O2 will be losing the exclusivity on the iPhone in the UK to Orange and T-Mobile as early as September 2009 although it looks like only the older version of the iPhone will be initially freed.

Both Orange and T-Mobile have been selling the iPhone 3G in a numbers of territories worldwide and Mobile Today understands that Apple is keen to boost sales significantly. Orange should be the logical choice since it is significantly larger than the Deutsch-Telekom owned mobile network.

Sources close to O2 say that the senior management at the network are apparently furious at the news and concerned that whoever picks up the iPhone 3G will end up forcing O2 to slash the contract price of the old iPhone 3G.

This of course could prove catastrophic as punters decide to stick to the older iPhone 3G and ignore the newer and faster iPhone 3GS. This is especially true if (a) the recession goes on for another year (b) if the gap between the two is significant.

The cheapest iPhone 3G contract will cost you ￡34.26 per month on a two year contract. It is likely that the competition shaves another ￡5 from the cost and brings it to less than ￡30.

The…

Htc Hero

We may have scored HTC’s latest Android-infused device for a brief window of time, but if you’re hoping to snag one for keeps, you’ll need to jet over to the UK and sign away your cellular soul to Orange. Based on a brief but pointed tweet from a carrier representative, the HTC Hero will be “available from Orange UK retail stores [starting] tomorrow.” The phone is already up on the operator’s website in a delightful graphite hue, and the price of ￡0.00 on a pay monthly contract sure is luscious. So much for T-Mobile Germany getting a jump on everyone, huh?

Orange, Apple’s wireless partner in France, on Friday said it had sold its first million iPhones in that country.

Apple and Orange began selling iPhones in France in late-November 2007. The 1 million iPhone milestone is an important goal for the carrier and Apple’s international market, pointing to the success of the device in countries other than the U.S.

In its second fiscal quarter, Apple reported selling 3.79 million iPhones. The company doesn’t break out sales by country, so there is no way to tell what percentage were sold in the U.S. or any other country. The quarter’s iPhone sales represented a 123 percent unit growth over the same period last year.

To celebrate selling 1 million iPhones, Orange is offering its users unlimited viewing via the Roland-Garros iPhone application to all customers with an iPhone plan. Using the app, users get live coverage from the French Open tennis tournament.

While Orange was selected as Apple’s exclusive carrier in France, the country’s competition council ordered Apple to open the iPhone to other carriers in December 2008.