In a recent article from a German regional newspaper, Deutsche Telekom AG’s T-Mobile division has contracted a deal to sell Apple’s iPhone in Germany starting November 1. It is reported that T-Mobile won the bid at the last minute from Europe’s largest mobile phone operator, Vodafone according to Rheinischen Post newspaper on Wendesday.
The iPhone is to be sold for 450 Euro or $613 USD. The article itself cited unnamed sources from within the business community.
T-Mobile has yet to comment on what it says is a rumor and has noted that Vodafone and the Carphone Warehouse Group PLC have also been linked to possible iPhone deals in previous news reports.
The European cell phone market is fragmented, so this means that there will be several operators to distribute the iPhone. There are however, several key points to Apple’s distributor contracts, that may require operators to share portions of their revenues from iPhone sales. This may mean that larger operators may not want to give up the revenue to carry a single product.
Apple is expected to launch the iPhone in Europe in the fourth quarter of 2007 but has laid out no further details at this time. Source is MacWorld.