“Vodafone is among the frontrunners to become the network operator for Apple’s iPhone when it comes to Europe, according to investment bank Credit Suisse,” Tim Ferguson reports for ZDNet Asia.
“A recent Credit Suisse research note said the U.K.-based mobile operator could walk away with the sole rights to sell the iPhone in Europe,” Ferguson reports. “Credit Suisse believes Vodafone would represent a good bet for Apple as it’s able to offer a presence in most European markets.”
“Vodafone’s chief rival appears to be Deutsche Telekom, according to Credit Suisse,” Ferguson reports. “Credit Suisse predicts the European operator for the iPhone can expect to sell around six million of the devices in the first three years.”
Full article here.
Does Vodaphone still own 50% of Verizon Wireless?
49% actually, and yes they still own it.
I really hope Vodafone wins Europe…
Then I would expect that Vodafone Australia would be a front runner to handle the iPhone in Australia!
iPhone planned for early ’08 in Australia, and my current Voda Oz plan expires aorund that time, so even if they don’t win I can jump I guess.
All networks in Australia are 3G, so I would expect that Apple would have a 3G model by then.
I know Telstra wont have a chance in Oz after their 3IC bagged the iPhone publicly (even though he’d never actually seen, let alone touched one!) – idiot!
my 2 cents,
Luke
I really hope it isn’t Vodafone. Their coverage in parts of England is awful and especially in Cornwall which, due to the creative nature of the industries, is one of the heaviest Mac owning areas.
Orange is best for us.
Simon Elliott
http://web.mac.com/simon_elliott/
http://web.mac.com/digitalteachers/
I am soooooooo glad I live in Asia. We normally just buy our phones ala carte and use them with whoever we want. I have sim cards for 4 different countries, all with different providers. Apple will have to sell “unlocked” phones over here, and I am willing to bet that within a day of their release, they will be all over eBay! Then the true carnage will begin! Bwa ha ha!
MDN Magic Word = “months” as in I am counting down the months until I can get my iPhone in Singapore!
Im with most others in the UK, not Vodaphone please, poor service and horrible reputation for over branding and feature crippling for their own ends. Roll on unlocked ones on eBay
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
Good…and bad. Vodafone is an excellent network when you’re on Pay-as-you-go and just using it for calls and texts, very good coverage etc. However, their contract plans are frankly just too expensive, and if I had to splash out £300+ for the iPhone I’d expect a lot cheaper than those. Now 3 would be a good choice of network, their rates are the most competitive for contracts and they’re seen as innovative, like Apple, so if Apple just made the iPhone 3G they’d have a winner in the UK.
Im with Simon on this… Orange is alot cheaper aswell… and i seem to get a signal with Orange network everywhere I go… I was with Vodafone a few months back and I couldnt pick up a signal in the places where i needed on…Orange has never failed me on that point.
@ Dilbert Dude, You seem to have missed the point in your excitement!
The iphone & Apple have changed the mobile phone business model. Have you seen the advertised tariff’s? apparently cheaper than most of the networks in USA. AT&T would not have dared offer such tariffs without the support & backing of Apple because they would have feared a backlash from their fellow operators.
We can expect to see such an enormous shift of models when the iphone finally arrives in Europe, where the main sticking point has been internet access & wi-fi.
Expect a change in model in Singapore eventually as the iphone seems to breaking alot of barriers.
Drink some Bactrian Camels Milk! after expelling a double humped fart, you will realise that to access wi-fi, Video downloads, music, conference calls, visual voicemail, google maps, YouTube, Yahoo’s push email via IMAP, or M$’s exchange the one consistent factor of the iphone simcard or not is that you will need access to itunes and the internet in order to fully utilise all its functions. How will an unlocked iphone help you access all of that if Apple inc. say it is not in your interest to have an unlocked iphone? How many companies in each Country will have rights to the iphone in the first wave? How many of them are willing to be told how they should operate their networks by Apple inc.?
@Dilbert Dude
My thoughts exactly. There’s no way they’d sell them locked in say, Thailand. Or most countries in asia. (Not sure about Japan.)
I’ll gladly shell out the cash to buy an unlocked one the second they’re available. Prolly no visual voicemail on your typical GSM network, but maybe there will be a 3G model available by then which would more than make up for it.
Also can’t see them selling an Edge phone in Europe. Don’t you guys have 3G everywhere pretty much?
