To date, being an iPhone customer in the U.S. has meant being married to AT&T, for better or worse.
For nearly two years, O2 has also enjoyed a parallel position with exclusive rights to sell Apple's iPhones in the U.K.
This week, iPhone owners across the pond watched in excitement as two rival carriers stepped in to bring an end to O2's exclusive deal with Apple. Many in the U.S. now wonder what the implications are for AT&T's exclusive partnership in the U.S.
Apple makes global moves to boost iPhone sales: UK, others transitioning to multicarriers
On Monday, France Telecom's mobile carrier Orange revealed that it would be bringing Apple's iPhone to the UK by the end of the year. Within 24 hours, Vodafone announced it will soon sell the iPhone in the UK and Ireland.
While Vodafone won't have the phones in time for Christmas, the announcements of these two network rivals mark the end of the exclusive UK deal that O2 had enjoyed over the iPhone.
Exclusive deals were the norm when the iPhone originally rolled out in 2007. In Germany, for example, T-Mobile still has exclusive deals with Apple on the iPhone. But Vodafone's announcement has analysts stating that iPhone exclusivity is rapidly coming to an end.
Analysts dare to predict/suggest Apple's next move?
According to The Wall Street Journal, Evolution Securities analyst Mark James is counted among analysts who expect similar announcements in Spain and Germany within the coming months.
In a note to investors last month, Gene Munster, senior analyst with Piper Jaffray, outlined why Apple's worldwide single-carrier exclusivity model for each nation is seen as fleeting. Jaffray calls to mind Orange's previous exclusive in France:
"For various reasons the company moved from an exclusive relationship with French wireless carrier Orange to a multi-carrier model," Munster said. "In France, the company now enjoys dramatically higher market share (in the 40 percent range vs. about 15 percent in ROW) than in countries with exclusive carrier agreements (such as AT&T in the U.S. where the iPhone has market share in the mid-teens).
Steven Hartley, a senior analyst at Ovum states in a research note, "Apple needs as many distributors as possible to generate maximum sales." And Apple seems to agree with this, recently making moves to open up the iPhone to multiple new carriers across several countries. Earlier this week, China Unicom said it would start selling the iPhone in October, bringing Apple's hot product to the world's largest mobile market.
That brings us back to AT&T which some say is the iPhone's biggest barrier to mass adoption in the U.S.
Just a matter of time before AT&T goes the way of O2
O2 and AT&T customers have said that competition would probably be a good thing.
During AT&T's recent rollout of iPhone multimedia messaging it received intense ridicule for it's delayed adoption of the MMS feature and some backlash that the rollout was less than smooth. In truth, AT&T may have been correct that their network will be strained with iPhone MMS.
Perhaps the smart move would be to let the iPhone run on multiple carrier networks? Even AT&T's CEO has said it's not realistic to believe AT&T will have an exclusive on the iPhone forever.
Orange and Vodafone are to O2 as _____ and _____ are to AT&T
What do you think? Are the back-to-back announcements of Orange and Vodafone a parallel of things to come to the U.S. in the near future?
Senators have already questioned AT&T's exclusive deal. Even the FCC may play a hand in freeing the iPhone.
If so, who will step in to join AT&T? Verizon's president Denny Stringle seems fond of the iPhone but others point out that Verizon seems disinterested, focusing on their own applications store. Sprint seems intent on supporting the Palm Pre and it's no surprise that AT&T wants to keep iPhone exclusivity until 2011.
Are you a (would-be) iPhone user who would prefer another network?
