Steve Jobs made waves in the wireless industry by getting AT&T to bend to his will – revamping the voicemail system to accommodate Visual Voicemail, nixing any handset subsidies or rebates, and even sharing revenue (not to mention new contract bounty) with Apple. Now, the Financial Times is reporting that he’s at it again. Ever the arm-twister, Jobs & Co. have finally managed squeeze a commitment out of T-Mobile Germany, Orange France, and O2 UK for a revenue sharing plan on the Apple iPhone. The deal outlines a 10% kickback to Apple for all revenue from call and data transfers made on iPhones.
While sources close to the matter (the best kind of source) are claiming that the deal is slated to be announced at an IFA trade fair in Berlin at the end of August, neither Apple nor the European trio will comment on the situation.
The deal, if true, basically confirms rumors that T-Mobile will be getting the iPhone in Germany; Orange in France; and O2 in the UK (although, we have reason to believe that O2 will share the iPhone with Vodafone). Futhermore, if this deal turns out to be legit, it could open the door for other handset manufacturers to demand similar revenue sharing plans from carriers. Who said the iPhone wasn’t revolutionary?
We’ll keep ya’ll updated on the latest developments on the overseas iPhone dealings.
[Via: Financial Times]