With rival O2’s exclusive contract to sell the iPhone expiring on 10th November Orange is to become the first UK network to compete with them and sell what has become one of the most recognizable gadgets available today. Carphone Warehouse, the only independent retailer that was allowed to stock the iPhone under the expiring contract have announced that they will sell the iPhone on Orange’s behalf.

Despite having deals with other smart phone producers, Orange had their sights set on the iPhone and through acting quickly appear to have the upper hand over competing UK networks heading into the Christmas rush. Vodafone won’t be selling the iPhone until early 2010 while 3’s CEO Kevin Russell announced that they would also have the iPhone on their network in the new year. Yet with over 200,000 customers already having registering their interest in getting an Orange iPhone it appears that they may have missed out on maximizing the opportunities presented by the product.

With there no longer being a monopoly seller of the iPhone many were hoping for a price war yet Orange’s head of operations in the UK said that the company will explore other ways of increasing “value” for their product. He cited including a variety of accessories and pre-loading select applications on the device as methods to make people buy their iPhone instead of O2’s.

With the number of networks holding rights to sell the iPhone increasing four-fold prices are going to decrease in some way, helping us consumers while surely increasing the iPhone’s status as the most prominent piece of technology around.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/oct/25/orange-apple-iphone-date