T-Mobile Germany - iPhone exclusivity ending in November 2009

[fabian9]

Hi there,

I did a quick search to see if it's been mentioned anywhere but couldn't find anything.

German news website spiegel.de just published the following story regarding T-Mobile's iPhone exclusivity in Germany.

http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/tech/0,1518,632416,00.html

It's in German, unfortunately, so I'll translate the main points for you all.

- the exclusivity is ending in November 2009
- O2 is looking to enter the iPhone market in Germany when the agreement between t-mob and Apple expires
- T-Mob claims they know nothing about it and says their partnership with apple is long-term.


I personally hope it's true, even though I have my doubts that we'll soon see more than one iPhone operator in Germany. It'd very good for customers nevertheless as it will most likely cause a drop in price...


Regards,

Fabian

 

[coolwater]

- the exclusivity is ending in November 2009
- O2 is looking to enter the iPhone market in Germany when the agreement between t-mob and Apple expires
- T-Mob claims they know nothing about it and says their partnership with apple is long-term.

The news says it will end soon, but the carrier is saying 'we don't know'?

Well, I hope Apple moves toward less and less exclusivity direction.

 

[mkrishnan]

The news says it will end soon, but the carrier is saying 'we don't know'?

Isn't it the general consensus that AT&T has "re-upped" with Apple at least once already? I would presume T-Mobile means they're in talks to convince Apple to extend exclusivity.

Well, I hope Apple moves toward less and less exclusivity direction.

Me too. I like T-Mobile, but I'm in solidarity to see them lose their exclusivity over there in the hopes that AT&T will ultimately lose theirs here. The more markets in which Apple sees that competition between carriers works out fine and that they can manage multiple carriers fine, the more likely they are to do it in the US, although for the time being they're hampered by the fact that they cannot sell their existing hardware on anyone else's network.

 

[notjustgc]

It's in Apple's best interests at this point in time to start extending their reach to other carriers. The more Blackberry users they can convert, the better, and a recent study posted on one of the blogs (forgive the absence of a link) seemed to indicate that a large portion of said users have serious "iPhone envy," if only their carriers would permit them to so indulge.

Then again, that's in the US, so who knows?

 

[mkrishnan]

Then again, that's in the US, so who knows?

As much as I value Apple's expansion across the globe, perspective is important... the second or third or fourth largest carrier in the US is as big as some of the entire markets into which Apple has expanded. I tend to agree that Apple could get a large number of additional users if they had at least one more carrier offering in the US, and I would have a hard time believing it would not be profitable for them.

OTOH, the Chinese and ultimately the Indian markets are going to be the truly huge ones eventually....

 

[Arne]

just for the record: in germany you can already get an iPhone easily if you are not with T-Mobile.

I know somebody, who went to the Vodafone Store and asked, if she could get an iPhone. They told her, that somebody will call her in a few days. She got an iPhone, payed 1€ and pays monthly about as much as I do with my T-Mobile contract. The iPhone was imported from italy I think.