Where in the World is 3G iPhone, O

Apple inked a deal with Vodafone to bring the 3G iPhone to Australia, New Zealand, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, South Africa and Turkey! Also, this year Rogers Communications of Canada says they'll be joining the world wide club, as well as Mexican wireless carrier America Movil said they will be selling the 3G iPhone in Mexico and South America.

Apple broke their monogamy business model of one carrier-one country, by marrying Vodafone and Telecom Italia to Italy. We should have listened back in February, when Tim Cook declared that Apple was not married to the single-carrier business model at a Goldman Sachs Investment Symposium.

On the home front, the 3G iPhone seems imminent for a mid June release. You gotta think that if your boss tells you to nix any vacation plans, something big is up, right? In a memo to employees, AT&T Mobility said they wanted all hands on deck between June 15 and July 15. The memo attempted to motivate employees stating, "We’ll meet the challenge head-on by providing an exciting Summer Promotional Launch to enable your sales to soar." That should make up for the lost vacation.

And to add gravitas of the expected timing, Apple holds it's Worldwide Developers Conference from June 9 to June 13. As in past WWDC events, Steve Jobs is expected to invoke the reality distortion field with a key note speech, probably on Friday the 9th, in order to let the news bake in over the weekend.

The 3G iPhone, as it's name implies, will connect to the much faster 3G network, making web access a much better user experience. And what would this story be without rumors of other expected improvements like a sleek black anodized finish, a better camera, perhaps even video. And the icing on the cake, new firmware support for Chinese handwriting recognition. Can we add China to the worldly list too?