Orange get French iPhone deal

Link: Apple turns to Orange in France | The Register

In another of those ‘oh what a surprise’ announcements, it’s been revealed that Orange will be marketing the iPhone in France.

The announcement was made by France Telecom (Orange’s parent company) Chief Exec Didier Lombard during a conference in Hanoi.

No details on pricing as yet, and the Orange France website is surprisingly lacking in information – a quick search revealed “0 réponse pour iphone”. It won’t be a surprise if the price is the same as the T-Mobile/Germany deal of €399.

What’s curious is all the announcements so far have involved the current or former wireless divisions of incumbent operators – France Telecom (Orange), Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile), BT (O2) and AT&T (er, AT&T). Working on this theory, should we expect Vodafone (ex Telecom Eireann) for Ireland, O2 (Telefonica) for Spain and KPN in the Netherlands? Or is it just coincidental?