It’s been a long, rumour-strewn road so far… But the Guardian newspaper reports this morning that O2 has finally won the battle to carry Apple’s iPhone in the UK (as we predicted last week).
With an official announcement due tomorrow, 18th September, the Guardian seems to have snagged some last-minute scoopage as the iPhone deal shifted to O2 following it making a huge revenue sharing offer. It’s claimed that O2 is to pass around 40% of its revenue from the iPhone back to Apple, potentially turning the deal into a huge loss-leader for the operator.
Apple has made no friends among the European operators during the bidding process, with both Orange and T-Mobile thought to have signed contracts at various stages. After news of Orange’s N81 boycott, it’s nice to hear of the boot being firmly on the other foot.
The report also claims that Carphone Warehouse has been brought in by Apple as a retail partner for O2, further diluting the available cash. But whoever’s making what out of the iPhone, we’re simply looking forward to the thing finally being available in the UK. There’s no word, however, on whether we’ll be getting a new 3G/ HSDPA-friendly version of the handset, or be stuck with a crappola EDGE data connection like the US.
Update: more pre-launch speculation and news here.
Update 18th Sept: the UK iPhone has been confirmed to appear on 9th Nov on O2 but without 3G — click here to read the main details, here for the tariffs on O2, and here for info about the free iPhone wi-fi access offer in the UK.
0 Responses to “O2 lands iPhone deal after massive revenue sharing offer”