Apple, Orange haggling over l'iPhone

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 11 October 2007 03:21

Your IT - Mobility

The previous announcement by France Telecom CEO Didier Lombard that his company's Orange subsidiary would get the iPhone deal in France may have been premature, but it seems the two companies have now made a deal.

Lombard said yesterday that Apple and France Telecom have signed a contract and the French launch of the iPhone will take place in November, according to Thomson Financial.

The iPhone will go on sale in Germany and the UK on November 9, but Apple has yet to make an announcement about its plans for France.

HardMac (the English translation of French web site MacBidouille) says mandatory phone unlocking means the deal has been structured differently for France. iPhones will be sold with a subsidy tied to a service contract, giving an estimated retail price of €300, and Apple has agreed to take a smaller cut of service revenue, the report claims. Orange will also pay upfront for a large quantity of iPhones.

The loss of exclusivity caused by mandatory unlocking is being dealt with in an interesting way: the law permits six months grace before unlocking must be offered, and by that time a new model "will most probably be available", resetting the clock on a further six months exclusivity, according to HardMac.

If true, Orange may have set a precedent for negotiations between Apple and mobile phone operators in other countries where handset subsidies followed by unlocking is the norm.