O2 CEO, Matthew Key was reportedly in California last week briefing Apple CEO, Steve Jobs on the iPhones impact on the UK market, reports Andrew Parker for The Financial Times.

“Mr Key says 200,000 iPhones should have be sold in Britain by early January - in line with his expectations since its November 9 launch, although some analysts claim his target is conservative. Gartner, the research firm, says sales of up to 400,000 should be possible,” Parker reports.

The FT.com reporter wrote that “A 3G version of the iPhone will be launched by Apple next year; Mr Key is confident that O 2 will also have an exclusive deal for the mark two device.”

“O2 has signed a multi-year deal with Apple for the iPhone, and Mr Key insists Vodafone, for example, could not muscle in and take the 3G iPhone in the UK.”

“About 60 per cent of iPhone customers are sending or receiving more than 25 megabytes of data per month, which is the equivalent of sending 7,500 e-mails. By comparison, only 1.8 per cent of O2 ’s other mobile customers on monthly contracts are consuming more than 25MB per month,” Parker reports. “The O2 research suggests that, after years of dashed hopes for the operators, customers are on the verge of surfing the web on their mobiles in significant numbers.”