Why the European iPhone Deal Rumors May Make Sense
According to the Financial Times and several other sources across the Internet, Apple has struck deals with several operators for the European iPhone launch.
The deal allegedly gives initial exclusivity to:
- O2 in the UK
- T-Mobile in Germany
- Orange in France
This means that the European negotiations are initially very complex given that each of these operators compete against each other across most of Europe. For true pan European coverage, the simple deal would be to go with one – rather than all.
Here’s why:
- O2 – owned by Telefonica – is the 3rd largest operator with 154.8 million subscribers (June 2007)*
- T-Mobile is the 6th largest operator with 111.8 million subscribers (June 2007)*
- Orange – owned by France Telecom – the 7th largest operator with 73.2 subscribers (March 2007)*
The coverage for each operator in Europe:
- Telefoncia (O2) – Spain, UK, Germany, Czech Republic, Morocco, Republic of Ireland, Slovakia
- T-Mobile – Germany, UK, Poland, Netherlands, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro
- France Telecom (Orange) – France, UK, Poland, Spain, Israel, Romania, Moldova, Slovakia, Netherlands
However, if the deal could be pulled off and the iPhone becomes distributed across each of these operators European and Global networks (following any territorial exclusivity which is assumed following the US deal with AT&T), it would give the iPhone an additional potential user base of 339.8 million subscribers – just beating China mobiles impressive #1 subscriber position – and in great shape to meet it’s target sales figure.
Another motivation for this deal might be to snub the stubborn Vodafone Gorilla who may be (as it’s rumored) difficult to do business with as a handset manufacturer. This would force Apple into these more complex negotiations with this Euro triumvirate to measure up to the world’s number 2.
Of course don’t discount this whole rumor as a bargaining position with Vodafone as Apple would need something like this to hold over them to have any leverage.
Either way, official news should come out by the end of the month, so European Apple fans will need to sit on their current operator contracts until then.
* Source: Wikipedia