Vodafone is working very hard right now by suing T-Mobile in Germany for exclusivity of the yet un-announced 3G Apple iPhone. The rumors are flying about when the 3G iPhone is going to be released. An Italian site More.IT claims to have information from high-level sources.
The high-level source “confirms” that Vodafone has signed an exclusive deal with Apple to sell the iPhone. Details are murky about this deal but the 3G iPhone launch would occur in all countries at the same time where the cellular carrier operates. The actual announcement of the 3G iPhone would not happen until after MacWorld Expo in January as to not impact sales of the current 2.5G EDGE iPhone.
Other comments on iPhone news web sites mention a 3G release before sometime in May of 2008. Right now an iPhone sold through Vodafone in the UK and Germany would be in conflict of long-term exclusive deals with O2 and T-Mobile. This may mean that since there would be two different iPhone’s after the 3G announcement, Apple could be signing deals based on the cell phone hardware and not for the actual iPhone brand. Via Tuaw.