Europe Should Have One Operator...
If Apple really are gunning for things like single price points across europe in the itunes store, then I don't understand why they couldnt find just one carrier for their phone.
I can't imagine that the companies they have settled with wouldnt want a pan-european model, as the sole provider of Apple's latest 'thing'... It really is tantamount to Apple having separate carriers in different states in the US - it makes absolutely no sense. Unless, they will announce that the phone will soon be available to all networks? Most phones in Europe tend to get an exclusive release with a single carrier before becoming more widely available. I can't imagine that Apple botched negotiations so much that they didnt speak to the top echelon of each company, instead of regional management... Or that they wouldnt prefer a single carrier across europe - I for one would have been happier if they didnt announce a European release until they absolutely had the deals sorted out.
Right now in the UK the o2 tariff is horrendously priced in a fairly mature market, that wont see any real value in the outlay - apart from actually owning the phone. I guess the real test will be how many phones are actually activated to o2. There is a big market in phone-unlocking in the UK, just about every indie phone shop offers it - I can see people forgoing things like visual voice mail - just so they don't have to get ripped off by o2...