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Vodafone confirms it will sell iPhones
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 29 September 2009
Vodafone have confirmed that they too will be selling the iPhone from in the near future. As previously reported, with O2’s exclusivity deal with Apple coming to an end next week, Orange announced yesterday it would soon be selling the popular iPod/mobile hybrid. Vodafone confirmed rumours that it too would soon be selling the iPhone this morning, with a 2010 launch looking likely.
It’s thought the sale of iPhones by three UK mobile networks – Orange, Vodafone and existing seller O2 – will lead to a price war over the devices. The Telegraph quote Steven Hartley from research firm Ovum who says this: “There will be a price war. Research shows that in every country where there is more than one operator selling it, it is cheaper. It could be very disruptive, but it depends how Orange play it. If they get really aggressive O2 will have to respond and a full-on price war could start”.
So that’s nice. Virgin Mobile are also reportedly busy trying to secure a deal to sell the iPhone in the UK, worried that failure to do so will lose them customers. The Apple handset is certainly popular – Vodafone boss Vittorio Colao recently said he thought a key reason his network lost nearly 160,000 subscribers in the last quarter was because his company couldn’t sell them an iPhone. And a price war on the device would make it an attractive purchase to an even bigger audience.
