Orange is to offer Apple’s iPhone in its international markets later this year, the France Telecom-owned mobile operator announced in a brief statement this morning. The deal is the latest in a flurry of new agreements made by Apple recently to expand the global footprint of the iPhone. Orange said it will launch the device in Austria, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Jordan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland and its African markets. However, the operator gave no specific details on the agreements, including whether Orange will be the exclusive distributor of the device in some markets, as it is currently in France. There was also no word on whether the device offered will be the current handset that runs over EDGE technology, or a 3G version rumoured for launch as soon as next month. Already this month, Apple has struck a deal to bring the device to ten Vodafone markets, and has secured deals with SingTel and America Movil to launch the iPhone in Asia-Pacific and Latin America, respectively. In some cases this has meant more than one operator offering the device in a market, a notable departure from the exclusive arrangements with operators that Apple preferred when it first launched the device. According to reports, the new strategy could be aimed at ramping up sales to meet its target of selling 10 million iPhones by year-end. Apple’s latest figures state it had sold 5.4 million devices worldwide by the end of March. T-Mobile announced separately this week that it has sold 100,000 iPhones in Germany since launch in November 2007, in line with its internal targets.

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