Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced today that the iPhone will be available to British customers on November 9 of this year. The O2 network has the exclusive carrier rights to the iPhone brand in the British Isles. As MobileCrunch reported last month, Apple to Share Operators Revenue, it is believed that other European carriers are working on exclusive licensing agreements for the iPhone brand. Apple is requiring the European carriers to pay Apple 10% of all revenues generated from iPhone data functions. Steve Jobs said that in the next quarter Apple will launch the iPhone in some more European markets.
The British 8-gigabyte iPhone will initially sell for 269 pounds ($536). Customers will have to sign an 18 month contract with O2. It wasn’t that long ago when Apple reduced the U.S. price of the iPhone from $599 to $399 a few weeks after its launch. It will be interesting to see if Europeans wait a couple of months before buying iPhones in the hope of a lowered price, or if people are willing to pay top euro to get their hands on the device before anyone else in the neighborhood.
