Deutsche Telekom says has sold 70,000 iPhones
COLOGNE, Germany (Reuters) - German telecoms operator Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Saturday it had signed up 70,000 iPhone customers in the 11 weeks since November 9, 2007. — Deutsche Telekom's mobile …
Context & Ripple Effects
Deutsche Telekom's 70,000 sign-ups land against a fast-moving arc: Apple granted T-Mobile, Orange and O2 the Europe iPhone deal in August 2007, and the German exclusive partnership launched on November 9. Pre-launch demand signals were strong — reports of 1,000 enquiries a day months before the handset went on sale.
The number also reads as a vindication of two defensive plays: a December court ruling confirmed that Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile can block buyers from using the handset on rival networks, preserving the exclusivity model, while November's decision to sell an unlocked version without a contract answered criticism of the lock-in.
First-order effects
- Deutsche Telekom adds 70,000 contracted, premium-ARPU subscribers in eleven weeks under terms its legal position protects from network unlocking by buyers.
- Apple gains proof that the German market converts at scale under a single-carrier exclusive, strengthening its hand in carrier negotiations across Europe alongside O2, which reported 'tens of thousands' sold in the UK over a single November weekend.
Second-order effects
- Rival German operators face a handset whose best-known device is legally tethered to T-Mobile, pushing them to compete on tariff design and their own flagship-device exclusives rather than on the iPhone itself.
- Orange and O2, holding the French and British exclusives from the same August deal, now have a benchmark figure to justify subsidy spending and shelf-space commitments back to Apple.
Third-order effects
- If exclusivity-plus-lock-in keeps delivering subscriber wins, European mobile competition shifts toward bidding wars for device exclusives, concentrating bargaining power with handset makers like Apple and squeezing operators' margins on the devices that define the market.
- The court-sanctioned lock-in sets a precedent other regulators may weigh as exclusivity arrangements spread, making carrier-device contracts a structural feature of the European market rather than a one-off.
The trend: European carriers are trading subsidy margins and legal lock-ins for exclusive smartphone rights, shifting power in the mobile value chain toward device makers.