When the announcement came in June this year that the 3G iPhone will be launched in Africa, I was eagerly anticipating to witness the hype in Nigeria, even though I had witnessed the hype first hand in France last year.

Before then, Vodafone had signed a ten-country deal with Apple to supply the iPhone to Africa. In September, the 3G iPhone finally arrived in South Africa after a lot of rumors and speculations.

Today, iPhone 3G is available in 64 countries across Europe, Asia, Australia, North America, South America, the Middle East and the Carribeans. In Africa, the 3G iPhone is currently available in Egypt and South Africa.

I was curious to see what African countries are next in line for the 3G IPhone launch, so I visited the Apple’s website only to find out that Nigeria was not listed amongst a total of 13 African countries where the 3G iPhone is launching soon. This makes me wonder if Apple recognises Nigeria’s mobile phone users growth rate (over 66 million mobile phones in Nigeria) and the fact that Nigeria is the largest telecoms market in Africa.

Although it was indicated that country availability and rollout schedule are subject to change, it’s hard to believe that Nigeria has been left out of the iPhone craze and buzz around the world.

On the funny side, here is a cartoon from Wired Scout that describes the launch of iPhone in Nigeria.

About iPhone 3G

With fast 3G wireless technology, GPS mapping, support for enterprise features like Microsoft Exchange, and the new App Store, iPhone 3G puts even more features at your fingertips. And like the original iPhone, it combines three products in one — a revolutionary phone, a widescreen iPod, and a breakthrough Internet device with rich HTML email and a desktop-class web browser.