Tesco has confirmed that it will be selling the iPhone in the near future, as part of Apple’s moves to open up its UK distribution channel.
The UK’s largest retailer will start stocking the phones “shortly” and will be selling the phones via the Tesco Mobile shops that it has set up with O2. Reports suggest that Tesco will be selling the handsets before the all-important Christmas retail rush.
“It is a bit of a coup to get this before the other operators,” Tesco Mobile said.
The move will be a blow to Vodafone, who won’t be able to sell the iPhone until after Christmas and raises the possibility of a price war with Orange which has also secured a handset deal with Apple, but at similar prices to O2.
Tesco is getting heavily into the UK mobile phone market, with a plan to double the number of Tesco Mobile outlets to 200 by the end of 2010. if it decides to compete on price, as it has in other markets, then mobile operators could face a price war over mobile tariffs.
source: v3.co.uk
