More iPhone madness: Operators will give Apple a share of call and data revenue.
The Financial Times reported that T-Mobile Germany, Orange France and O2 UK will each return 10 per cent of their revenue from calls and data transfers to secure iPhone exclusively in their respective countries. It believes the deals will be formally announced the partnerships at the IFA trade fair in Berlin on August 31st.If true, this represents a tearing up of the rule book. Either operators genuinely believe the iPhone can drive hitherto unprecedented ARPUs or they have bought into the media hype. One wonders what Nokia, Sony Ericsson et al think about it. Remember, Nokia sells 350 million phones a year while Apple is hoping to sell 10 million over 18 months.
What Apple does have in its favour, of course, is a fanatical and largely affluent user base. It has also declined to permit operators to subsidise its handset, reducing the commitment required from the networks.
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