Australian phone company blasts the iPhone

Needles to say, Telstra will not be carrying the iPhone when it goes on sale in Australia in 2008

Australian mobile company Telstra has administered a scathing assault on the Apple iPhone , all but ruling out any chance it will carry the device when it launches Down Under next year. The stinging words came from the mouth of Greg Winn, a Telstra senior executive in an interview with the Australian Associated Press .

"There's an old saying, 'stick to your knitting', and Apple is not a mobile phone manufacturer, that's not their knitting," Winn told AAP.

The iPhone, demonstrated by Steve Jobs at Macworld in San Francisco last month, boasts a uniquely advanced user interface and an extremely accurate 'Multi-Touch' touchscreen that disposes of the need for movable buttons.

But Greg Winn believes that Apple is going to have to face up to some serious challenges when the iPhone launches later this year in the States.

"You can pretty much be assured that Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, ZTE and others will be coming out with devices that have similar functionality.

"I think people overreacted to it, there was not a lot of tremendously new stuff if you think about it," he said.

He then adds, "I am absolutely sure that device will be successful initially. What I'm not sure of is how much money they are willing to devote to all the life-cycle management and upgrades.

"It was maybe kind of cool on the touchscreen technology, but touchscreen technology is another domain so it's only a matter of time before it went to the device."

James Rivington

James was part of the TechRadar editorial team for eight years up until 2015 and now works in a senior position for TR's parent company Future. An experienced Content Director with a demonstrated history of working in the media production industry. Skilled in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), E-commerce Optimization, Journalism, Digital Marketing, and Social Media. James can do it all.

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