“O2, the mobile phone company, laid the groundwork yesterday for an announcement of a tie-up with Apple to sell the US firm’s iPhone handset,” Elizabeth Judge reports for The Times Online.
“Peter Erskine, the O2 chief executive, defended Apple’s insistence that it receives a share of revenues from calls made on iPhones,” Judge reports. “Apple is expected to reveal that O2 will be its British network within the next few days.”
“Mr Erskine defended Apple’s insistence on sharing subscriber revenues with network operators, saying that such agreements were still advantageous,” Judge reports. “Revenue-sharing deals with handset manufacturers are unheard of within the mobile industry. Manufacturers such as Nokia usually receive no cut of the calls made on their devices.”
MacDailyNews Take: There’s a reason for that.
Judge continues, “Vodafone is thought to have pulled out of the bidding war for the iPhone in Britain because of its reluctance to give 10 per cent of revenues from calls to the California-based company.”
MacDailyNews Take: If so, that would confirm Vodafone is run by fools (which we already suspected because Vodafone owns 45% of Verizon Wireless in the U.S., which also foolishly blew the iPhone deal, losing out to AT&T).
Judge continues, “Mr Erskine also praised the iPhone as an ‘iconic device with unique features that have proven to have tremendous appeal to large numbers of customers in the US’… the iPhone has sold more than one million units [in the U.S.] since its launch on June 29… As well as the deal with O2, Orange is expected to be unveiled as Apple’s chosen partner in France, with T-Mobile the winner in Germany.”
Full article here.
So, Peter Erskine gave up drumming to do this?
And now he beats the odds….
O2 seems cooler. Not sure why. Oh…it’s the iPhone.
Just one more thing that sets Apple apart from all the other handset manufacturers; asking for, and receiving a slice of a carrier’s revenue.
In the greater scheme of things, I believe O2 and AT&T;are getting a much better deal than Universal, who is getting a similar deal from Microsoft’s Zune sales; which is spectacularly underwhelming by comparison, I’m sure.
2.5G is outdated in UK. What iphone will do ??
Telstra’s got it for Oz. Bye voda.
Apple and Orange, go figure
Hell no, not Telstra, there just as bad as Microsoft, money hungry and couldnt give a crap about their customers. Anyone but Telstra for Oz.
Ye-he-hes!!!!
I’ve been with 02 for nearly 7 years, so getting a free iPhone will be as simple as making a phone call to my account manager and I’m in!
Thanks Steve, you da man!
@ TT
You had me for a second. I had to look it up!
jabba: “Apple and Orange, go figure”
O2 is not Orange.
You spell Vodaphone like this: G.R.E.E.D.Y
Hey TowerTone, I wonder if you can get the “Weather Report” on the iPhone over there???
Holy crap! 10% of revenue on phone calls made??? If Apple gets similar deals in every other country in the world, that’s going to add up to some serious cash!
This is going to be good for my stake in AAPL…
@ MacMaster:
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Why shouldn’t it work? Weather widgets also work smoothly worldwide… and shares are worldwide anyway… thinking about appl…
90% of something is better than 100% of nothing
I read a news somewhere that O2 has been updating its towers in the UK to support Edge. (Sorry, can’t remember the source.)
So next week: good news, it’s an iPhone in the UK. Bad news, it WILL be 2.5G!
I hope I’m wrong.
MDN Magic Word: “waiting” – till iPhone 3G
>TowerTone wrote: So, Peter Erskine gave up drumming to do this?
… and they said Fusion was dead.
O2 also won’t have to subsidize iPhones, like they may do with other manufacturer’s phones (at least that’s the US model). So when you factor in 10% of subscriber fees over time v. paying up front to subsidize the phone, it’s very likely a better deal for O2 and AT&T;. They don’t have to pay until they get paid by customers, and they can adjust their rates to compensate for some of the payment to Apple (subject to restrictions in the contract with Apple, of course).
“… and they said Fusion was dead.”
Yes, Viva la Weather Report!
Joe has rejoined Jaco, twenty years later…..
telstra most definately do NOT have the deal tied up for australia. didnt you read their bullsh*t comments dissing apple and saying they could never succeed in the mobile phone industry?
and as far as the comment that 2.5g is outdated in the uk, ok yea but what an you do with the bandwidth? in real world usage its not as though mobile devices fly in the uk anyway, stop trying to make it seem they do.
>Joe has rejoined Jaco, twenty years later…..
… as well as good friend, Cannonball.
I hope Telstra don’t have the contract in Australia. I am happy with Vodafone.