For nearly two years now O2 have had exclusive rights to ship the iPhone in the UK, but all that is set to change. As their contract with Apple is set to expire come early October rumours are circulating that Apple do not wish to renew it.
Apple signed exclusive deals with network providers in the UK, France, Germany and the US to carry the highly popular touchscreen, and in the UK it was O2 that struck it lucky. O2 have stated that their exclusive rights to the iPhone has been the principal reason for their stronghold in the mobile phone market. Apple iPhone customers are said to be highly prized by O2 due to their willingness to spend larger quantities of money than other phone users.
Since they signed their deal with Apple, O2 have shipped over 1.5 million iPhones in the UK and O2 rivals have been highly envious of the deal during the last two years and many of them have found it a difficult period to get through. Vodafone state that their inability to sell the Apple device has badly affected their business and they are eagerly awaiting the happy day in October when their pecuniary nightmare will come to an end.
Apparently Apple are quite keen for the contract to come to an end as well as they would like to see the device sold through more networks to increase revenue. This has been the trend in other countries where Apple had signed exclusive deals; deals that have now expired and seen the iPhone offered to all major networks. On the contrary, O2 state that they, and they claim Apple, are very happy with the deal and have no intention to change it.
This may be of little relevance anyway as O2 rivals T-Mobile have already pre-empted the deal cancellation and started shipping iPhones regardless. Although they do not officially advertise the handset it has been reported that they are offering unlocked iPhones to customers threatening to jump ship and swim to O2.
Tags: Apple-iPhone, Apple-iPhone-3G-S