Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s iPhone landed in France yesterday, just in time for the holiday shopping season. As expected, the iPhone culture instantly took hold with one waiting iPhone customer wanting to "buy the first iPhone in Paris." Talk about someone needing their 15 minutes.France Telecom, which operates the Orange wireless carrier in that country, said it wanted to be able to claim 100,000 iPhone sales this year, which gives it a month to make that sales figure.
Wireless consumers in Europe, though, are generally used to more advanced equipment than what U.S. customers receive, and the slower 2.5G network that the current iPhone operates on, plus its high price (just under $1,000), may turn off some customers in France and other European countries. So far, though, those limitations have not slowed iPhone sales in the U.S.
Apple will be launching the iPhone in Asia next year. With dreams of 10 million unit sales in 2008, Apple has quite a few sales to make next year. With a launch in Asia, though, it should be able to make that number quite easily based on population density alone.



