2 MILLION IPHONES SOLD IN 27 MONTHS, SAYS O2

The exclusivity agreement has already ended but O2 continues to see the benefits of partnering with Apple for the initial release of the iPhone.

The company has just announced a milestone – it has officially sold two million handsets since the revolutionary mobile was first released in the UK on 9 November 2007.

The exclusivity agreement between O2 and Apple just ended last September when Orange also picked up rights to the iPhone. Then it was only a matter of time before various companies put a dent in O2’s two-year sales lead.

After only a week of sales rival company Vodafone announced that it had already sold 100,000 devices, although the numbers still couldn’t measure up to O2 as the company announced in February 2009 that it had sold slightly more than one million iPhones in a 14-month period.

In other words, O2 was selling roughly 70,000 phones per month and that number has since increased to roughly 80,000 mobiles this year despite the sudden surge of competition.

Ronan Dunne, chief executive of O2, says the company’s continued domination of the iPhone market is likely because consumers are still associating the mobile with O2 specifically.

Despite reports earlier this year that said the O2 network was experiencing tremendous pressure due to the amount of data consumed by the iPhone, the company still believes that it will be the only mobile phone network in the UK to grow next quarter.

The company is attributing its positive outlook to not only the iPhone, but the Palm Pre and its subsidized fixed line broadband packages as well.

But as O2 continues to push the iPhone it need to ensure that its network can keep up with the added pressure, especially as more mobile phone companies such as Virgin Mobile and T-Mobile are also expected to jump on the iPhone bandwagon later this year.

by Taylor Turner