Apple Inc. is adopting a more open strategy for selling its iPhone, allowing two carriers to offer the device in Italy, as it sharply expands the number of countries where the cellphone-media player is available.
The Cupertino, Calif., company has been selling the iPhone since June through deals that call for one operator per country to sell the phone. U.S. carrier AT&T Inc. is one such exclusive partner.
On Tuesday, Apple said its iPhone will be offered in Italy this year by both Telecom Italia SpA and European cellphone operator Vodafone Group PLC. This will mark the first time two operators in the same country will be selling the iPhone simultaneously.
"This is different from how we are doing it in the U.S.," Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris said.
Vodafone plans to sell the iPhone in nine other countries, including Australia, India and Egypt.
Some analysts have been calling for Apple to both end the exclusive deals and to cut the iPhone's price in half to about $200, to boost sales of the device in 2009 and beyond. The exclusive deals have given rise to a large number of iPhones being sold but then enabled by users to work on any cellphone network. These so-called unlocked phones deprive Apple of its share of the fees paid by iPhone owners for Internet access and phone calls.
Apple's exclusive arrangements haven't stood in the way of selling about 5.7 million iPhones as of the end of March, and posing one of the first major challenges to the dominance of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. and handset maker Nokia Corp. on the market for more advanced cellphones.
Telefónica SA's O2 offered $200 off the price of an iPhone for signing a two-year service contract. The promotion came after Deutsche Telekom AG unit T-Mobile slashed the price of the iPhone to ?99, or about $153, with a two-year contract.
The wall street journal
