodafone finally secured its first deal to sell Apple's iconic iPhone yesterday, winning the distribution rights for 10 countries.

Britain's biggest mobile phone operator, which last year lost out to O2 in the battle to sell iPhones in the UK, will market the handset in countries including Australia, South Africa, Italy and India. These markets, plus a further six smaller nations, have a combined population of about 1.4bn.

Apple is pleased with the demand for the iPhone, which clocked up sales of four million in 2007 despite initial scepticism from some industry experts. Later this year, it hopes to launch a third-generation version with improved internet download speeds.

Unlike other handset makers, Apple has in most countries chosen a single partner through which to market the iPhone.