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Previous Remarks Overruled, Telstra Opts for iPhone 3G

Monday, July 7th, 2008 at 3:55 PM - by

Back in February, Telstra's second in command said that one should stick to one's knitting and "Apple is not a mobile phone manufacturer, that's not their knitting." Those words have come back haunt Greg Winn, according to Australian IT on Monday. Telstra struck a deal last week to offer the iPhone in Australia in competition with Optus and Vodafone.

In a February interview, Mr. Winn said:

"There's an old saying, stick to your knitting, and Apple is not a mobile phone manufacturer, that's not their knitting. You can pretty much be assured that Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and ZTE and others will be coming out with devices that have similar functionality. I think people overreacted to the iPhone. There was not a lot of tremendously new stuff if you think about it."

Last week, Mr. Winn's boss, Sol Trujillo, closed a deal with Apple to offer that knittable iPhone 3G with a large selection of plans.

David Frith also pointed out that Telstra can offer something that Optus and Vodafone cannot right now: nationwide 3G coverage in Australia. In fact, Telstra has claimed that their "Next G" network, using the 850 MHz band, can reach 98 percent of the Aussie population with 7.2 Mbps performance.

"So much for sticking to your knitting," Mr. Frith noted.

Photo Credit: http:/www.essentialbaby.com.au/

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Mon Jul 07, 2008 5:23 pm

Greg Winn is a moron

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Tue Jul 08, 2008 11:33 am

Apple does have the knack of making a lot of tech execs look and sound stupid. Mr. Winn is in good company: Michael Dell, Steve Ballmer, that guy from Palm . . .

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