Apple Shows UK Networks Who's The Daddy With iPhone Saga

If there's one thing we learnt from Apple this week with the iPhone is how it can make the biggest mobile networks in the world eat in its hands.

The three mobile phone networks vying for Apple's attention in the UK have a joint user base of 750 million customers worldwide and an estimated market capitalisation of around 500 billion pounds; yet they acted like three young men looking to attract the attention of the most beautiful girl in town.

The revelations by the Telegraph that Orange had signed the deal one year ago and had to stay silent for more than one year (or risk the wrath of Jobs' legal eagle) and that Vodafone had to recruit temporary staff to prevent any leaks show how desperate both parties were to get in bed with Apple.

As for O2's behaviour, it is fairly typical of someone being dumped. The Telefonica-owned network has already been tied with a number of iPhone lookalikes/substitutes like the Palm Pre and the Samsung i7500, none of which have the same clout as the iPhone.

But it hasn't prevented O2 from saying that it will neither infirm or confirm whether it will allow those who leave the network at the end of their contract to keep their iPhone.