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Mon, 17 Sep 2007 Apple's European iPhone plans emerge

Reports confirm O2, T-Mobile and Orange for Euro-iPhone

Jonny Evans

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Apple is expected to confirm that O2 will be the iPhone's official UK mobile network tomorrow, as more news emanates concerning Apple's iPhone launch plans in Europe.

It appears Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile has secured the rights to sell the iPhone exclusively across five European countries. Orange has secured rights for France.

T-Mobile will sell the iPhone in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Hungary and Croatia, according to a report in the Financial Times. T-Mobile is rumoured to be handing over 10 per cent of iPhone revenues in order to clinch this deal.

In the UK, The Guardian claims O2 finally secured a last minute exclusive on the iPhone by agreeing to give Apple 40 per cent of iPhone-derived revenue plus a percentage of the sale price, prompting one analyst to characterise the deal as "madly money-losing".

Original plans had been for Orange and O2 to share the device, on account of the UK's more fractured mobile phone market.

Carphone Warehouse has also been signed up as the sole independent distributor of the product, other than Apple and O2.

Apple's negotiating techniques have been called into question, this report claims: "Throughout discussions over marketing the iPhone in Europe, Apple has played off the UK's four main networks - O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone - against each other. All of them, at one stage, believed they had an exclusive deal for the British market."

Vodafone is described as having dropped out of the bidding war when it realised it would be unable to secure a pan-European deal.

The Guardian report claims a deal with T-Mobile will be confirmed on Wednesday, with a deal in France with Orange set to be confirmed on Thursday this week.

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