Is it really a Flat World ?

When the NY times reporter Thomas Friedman wrote about the World being Flat , most of us nodded in agreement and were excited about the new order of the world. But seems like a few of us are still living in history and when the "few of us" includes the likes of Steve Jobs and his Apple, it really makes the "rest of us" feel sad. How else does one explain the fact that the Apple's newest toy the iPhone will launched in Europe and Asia only by the early 2008.

Last week Apple released the iphone in the United States and it seems to be selling like hot cakes. And given the media hype generated ( remember Media is now living in a real Flat world with me having access to likes of NY times, Washington Post etc sitting right here in India), it should have been appropriate that the phone gets a worldwide launch. Apple is only encouraging the Grey market selling and smuggling of iphone by not going for a Worldwide launch. Remember how the entertainment industry is fighting piracy ? . It is going for Worldwide simultaneous releases of Movies ( The Matrix -III, Spiderman-III did it ).Also remember that a flat world implies that nearly 3 million Indians today travel across the Altantic every year implying that anyone can buy the iphone in the US and ship it across to his/her friends and relatives back in India.

One would have thought that technical issues like band spectrum are stopping Apple from launching the iphone everywhere. But ask any one in the grey market and all they say is " GEt the phone sir. I will unlock the spectrum for Rs100/- and you can use it". So not sure how long we really have to wait for the official launch of Iphone. Meanwhile I am asking my cousin in the United States to ship the newest gizmo to me whenever he gets a chance to grab one or two :)