May 6 (Bloomberg) -- Vodafone Group Plc, the world's largest mobile-phone company, won a contract to sell Apple Inc.'s iPhone this year in 10 countries with a total population of more than 1.4 billion, including Australia, India and Italy.

Vodafone will also offer the iPhone in the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey, the Newbury, England-based company said in a statement today. Milan-based Telecom Italia SpA will also sell the iPhone in Italy by the end of the year, it said in a separate statement today.

The deal is a win for Vodafone, which lost out last year to Telefonica SA's O2 and Carphone Warehouse Group Plc for the rights to distribute Apple's combination media player and mobile phone in the U.K., which has a population of 60.8 million. For Apple, the agreement is part of Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs's plan to capture more buyers outside the U.S.

Last month, Cupertino, California-based Apple reiterated its plan to ship 10 million iPhones in 2008, capturing 1 percent of the global mobile-phone market. The company sold almost 4 million iPhones last year. Apple already sells the device in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Austria and Ireland.

Apple's decision to offer the iPhone in Italy through two companies differs from its previous strategy of selling the handset exclusively through one provider in each country.

Emerging Markets

In the past two years, Vodafone has bought stakes in wireless operators in India and Turkey to tap faster-growing emerging markets and has said it wants to expand in other countries.

In India alone, mobile operators have added more than 8 million wireless subscribers each month for the past six months, making the country the fastest-growing major wireless market.

Vodafone shares fell 2.7 pence, or 1.7 percent, to 160.8 pence in London trading. Apple rose $1.93 to $186.66 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading.

San Antonio-based AT&T Inc., Apple's exclusive provider of the iPhone in the U.S., has said it will sell a new version of the handset later this year. The new iPhone is expected to offer faster downloads from the Internet over so-called third- generation, or 3G, wireless networks.

Apple plans to sell a 3G version of the iPhone by August in some European countries as part of the rollout of the 10-country expansion announced today, the New York Times reported, citing a person close to the situation it didn't identify.

Apple's London-based spokesman Alan Hely declined to comment on the New York Times article or elaborate beyond the press release.

To contact the reporters on this story: Alex Armitage in London at aarmitage@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 6, 2008 16:23 EDT