14 DAY TRIAL // It's already very clear where the iPhone will be available in the U.S. And whether people like it or not, it looks like Cingular/AT&T subscribers will be the only ones who can actually get themselves an iPhone.
The people from Europe might not escape this either, since Apple is currently looking to team up with just one European mobile operator that is to distribute their phone.
According to Pascal Cagni, vice president for Europe at Apple, if a single mobile operator is not possible, Apple will cooperate with multiple partners.
Having said that, it is most likely that the vast majority of people will start to hope that a single operator to distribute the iPhone will not be possible, just because it doesn't seem reasonable to force someone to switch between operators just for the sake of a phone, as appealing as that phone may be.
Apple is preparing to start shipping the iPhone in Europe by the end of this year, while in the U.S. it will be available starting June this year on Cingular for a price from $499 to $599.
Although Apple has not yet decided on a price for their phone in Europe, Amazon Germany recently listed the 4GB and 8GB iPhones for a brief period of time at ?899 to ?999 ($1,165 to $1,294).
Cagni denied that the Amazon prices offer an accurate indication of how much the iPhone will cost in Europe, and hopefully this is true, because otherwise the price of the mobile phone would be more than double compared to the U.S. (where it is already overpriced) and chances are that few people will be willing to spend as much on a phone. When the iPhone will in fact be heading Europe's way, the European mobile operators that might be offering it include Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone.