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Orange to sell iPhone in the UK
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 28 September 2009
Orange has announced that it will start selling Apple’s iPhone later this year, in a move that brings to an end O2’s exclusivity deal with the IT firm. It’s not clear when Orange customers will be able to buy an iPhone linked to the mobile’s network, though Mobile Entertainment magazine reports that O2’s exclusivity period ends on 6 Oct.
As you all surely remember, Apple did exclusivity deals with different phone networks in each territory when it first launched its popular iPod/mobile hybrid. The deals meant that consumers could only buy an iPhone if they switched to Apple’s chosen network partner, unless they were willing to acquire a phone off the approved tel co and then ‘unlock’ it.
It’s not known what O2 paid for the exclusivity rights in the UK, nor whether they have secured sufficient new business to justify such an investment. Though, despite a slightly lacklustre start, the iPhone has become the must-have handset of the moment, and its association with the most high profile music phone certainly aided O2’s efforts to position itself as the mobile network for music fans.
Presumably if Orange’s planned merger of its UK operations with those of T-Mobile goes ahead, that will make the iPhone available to a rather large portion of the mobile using population. No word on whether Vodafone is also looking for an Apple deal in the UK also.
