Mobile Entertainment

For readers living in Europe, last night was a momentous one in terms of football. So many hopes and dreams across the continent were riding on qualification for next summer's European Championship.

Here in the UK, it was a pretty sorry state of affairs. Of the 'home nations' only Northern Ireland and England had a chance of making it.

England required only a draw at home against Croatia to qualify for the Euros. We lost 3-2. Today the recriminations begin. The manager was sacked before 10am.

Similar fallout over losing is occurring in Germany this week - but within our very own industry. It concerns the iPhone and Vodafone's seemingly continued disappointment at losing out on the device in at least two markets.

First Voda CEO Arun Sarin ranted at the iPhone's 'pretty poor experience'. Then his company sought and won an injunction against T-Mobile selling the device tied to a 24-month contract in Germany. It wasn't trying to prevent T-Mobile selling the iPhone, Voda said, just making sure there was a level playing field for everyone.

But considering the iPhone is now available SIM-free from T-Mobile for a staggeringly expensive 999 euros, there probably aren't going to be many takers from customers on other networks. No clear winner there then.

Regardless, both parties are likely to agree some sort of compromise in the coming weeks. More interestingly, the whole situation goes to illustrate the strange magnetic pull iPhone continues to exert on operators.

Despite naysayers suggesting the iPhone's impact will be minimal in terms of unit sales in individual markets, Voda appears genuinely concerned about its high-value customers churning to T-Mobile to get their hands on the device, hence the measures it's gone through to ensure a SIM-free version is available.

In the UK, O2 says the device is its 'fastest selling' ever and remains on target to hit 200,000 units sold by Christmas. It also claimed two-thirds of its iPhone buyers are coming from other networks. Meanwhile, T-Mobile in Germany said it sold 10,000 phones by the end of last Saturday afternoon.

Perhaps those iPhone revenue share deals O2/T-Mobile struck with Apple weren't so short-sighted after all. Unlike England's football management policy.