World of Apple

Earlier in the week it was reported that the French Competition Council had ruled that Apple and French telecoms company Orange must immediately cease its exclusive relationship.

Macworld UK has now received word from Alan Hely Apple’s chief European spokesman who said, “Apple is deeply disappointed by the council’s decision.”

Adding, “Our partnership with Orange has enabled us to deliver unprecedented value to French consumers.”

On Wednesday the French Competition Council ruled [PDF] that Apple and French telecoms company Orange must immediately cease its exclusive relationship.

The order comes as a result of a complaint filed by France’s third largest mobile operator Bouygues Telecom on September 18 of this year. The complaint argued that the deal between Apple and Orange violated local freedom of competition and pricing laws.

The ruling is reportedly only temporary while the competition council looks into the complaints. In addition Apple and Orange enter into any other exclusive agreements for future iPhone models during the temporary period.

The French Competition Council stated that Apple and Orange’s exclusive relationship posed a serious threat to competition and causes consumers to incur hefty and unjust fees should they attempt to switch providers.

AppleInsider and MacBidouille.com are both reporting that Orange France could be set to dramatically lower the pricing of the iPhone.

In a flyer sent to AppleInsider the price of the 8GB iPhone is shown as €99 down from €149. While MacBidouille notes that the 16GB model will see a price cut from €199 to €129.

The promotion will reportedly run from December 14 2008 through to January 14 2009.

Orange (the iPhone cellular carrier for Poland) has denied that it hired actors to stand outside its stores to drum up interest for the super-phone. The original source for the incorrect information was an unidentified Orange employee. [via 9to5Mac]

On another Orange note, Orange in France has admitted that it was throttling its smartphone data speeds at 384 Kb/s. They have promised to raise this limit to 1 Mbits/s beginning September 15, 2008. [via HardMac]

The sad thing about both situations is that Apple’s reputation is affected negativity even though they had nothing to do with the first false rumour or Orange’s surreptitious throttling.

Francre Telecom’s Orange announced Thursday that it would release the new iPhone 3G on July 17 priced at €149 ($234) for the 8GB model.

The 16GB handset will sell for €199 ($312), both handsets require that subscribers sign up to one of its existing “Orange for iPhone” plans, or its Origami Star (from 3 hours), First or Jet plans.

Orange also added that with other plans (excluding time-cutoff and pay-as-you-go) the 8GB iPhone will sell for €199 and the 16GB for €249. For example, customers can get the 8GB model for 199 euro with a one-hour Origami Star plan that costs 32 euro and offers up to 500MB of monthly internet access.

“Orange for iPhone” plans (pictured) start at 49 euro per month and includes 2 hours of normal talk time, 2 hours of late evening and weekend minutes, and 50 SMS text messages. The most expensive plan is priced at 149 euro and includes 12 hours of normal talk time, 12 hours of nights and weekends, and 1000 SMS messages. All “Orange for iPhone” plans include Visual Voicemail and up to 500MB of monthly data usage.

According to French technology site PCInpact (via Electronista) multiple readers of the site have been contacted by Orange regarding upgrading to future iPhone models.

Apparently two solutions are on the table, the first entails a direct swap. A trade-in for the current model would almost fully subsidise the new handset leaving just €50 to be paid off.

Alternatively existing subscribers could obtain the next-generation iPhone at a “generous discount”, currently the exact amount is unknown.

French newspaper Les Echoes is today reporting that French iPhone carrier Orange is the next operator to lower the price of the iPhone due to poor sales.

Apple is reportedly urging the carrier to adopt a subsidised pricing model after selling a mere 100,000 units in the first four months of release.

Orange’s parent company France Telecom has denied reports that it will slash the price of the iPhone but both T-Mobile in Germany and O2 in the UK have begun offering the handset for reduced cost.

The price slashing from the European carriers is said to be ahead of the release of the 3G iPhone.