Vodafone UK, the third 3G mobile operator in the UK to put the iPhone on sale, has hit over 50,000 iPhone deliveries to its customers on day one. This betters Orange UK who sold over 30K on their first day a few months ago. O2 UK who had an exclusive deal with Apple,until recently, and sold over 1 million iPhones since launch in 2007. 3G reported that 3G mobile operator 3 UK is offering a FREE iPhone ( sourced from Europe ) to high value customers thinking of changing networks from 3. The above clearly demonstrates the “pulling power” the iPhone has.
However, Vodafone were first off the mark to land a deal with Google to sell the Google Nexus One and are currently the only operator able to offer the Google Nexus One, in March this year. More on the Google Nexus One here.
The very good Vodafone iPhone sales came upon a level playing field with regard to pricing when compared to O2 and Orange and in practice has become a battle with regard to who the buyer thinks has the best 3G network.
The two things that Vodafone were able to offer iPhone purchasers was free calls and two new appliacations at launch day. The free call offer enabled free calls to other Vodafone customers and applied throughout the duration of the customers’ contract.
The first application is the Vodafone Navigation App, which turns the Vodafone iPhone into a satellite navigation device and its free. The second was the Vodafone People Sync App. More on these Apps here.
