Telstra was orginally tagged as the potential provider for the Apple iPhone in Australia when it is released there next month. This was previous to comments from Greg Winn, operations chief for Telstra, "There's an old saying - stick to your knitting - and Apple is not a mobile phone manufacturer, that's not their knitting."

Winn also said, "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 it - there was not a lot of tremendously new stuff if you think about it. 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. They did an exclusive with Cingular and they talked about a global rollout - well, Cingular is not a global company".

In summary, Winn feels the iPhone is not a revolutionary mobile device. These comments come as a suprise as Telstra was billed as the favorite to be the initial wirless provider of the iPhone in Australia.

Thanks Smarthouse