iPhone for all

When O2 signed the exclusive deal to have the iPhone on just their network, little did they know how popular it would become. It has led to more than triple number of customers coming into the O2 shops, within the first two months of the launch of the first iPhone. However, this exclusitivity will end in October this year and Orange and T Mobile as well as Vodafone are set to have their own iPhone deals. Elsewhere around the world, the iPhone is and has always been available on other networks.

I am interested to see what deals these network providers will give us customers. I think the iPhone is still expensive, the cheapest package has to be with the 8GB iPhone and still costs just under 45 pounds a month for 1200 minutes and 500 texts.The 8GB iphone comes free, but everyone is now raving about the iPhone 3GS which some say will not be available on other networks.

The iPhone should be available in Orange shops from at the earliest end of next month. So, there is another reason to join the Orange network. Not only will you get your 2 4 1 on cinema tickets and great deals at pizza express you can get your new iPhone. Ofcourse nothing has been finalised with the mobile operators and therefore they do not know exactly when or how much their new iPhone deals will be. But one thing is for sure…. O2 no longer have the exclusitivity and will therefore need to work even harder to keep their customers.

O2… see what they can do.

Who is the leading network provider in the UK?

I have decided to add more to the mobile technology section of this blog. With the increasing number of smart phones with accessing the internet, this is not an area to ignore.

This data is over a year old, but then if I want data for this year, I have to buy the report and I thought… well this is good enough for the time being. It is important to share what has been happening in the mobile market. If you all have any more recent up to date reports, please let me know.

http://www.telecomsmarketresearch.com/resources/UK_Mobile_Operator_Subscriber_Statistics.shtml

As you can see Vodafone and O2 are the leaders in the market place in the UK. O2 has been very successful since it got its hands on the exclusitivity of the iPhone. The first generation iPhone came out November 9th 2007, 5 months after it was launched in the USA. The second generation iPhone hit the market in July 2008 and the third generation came out June this year.

O2 UK sold 1 million iPhones during 2008 which has boosted revenues for Telefonica (parent company of O2) for Q4 2008. Revenues rose 10.4 percent in the fourth quarter, based on stable local exchange rates, climbing to €1.755 billion (£1.6 billion). So O2 has a lot to be thankful for. However, they are set to lose this exclusitivity October 9th this year and O2 are already starting to get their hands on other smartphone manufacturers such as the Palm Pre to make up for any exodus in customers when the exclusitivity runs out.

Source: http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-earnings-iphone-boosts-o2-uk-q4-revenues-grow-10.4-percent/

Exclusivity can have a dramatic effect on the mobile operator’s sales. According to ZDNet news, as of March this year, the G1 Android handset accounted for 20%of T-Mobile’s contract sales. The G1 was at the time, the only handset on the market to use Google’s Android software stack, which was launched exclusively on T-Mobile at the end of October 2008. And according to T-Mobile, the G1 produced the operator’s “best-selling launch of 2008″.

According to Strategy Analytics, they forecast 900% Android phone sales growth during 2009 and shipments of Apple’s iPhone will grow 79%.
The reason for the big forecast is due to Android’s low-cost licensing model, its semi-open source structure and Google’s support for cloud services. Vodafone recently launched the world’s second Android phone – the Magic May 30th this year. Smasung and Orange are also jumping on the Android bandwagon and will launch their phones by then end of the year.