No iPhone Price War Despite Hefty Competition Says CPW CEO

Deep iPhone price cuts are not likely to happen anytime soon despite the arrival of two new rival networks, Orange and Vodafone, according to the CEO of Carphone Warehouse.

In an interview with the Times of London, Andrew Harrison, the Chief Executive of Europe's largest independent mobile phone retailer, said that he's not convince that there will be a price war.

He added that this only leads in one direction, all of them losing since this battle will be fought on other fronts. He did not elaborate much on the other fronts although quality of service might be one.

So far, Orange said that he received more than 125,000 pre-orders for the phone so far which is quite good given that O2 sold around 1.5 million in the first 18 months of its partnership.

It is interesting to note that the websites of both Vodafone and Orange recorded a significant spike at the end of last month (according to web traffic analyst Alexa), which almost certainly attributed to the iPhone announcement.

Apple showed that it was the one pulling the strings in the transactions and it is therefore quite unlikely that it compromised on any significant points like pricing or revenue sharing (see Apple Shows UK Networks Who's The Daddy With iPhone Saga and UK Mobile Networks At The Mercy Of Apple In iPhone Talks?).

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Another exclusivity that will end abruptly soon will be that of Carphone Warehouse which has been until now the only dealer stocking the iPhone. Expect Phones4U and others to fight over Apple's iConic phone.