That's the date that we now know will see the official release of an iPhone into the New Zealand mobile phone market in the form of the iPhone 3G. At the time of writing, few other details are available about how the phone will become available and on what plans through Vodafone, but what is known is the apparent lack of an option for prepay customers.

There's no denying that the iPhone 3G (the model that will be available here) is revolutionary and will be an exceptionally popular phone. If prices in the US are to go by, Vodafone NZ is likely to sell the phone at a reasonable price and combine it with a commitment by users to sign on to account plans which likely will be the greater source of revenue for the company and for Apple.

What form these plans will take is, at the time of writing, purely speculation. Perhaps what is unique is that whilst the phone will be available in New Zealand on data plans only, this is not the case (it appears) with the other Vodafone countries included in the July 11 launch date.

As discussed here, the editing of the Press Release specifically on the Vodafone NZ site indicates a differing of approaches on a country-by-country basis. This decision has been at the consternation of a number of people (the author included) and has already lead some to speculate on ways and means of getting an iPhone that will work on the New Zealand Vodafone network without signing on to a data plan. It should be noted that there are already numerous iPhone (v1) models being used in New Zealand, despite the fact they were never officially made available here.

The iPhone 3G is an incredibly impressive follow-on to the initial model. With 3G networking that is claimed to work twice as fast as the first generation iPhone, built-in GPS and iPhone 2.0 software which includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and runs the hundreds of third party applications that will be available for the iPhone, it will be available in both 8Gb and 16 Gb versions from Vodafone.

Over the next few days and weeks, NZiPhone.com will keep you posted on news of data plans, activation processes, clarification on the removal of the PrePay option and more. It's going to be a great time....so get ready!

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