Come on, Apple! I'll be your friend...

With the iPhone 3G being the most hotly anticipated handset of the year, you can't blame the mobile carriers for wanting a piece of the lucrative action. But telco 3 has gone to extreme measures, creating a website where customers can beg Apple to make the phone available on the network.

The site, located at www.three.com.au/iphone, will go live tomorrow, and is accompanied by a mobile version — SMS the word iPhone to 333000 and you'll receive a digital form to submit your iPhone pleas.

Though less kind commentators might call the move a little desperate, Noel Hamill, director of Sales, Marketing & Product at 3, says it's all about satisfying the customers.

"Ever since Apple's announcement that a 3G iPhone is coming, we've had lots of calls and emails — the main flavour is people wanting to get the value that 3 offers with the iPhone," said Hamill in a statement released today.

"We want Apple to see just how much our customers want the iPhone."

Regardless of what convincing messages get posted on the site, the iPhone will not be available on 3 on 11 July. That date is reserved for Optus and Vodafone, but the 3 statement said the company "hopes it will come to 3 stores soon".

Telstra is yet to employ similar tactics, but we're betting the company would love to stock the iPhone in their shiny new T[Life] stores.