Dannychoo has a new mac and anime gallery Mac Life 4. BREATHTAKING.

All those macs at one place… we’re so green with envy!

GO to their site NOW!

We have received a lot of emails regarding Apple’s strategy. As we suspected Apple has a multi-carrier strategy throughout europe, with the exception of mainly countries like Britain, Germany, Spain and Austria.

In fact out of the 10 countries that Vodafone had announced deals back in May 2008, in 7 of them there is not an exclusive deal. [Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey]. We suspect that there are no exclusive deals in Portugal, South Africa or New Zealand either. This is probably GOOD news for those of you who live in Portugal, South Africa or New Zealand. We cannot confirm whether there were exclusive deals that lapsed or not. So drop us a comment on whether in your country there was an exclusive deal or not.

It turns out that Apple has been pretty open to multi-carrier deals around the globe. You can go and check it out yourselves at Apple’s site [Thanks to Dan and Clarissa for pointing that out].

It looks like Apple is changing its strategy for the iphone. New developments in Europe show that Apple maybe dropping its exclusive deals.

In a surprise press release by Cosmote [mobile phone carrier owned by T-Mobile] in Greece, they announced that they will be carrying the iphone from Monday 23rd March 2009.

Vodafone is already flogging iphones in Greece since June ‘08. Vodafone Greece had hinted that they had an exclusive deal, when they first carried the iphone 8 months ago.

In Italy Vodafone holds a non exclusive deal to carry the iphone as Telecom Italia also markets the phone in Italy.

Both countries were in the same batch of countries announced very quietly back in May 2008.

Vodafone to Offer Apple’s iPhone in Ten Markets

06 May 2008

Vodafone today announced it has signed an agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone in ten of its markets around the globe. Later this year, Vodafone customers in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey will be able to purchase the iPhone for use on the Vodafone network.

So, has Apple broken out of an exclusive deal with Vodafone GR? It is rumored that Apple is disappointed with the way Vodafone markets the iphone in countries were it has no retail presence [No Apple or apple stores in Greece]. The answer is probably NOT.

It is more likely that Vodafone in Greece never had an exclusive deal or had a very short exclusive period [6 months]. BUT the question that begs to be answered is in how many countries does Apple hold non-exclusive deals, or exclusive deals that have now lapsed or are about to lapse?

Could it be that all 10 countries Vodafone quietly announced it was marketing the iphone [Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey] are all of them non-exclusive or have a short exclusivity period???

The guys at applelounge report that Apple’s own education site fas accidentaly leaked news of a new 17-inch iMac targeted at education institutions. The new iMac was priced at $899.

Steve Ballmer was asked about Apple’s momentum in the desktop and notebook market during the McGraw-Hill  2009 Media Summit conference in New York. Ballmer tried to slam Apple saying that the “tide has really turned” after recent Apple market share gains: “Apple gained about one point, but now I think the tide has really turned back the other direction. Ballmer was referring to the February 16% drop in mac and ipod sales. “The economy is helpful. Paying an extra $500 for a computer in this environment — same piece of hardware — paying $500 more to get a logo on it? I think that’s a more challenging proposition for the average person than it used to be.”

Ballmer of course conveniently forgets that PC sales have been hit as well. Ballmer has often referred to the difference in pricing between macs and PC’s as The Apple Tax. Ballmer’s latest comments however are not exactly complementing the masses when he says that people were paying $500 more an apple logo. Is it the apple logo or does hardware design, software and consumer experience have something to do with it? I’m just thinking out loud here.