Finally after long awaiting, The iPhone G3/S will land in Israel in few months from now, thanks to Pelephone and Orange.
Both of the carriers have released a PR with one hour difference regarding the arrival of the device to Israel. Pelephone uses a direct link to Apple and Orange will use a local distributor. Orange will probably benefit its ownership relations with the H3G group. The model is yet to be revealed and many speculations are mentioned in different forums.

The truth must be told Israel was not an “Apple Freak”, Macs were sold here for a long time but as the popularity of Apple was never too noticeable.

The iPod int its 4gen, I think, was the first step forward  as it was imported officially, but that was it, there was no Hebrew support and you can (still) forget about buying songs through iTunes.
The situation improved in small steps after and official Hebrew support was distributed.
And then came the iPhone (but not to Israel), Keynote after keynote as Steve Jobs and iPhone are becoming a bright star in the mobile industry sky, Israelis wanted the device for its design statement and for its internet browsing experience. The technological enthusiasts were disappointed time after time where there was no mentioning of Israel in the presentations Apple had.
That did not disturb an iPhone community to grow in Israel, an estimated amount of 80,000 iPhones are here with Hebrew, apps and everything else (of course with the lack of iTunes support).

Back to the future how will the (official arrival) of the iPhone impact the Israeli industry? you  just need to give a quick review over this week announcements, evaluations and updates to understand that the iPhone is going to change the Israeli market. It is not predicted to have a significant percentage but there will be a gold rush. Pelephone is cleaning the dust from its CDMA network devices so probably iPhone will be one of the incentives for users to transit from the old CDMA network to the new HSDPA one. For Orange, a network that is branded around innovation, missing the iPhone train i unacceptable and therefore they will also show the device but less likely to push it unless the bundle will include a monthly payment that will resemble what they get for the blackberry devices they distribute. the problem is that an iPhone bundle of around 60$ (like the AT&T) will not pass as the younger audience which wants this device and haven’t had the chance to import it, will probably go for another device or order an iPhone from eBay.

There are many disadvantages to iPhone as it is an internet centric device coming from the US market which is much less advanced. You can see that the iPhone has a 3.2 MP camera (not really advanced), it supports MMS (it appeared in Israel at 2000 and died 2 months later ), and a personal note it is a 3G phone that doesn’t support 3G video calls… Is this really a 3G device??? well of course it is, with an American accent, you get a great internet access and experience, and this is a good thing. Why?! with the entrance of more internet centric devices (such as the blackberry, the E71, and the iPhone) mobile operators have to respond and develop the internet infrastructure / supporting technologies / offers… The internet centric devices actually assist to push the Israeli market closer and closer to IMS (IP Multimedia Sub-System) which is a very good thing (we will elaborate about it when the time is right).