French law may impede Orange iPhone deal
updated 10:05 am EDT, Fri October 5, 2007
French law impedes iPhone
A law meant to protect public choice may delay the arrival of the iPhone in France, one newspaper reports. French publication Les Echos writes that under the terms of the law, the iPhone will have to be sold with and without contracts, thereby preventing Apple from forming an exclusive deal with French carrier Orange. The paper writes that Apple would like as much as 30 percent of voice and data revenues from the iPhone; the two companies have been heavily disputing revenue sharing however, and Orange has yet to set a date for the product's release, despite having announced that it would ship before Christmas as an exclusive deal.
The situation is said to be dire enough that the iPhone may not only be delayed past Christmas, but kept out of France. Apple's three other contracts -- forged with AT&T, England's O2 and Germany's T-Mobile -- have all been exclusives, signed with one carrier per country. Should Apple be forced to open up sales of the iPhone, it may decide that the French market is not worth it. "The risk we're evaluating this week is that Apple crosses France off," an Orange source tells Echos.
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Joined: Jun 2007
Apple should try it..
Some economists would argue that Apple would make more money with the larger market provided by a competitive, open system, even if it meant lower percentages from the partner companies individually. France would give Apple the chance to test market that concept. Apple may think that they have a big success on their hands with the iPhone in the U.S., but it is possible that they would have sold many more iPhones by now if they had gone with an open, competitive system. Many people simply do not want to do business with AT&T, nor do they want to sign contracts with cell companies who are notoriously poor service providers. Such heavy handedness, and there-is-only-my-way-of-doing-things attitudes are what got Steve Jobs kicked out of Apple the first time. Apple's board would be wise to consider the possibility that despite the brilliant success of his comeback, that he has again reached the point where his renown hubris is holding the company back rather than advancing it.