a bit of breaking news: T-Mobile, Orange and O2 have WON the iPhone in
Europe. You'll hear plenty about this tomorrow since it means the iPhone
rollout in Europe is getting closer... Congrats to these 3 companies!

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Apple secures Europe iPhone revenue deals

By Astrid Maier in Hamburg and Volker Müller in Munich

Published: August 21 2007 19:53

Apple has succeeded in committing European mobile phone operators that
want exclusively to sell its new iPhone to share parts of their revenues
with the technology group.

The contract, which was signed by three European mobile operators in
recent days, requires that the operators hand over to Apple 10 per cent
of the revenues made from calls and data transfers by customers over
iPhones.

The contract was signed by T-Mobile of Germany, Orange of France and O2
in the UK, people familiar with the situation told FT Deutschland, the
Financial Times¹s sister paper.

The operators are set officially to announce the partnerships at the IFA
trade fair in Berlin at the end of August.

T-Mobile, Orange and O2 declined to comment on Tuesday.

The deal gives manufacturers of handsets for the first time a direct
share of the revenues a mobile phone operator makes from calls and data
transfers, marking a shift in the relationship between the parties.

Until now, mobile operators have campaigned fiercely against such an
approach, but industry experts expect that Apple¹s success in securing
the deals could spur other handset manufacturers to try to secure
similar terms.

In the US, AT&T has negotiated a two-year contract with Apple, which is
understood to be unusually heavily weighted in favour of Apple.

The deal could be particularly significant for Deutsche Telekom, which
is trying to shed its image as a slow-moving business that provides poor
customer service.

Mobile operators are said to be hoping for a significant boost in their
image from the exclusive deal with Apple, as well as a pool of
attractive customers with high rates of spending on calls and data
transfers.

Hamid Akhavan, chairman of Deutsche Telekom¹s mobile business, is said
to have campaigned for personal talks with Steve Jobs, Apple¹s chief
executive, about the contract, while Peter Erskine, chief exeutive of
O2, is said to have tried the same.

³These are not negotiations among equals. Apple clearly had the upper
hand,² one industry expert told FT Deutschland.

Apple has also lured the mobile operators with the prospect of a
financially risk-free business, as it will not allow the now common
subsidies on the sale of handsets. Most mobile phones are sold by
operators to subscribers at a highly subsidised rate.

Apple has previously said that it wants to limit iPhone¹s European
launch this autumn to the UK, France and Germany. It will continue the
roll-out elsewhere in Europe next year, when it will also launch in Asia.

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http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/17aa89d0-500b-11dc-a6b0-0000779fd2ac.html