Orange to sell iPhones
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Mobile carrier – soon to merge with T-Mobile UK – will sell Apple’s popular device after O2’s exclusivity deal expires later this year
Mobile telephony provider Orange has confirmed that it will sell the iPhone once O2’s two-year exclusivity deal with Apple expires later this year.
The company has yet to provide any indication of how it will price the popular device – declared today the ‘coolest’ brand in the UK – but the availability of an alternative carrier should introduce some pricing competition.
The popularity of the iPhone among consumers has crossed over into the business world. While still eclipsed by the BlackBerry in the business smart phone market, managing and securing employee iPhone use is nevertheless an emerging challenge for IT departments.
That challenge may intensify as more business applications vendors launch products for the iPhone platform as, for example, on-demand financial application vendor NetSuite did last week.
Earlier this month, it was revealed that Orange – which is a subsidiary of France Telecom – is to merge with T-Mobile UK, up until now a division of Deutsche Telekom, creating the country’s largest mobile carrier.
The UK’s mobile telephony carriers are expanding their offerings for business; earlier this year, for example, Vodafone launched a unified communications offering for the enterprise, while O2 launched a fixed line service for business earlier this month.
With smart phones becoming an increasingly important component of business infrastructure, partnerships with mobile carriers may require more strategic planning in future.
I agree the introduction of the iphone to the Orange portfolio can only be a good thing for us the consumer, however from a business perspective one of the key mobile players at present is the Blackberry and ignoring for one moment the look and feel the security features alone set it clearly above the rest of the competition. I noted with interest that RIM had bought the browser development company that initiated the iphone browser last month.........What with network mergers and a mobile device battle afoot, the next few months could be monumental to how we all work away from the office. Interesting times.
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