If you are an Orange customer and you want an iPhone, but you didn’t want to change to O2, then there is some good news today. Orange has announced that it has signed a deal with Apple to allow it to start selling the smartphone/iPod in the UK. In fact Orange have even setup a website so you can register your interest.
The announcement comes just when O2’s exclusive contract for distributing the iPhone in the UK is coming to an end. Orange made a brief statement about the deal where it said that Orange and Apple have reached an agreement to bring the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3GS to Orange customers in the UK. The iPhone will be available through all the normal Orange outlets including Orange shops, the Orange webshop and Orange telesales channels as well as selected high street shops.
Orange is no stranger to selling the iPhone in Europe, where it has distribution rights in Austria, France, Portugal, Switzerland, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. Such a wide distribution network makes Orange the perfect partner for Apple in the UK.
As of yet there is no word from Orange on pricing, we can assume that Orange will want to target O2 in it’s pricing, but how aggressively it will do this isn’t yet clear. It is known that the pricing is partially controlled by Apple in that they expect a certain amount of money for each iPhone sold.
My French isn’t that good but a quick look at the Orange France website seems to tell me that the lowest monthly subscription for the iPhone is €39 per month with €99 up front for the iPhone 3G 8GB. That is about £36 per month which is in the same ball park as O2’s current offering.
source Zath (via Gadget Venue)
If you want to register your interest then goto http://www.orange.co.uk/iPhone.