Rumour : Orange To Share UK iPhone Distribution With O2 Soon?

Another iPhone rumour that has surfaced yesterday says that O2 could possibly lose the iPhone exclusivity in UK with Orange been the favourite to grab a piece of the action.

Back in July 2008, we had heard rumours about a potential deal between Orange and iPhone based on the fact that Orange was trying to persuade Apple that it can do better than O2 when it comes to selling iPhones.

As of today, O2 has sold 1 million iPhones in the UK making it the biggest market outside the UK and the largest iPhone population in Europe by far. Orange on the other hand is selling iPhones in 27 countries including France and many French speaking territories.

Orange is on the verge of seeing its arch-rival Bouygues Telecom start selling the iPhone in France and a UK deal over the iPhone with Apple could potentially alleviate the loss revenues in France.

Furthermore, the decision about allowing Orange to sell the iPhone in UK may already have been agreed between the two parties. Otherwise, why else would O2 sell one of the iPhone's most credible rivals, the Palm Pre smartphone?

It is worth noting as well that Orange is the only big mobile phone network that doesn't currently have a so-called "iPhone-killer" amongst its phone range even if it has a iPhone alternatives page.

Vodafone has the Storm (and the HTC Magic coming), T-Mobile has the HTC Dream and O2 could well get the Pre soon.

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