In Sweden there aren’t any Vodafone anymore, they sold the network to norwegian Telenor, the only international carrier is 3.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
May be it doesn’t matter because we only shop for SonyEricsson mobiles, Volvo cars and IKEA furniture anyway
No Vodafone in Finland either but I Think Elisa is vodafone partner (??) and they can use that for marketing. Anyway what if you already have that kind of two year arrangement with some other operator? You just have to wait until that deal ends and after that you can buy an iPhone with new deal. That is of course if you don’t want to pay two phones at the same time.
This pre exclusive carrier thing sucks big time!
I want O2 to win this deal otherwise im gonna have to switch to Vodaphone :((
re: This pre exclusive carrier thing sucks big time!
—-
But remember, ever since the mobile phone business started it has used the ‘exclusive carrier’ business model all the time.
Whenever some new phone comes out it is always ‘exclusive’ to one carrier or service provider 1st.
Standard industry business practice and not unusual at all. Apple is doing the same as every other phone maker and to the majority of users wont be a deal breaker as people switch carriers all the time to get the latest and greatest new phone.
Vodafone is the dominant European carrier so this is no surprise. They also support 3G pretty much everywhere, so Apple will have to get their arse in gear over that one. 2G is soooooo 20th century.
But, pricing wise they suck and its a great shame that Apple are choosing to lock people into a single carrier, which undoubtedly exploit the monopoly to the full. Old habits die hard I guess.
Why isn’t the iPhone being released in Europe and other countries the same time as in the U.S.?
Supply?
answer M@c:
Mainly supply I guess and then there are lack of turbo-3G, MMS and videorecording which are a must on high-end mobiles over here!
Am I the only one who doesn’t want it at right now?
Buying the very first model of anything is just stupid, there WILL be problems (hopefully small but still) and I gladly give Apple a couple of months to test the iPhone on the US population first.
That way I’ll hopefully get one with fewer bugs.
My two ören.
6 million in 3 years? to a population of approx. 550 million people? (depends on which countries you actually include) 2 million a year to almost double the population of the united states? you are kidding, right?
magic word “minutes” as in “they will sell that number in a few minutes.”
Sorry, LukeinOz, but it looks like Telstra is going to walk away with it in Australia. Methinks their whine was just part of “negotiations.”
When a friend in Oz said to a cold-call-marketer from Vodafone that he wouldn’t be tempted to renew any contracts until he knew the plans and carrier for the iPhone down under, the marketer replied, “That’s why we do these surveys.” I think Vodafone would be reputation-neutral for Oz – a good thing; the question is whether they’ll step up to the plate.
I know more people who have switched from Vodafone in the UK than from any other company. They offer a really poor customer service, have a very unattractive charging structure and have so far been very hostile to the mention of the word ‘Mac’.
I would be happy to switch from Orange to any of the other networks in order to use an iPhone, but if the deal were exclusively with Vodafone, I’d be highly likely to decide not to get an iPhone.
@ Less is More
How do you know that Telstra will walk away with it?
Based on their current behaviour Telstra couldn’t organise a root in a brothel after winning the lottery!
Even the Howard Government has picked the Optus backed G8 against Telstra’s bid for Australia’s high speed broadband network roll-out!
I also cannot understand what your anecdote has to do with who will get the contract??? You do know that the cold-call-marketer “from Vodafone” is likely just an outsourced marketing call centre employee, who wouldn’t know Vodafone’s strategic plan if it slapped him in the face! Even if he did work for Vodafone, his pay level would no doubt mean the same thing – do you really think the senior marketing guys are calling random people to ask them to join vodafone?!?!
Also based on how Apple and Steve Jobs works, panning the iPhone as a useless underfeatured product (which is what the Telstra dope did) is the WORST way to negotiate with Steve Jobs and Apple, which brings me back to my brothel and lottery win analogy regarding Telstra at the moment!
Also you seem to miss the point that Vodafone Australia is a 100% owned subsidiary of Vodafone Group Plc. So if Vodafone gets the EU, I don’t think Vodafone Australia will have much to do with the deciding regarding “stepping up to the plate”
I am willing to accept you have some inside info about the deal (actually I really am not – Apple are watertight on these sort of things), but offer something more than atelemarketing anecdote to support your asssertion Telstra will get this and I’ll be happy to accept I will be paying more for my mobile service to get my iPhone (cause Telstra plans are a rip off compared to Vodafone Aus)
Cheers,
Luke