Vodafone has announced it will sell Apple's iPhone in Australia later this year.

The carrier would not say whether the agreement signed between it and Apple was exclusive, however, it is understood Telstra and Optus will also offer the device.

Optus and Apple declined to comment. Comment is being sought from Telstra.

Already, thousands of Australians have imported iPhones from the US and hacked them to run on local mobile networks.

A concrete date for the local iPhone launch has yet to be announced, however, it is likely to coincide with the opening of the official Apple store in the Sydney CBD around June.

Mark Novosel, telecommunications market analyst at IDC, said the fact that Vodafone hasn't announced whether the deal is exclusive indicates the iPhone will be sold by all carriers.

He said it is likely Vodafone will sell the iPhone at a discount and lock it to its network, in which case Apple would sell an unlocked version - capable of running on any carrier - through its own stores.

The model to be launched in Australia is likely to be a second-generation version that supports faster 3G networks, because local carriers are in the midst of migrating their customers over to 3G.

"I would be very surprised if it wasn't the 3G iphone, just given the state of Australia's market," Novosel said.

In the US the iPhone currently retails for $US400 for the 8GB version and $US500 for the 16GB version.

In addition to Australia, Vodafone will sell the iPhone in the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey.

"Vodafone Australia is enormously pleased to be included in the agreement to sell the iPhone to our customers later this year," Vodafone chief executive Russell Hewitt said.

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