For some time we’ve heard talk that T-Mobile in Germany would get the iPhone 3GS, ending that nation’s exclusivity for Apple’s popular handset. Now comes word that Vodafone will launch the iPhone 4 in Germany on October 28. The report from a German Mac site said the carrier will begin airing ads for the iPhone 4 on Oct. 18.
We have also independently confirmed the report with a T-Mobile employee in Germany. Although the Vodafone iPhone 4 is expected to be locked to the second-place carrier, O2 is also believed to be preparing to sell an unlocked version in Germany soon, according to the report. Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile’s parent, has 37 million German customers. Vodafone has 34.9 million subscribers and O2 has 16.3 million members.
The expected loss of exclusivity may have prompted T-Mobile to begin offering last week a 10 percent discount on the iPhone 4 montly fees for the first half of a two-year contract. Exclusive contracts, which prevail in the U.S., have faced opposition in Europe. In 2007, a German court ruled in Vodafone’s favor, requiring Deutsche Telekon to offer hte iPhone unlocked and without a contract.
In 2008, a French court found an exclusive arrangement between Apple and France Telecom’s Orange violated local competition and pricing laws. Following the ruling, Apple saw the iPhone’s mark share climb to near 40 percent.
[AppleInsider, Macerkopf.de (Google Translation)]
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
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