The futures bright, the futures Apple…

Well for those of us who happen to work in the IT industry we all saw this one coming. Today Orange customers rejoiced with the announcement that Apple’s hugely successful iPhone will soon be made available on the network. Back in 2007 O2 managed to steal a march on all other UK networks by securing a deal to be the sole UK supplier of the iPhone. But now that is all due to change, as Orange announced that the market leading smart-phone will be soon be available on contract ‘later this year’. As of yet there has been no statement about the release date or the price of the new Orange iPhone package, but it is believed to be on either a £30, or a £35 tariff.

Recently Orange announced its impending merger with T-Mobile, which would see the new UK based telecomm network achieve a customer base of over 28 million and a market share of a staggering 37% of the UK market. During O2’s period as sole retailer of the iPhone within the UK, the network sold over 1 million handsets and recently experienced a huge surge after the release of the iPhone 3GS. The latest version of the iPhone comes with a much larger storage device, a 3.0 megapixel camera and contains vastly improved mobile broadband connectivity hardware, allowing users to access and download from the internet at greater speeds.

Orange’s deal with Apple for the iPhone is just the latest skirmish in the highly competitive UK mobile phone market. In October O2 will begin selling the Palm Phone which is currently being touted within the industry as a possible ‘iPhone killer’. But it is too early to tell if the Palm will have any significant effect on Apple’s iPhone supremacy.

Enter your comment here

CAPTCHA Code