Apple continued its global drive to dominate the 3G cell phone market with iPhone 3G rollouts this week in parts of Europe, South America, India and the Far East. Demand in all locales. However, it was not nearly as high as in the U.S. market.

Analysts chalked up the less-than-manic reception to the high price of the iPhone 3G as well as the cost for 3G data service in several countries. For information, in India, an iPhone 3G retails for more than $700 with bundled service, truly expensive for middle-class Indians with an income of only $3,000/capita. As a result, the India iPhone provider, Vodafone, is expected to sell the phone on installment plans.

Elsewhere, the result of 3G data expenses for a year’s subscription has shown that the iPhone 3G three to four times more expensive than competing cell phones and plans. For example, in Poland, local carrier Orange hired actors to pose as people waiting in line in front of its stores. Orange officials admitted they pulled the stunt to boost interest in the launch. Other competitor, such as T-Mobile, also offers the iPhone 3G in Poland, played the launch straight with no queues, real or fake, outside its Warsaw storefronts.

Surprisingly, reports from New Zealand put the cost of the iPhone 3G at more than $1,000 with bundled service, but they are selling. Some cell phone stores in South America have ran out of the gadget on launch day, and iPhone 3Gs showed up on Argentina’s eBay.

Meanwhile, reports from the Germany and United Kingdom, where the iPhone 3G was rollout at the same time as in the U.S., have the gadget selling, but not flying off the shelves. O2, as the UK’s exclusive carrier, is even tripling minutes and text-messaging limits to boost sales. O2 reportedly wanted to sell 200,000 units by this time but fell short of its aim. One simple consideration in the global allocation game, if they do not sell it, they lose it.

The official Apple line on sales is that it expects to hit 10 million by the end of the year. Piper Jaffrey’s Gene Munster pegs Apple’s potential iPhone 3G user base at more than 660 million. However, Apple will not come close to hitting that number anytime soon.

Currently, the production of the iPhone 3G is expected to ramp up to nearly 150,000 per-day, and rumors are spreading out on blogs that Apple intends to push to sell 45 million iPhones by August 2009. Undoubtedly, according to some analysts, that is ambitious, given the softer-than-expected global market sales.

A rollout in Russia is scheduled in phase three of the launch in October. Analysts estimate another 1.5 million to three million units could hit Russia market before year’s end. Another wild card is China, still with no official iPhone 3G rollout scheduled. In addition, in the domestic market, Apple has inked an agreement with Best Buy, instantly adding hundreds of new stores for the iPhone 3G.

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