Zimbabwe’s largest mobile network operator, Econet Wireless, is soon to become an official distributor of Apple products in the southern African country.

Econet chief commercial and customer services officer Stanley Henning said the company was now carrying out final negotiations with Apple to become the official distributor of iPhones, iPads and other Apple products in Zimbabwe.

"It has taken us a long time to get here but it has finally happened. We are now the official exclusive provider of Apple products in the country," Henning said.

Econet already has other distributor deals with Huawei and ZTE for cellphones and tablets.

On Tuesday Econet also officially launched its third shop for premium customers in capital city, Harare.

The premium customers' shop is a concept the company says is aimed at giving convenience to high end customers who include business executives and business owners who “may not have time to wait to get services in shops”.

The Econet branded shops offer back-up services and also sell cellphones in addition to general customer service facilities for the telecommunications industry.

Econet Wireless chief executive officer, Douglas Mboweni said the company was not “disregarding any of our customers” but it wants “to know them better”.

“So this is for business executives and business owners who do not have a lot of time to wait to be saved in a shop,” he said.

Econet has more than 8 million cellphone subscribers on its network and over 3 million registered mobile money users for its EcoCash platform.

The company, in a bid to cover up for declining revenues from traditional voice category, has now set its sights on data and other overlay services.