Vodafone join Orange and O2 in stocking iPhone

Published by Scoop Staff on September 29, 2009 filed under iPhone News   ·   Comments (0)

Vodafone has secured the right to sell the iPhone in the UK, it was confirmed on Tuesday.

The news comes just a day after Orange broke O2’s two-year long exclusive grip on the device in a move that is likely to lead to a price-war among the UK’s three largest mobile phone networks.

But although Orange customers will be able to purchase the iPhone from later this year, Vodafone will not get its hands on the phone until the start of next year.

In a bid to try and prevent customers defecting in the meantime, Vodafone has already opened online pre-registration for the device.

Orange’s announcement on Monday injected a sense of urgency into Vodafone’s ongoing negotiations with the Californian company, with a deal believed to have been reached just hours before Vodafone went public.

But T-Mobile appears to have have gone cool on the idea of stocking the device, while its decision to import unlocked phones from other European countries and sell them to customers considering defecting to O2 is believed to have annoyed Apple.

Vodafone now supplies the iPhone to thirteen countries.

Topics: iPhone, O2, Orange, Vodafone