Vodafone secures Apple iPhone deal to rival Orange and O2

29/09/2009 15:56:00

Just one day after Orange announced its own partnership with Apple, raising the prospect of a price war between rival operators.

The announcement follows rival UK operator Orange announcement that it is to sell the iPhone, ending O2's exclusivity with the iconic smartphone and in the process becoming the first UK operator to break O2's stranglehold.

Beginning today, Vodafone UK and Vodafone Ireland customers can register their interest in iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS at a dedicated website.

Vodafone said it will reveal pricing, tariffs and availability information at a later date. Without securing the rights to the iPhone, Vodafone faced the prospect of losing hundreds of thousands of its customers to rivals O2 and Orange.

It is understood Vodafone only secured the agreement following secret talks late last night after Orange had dominated headlines throughout the day with its announcement.

The move is good news for UK consumers previously discouraged by the iPhone's upper end of the market price tag.

However, hopes for a Christmas price war were dashed by Vodafone's agreement coming into effect after the festive trading period.

For the past two years, the iPhone was only available on the 02 network in the UK. But Apple has recently moved to open up the phone to multiple networks across several countries in an attempt to maximise sales.

Yesterday, Apple announced the App Store was experiencing huge demand, with the total number of apps downloaded exceeding 2bn.

Source: Brand Republic

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