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France Spreads the iPhone Love (And Business) Around

France Spreads the iPhone Love (And Business) Around

The French seem to love the Apple iPhone. Orange is the key brand/operator of France Telecom in France, which has thus far sold 450,000 of the 3G iPhones, generating 220 million euros ($308.2 million) in sales from its July 18 launch through November 5, 2008. That’s partly becauseFrance Telecom had an exclusive five-year deal with Apple, though Apple could cancel the deal if it wanted to after three years.

This exclusivity deal has upset France’s Competition Council (yes, they have such things in European countries), which has seen fit to suspend the France Telecom/Apple deal, declaring that consumers are locked into a 12 to 24-month contract with Orange and they should be able to purchase the iPhone from Orange/Telecom France’s competitors, specifically Bouygues Telecom and SFR (owned by Vivendi-Vodafone), who stand to garner some much-needed euros during the holiday consumer season. France Telecom called it a serious blow and is appealing the decision.

Unlike the wild business world in the U.S., European governments actually try to engender a sense of fair play in the business world, which may at times seem strange or misguided to Americans. Apple, for its part, apparently doesn’t find exclusivity agreements that beneficial (i.e. lucrative), and it isn’t pursuing that strategy in other countries.

Generally speaking, if you’re a carrier that wants to sell and support an iPhone in Europe, fine. Presumably Apple can keep their production up to match the demand, a problem that has been something of a tradition for the folks in Cupertino, California.

[Thanks: http://iphone.tmcnet.com]

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