There’s a lot of talk via TechMeme about the Guardian’s story ‘O2 wins Apple iPhone deal’.
Everyone’s focusing on whether it will only come with EDGE, instead of 3G and that as well as 40% of call/data revenue (!) going back to Apple, Carphone Warehouse will be selling the devices.
But that’s all traditional UK cellular telco business (apart from the revenue share – that’s a UK first)
What I’m most interested in (and we’ll find out tomorrow) is if they’ll use the same purchasing model as in the states – buy for a fixed cost, then activate at home via iTunes…that really changes the purchasing model for phones in the UK/EU as unless it’s pre-pay, actually get hold of a ‘contract free’ device.
If T-Mobile and Orange sell them in Germany and France respectively, will I, as a T-Mobile subscriber, be able to buy a German t-mobile iphone, but use it with a UK t-mobile SIM (and from France for Orange subscribers)?
That would presumably kill off UK exclusivity and create an instant grey import market for pre-authed iPhones originating in Germany and France.
I don’t know about SIM cards enough to know whether they’re both operator and country locked (I suspect they are :-(.
Of course, if they’re country and operator locked, I suppose, keen people will revert back to hacking their devices…
Disclaimer – T-Mobile (and Vodafone) are clients of Participo. Although (rather obviously) I don’t know anything more than you about any of their plans :-)