Stephen Withers
Thursday, 18 December 2008 06:17
IT Industry -
Market
Page 1 of 2
France Telecom subsidiary Orange has lost its exclusive partnership with Apple to sell the iPhone in France thanks to an complaint lodged by a competing carrier. The interim decision is subject to further investigation and a final determination. Mon dieu!
Apple's practice for selling the iPhone in many countries has been to establish a relationship with a single carrier. The precedent was set when the original model was exclusively available in the US in conjunction with AT&T.
But there's some choppy competitive waters flowing between French carriers along the Champs Elysees, and one of them has achieved its own
Arc de Triomphe by breaking Orange's exclusive hold.
Exclusivité is not the name of the game in all countries.
Australia is most notable for having the iPhone is available through multiple carriers, although what is arguably the best value carrier, 3 Mobile, has been excluded - despite its parent company happily selling the iPhone in Hong Kong.
In France, Apple chose to do business exclusively with Orange. But legal processes have upset that apple cart (groan), no doubt adding a touch of
rouge to the faces of Orange execs and sparking exclamations of "
non!"
The French Conseil de la Concurrence (anti-monopoly council) has ruled on an appeal lodged in September by Bouygues, one of the carriers that failed to get the rights to sell Apple's popular iPhone.
What's the effect of this ruling? See
page 2.
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