Is Vodafone Shaping Up To Offer iPhone?

Here’s a tiplet that points towards the fact that O2 may have to share the iPhone with Vodafone.

Vodafone has just launched an iPhone portal right here in the UK – could this mean that the operator is planning to offer Apple’s lovely mobile phone pretty soon?

As you’re probably aware, O2 and The Carphone Warehouse share exclusive rights to sell the iPhone in the UK, with O2 being the sole official operator.

There have been rumours that this arrangement is to end and with this portal cropping up it can only fuel this even further.

There has been talks between Apple and Verizon concerning the introduction of the iPhone to its network in the states (where AT&T is currently the sole carrier) – Verizon happens to be co-owned by Vodafone. 

Vodafone already carries the iPhone in several other countries, so it’s not that far-fetched to see Apple looking to widen the iPhone’s appeal by offering it to more consumers.

Vodafone aint giving any such hints (yet) and is happy to state that its free iPhone portal is “available to all iPhone users, including non-Vodafone customers”.

I’m guessing they’ve not gone to all that time and money to develop an entire site to cater for O2’s customers and those with a jailbroken iPhone though………..do you?

The Vodafone iPhone portal allows visitors to the site to build a custom page by dragging widgets around, and includes UK-centric content from Sky News, the Premier League and the BBC.

So, do you think that O2 are gonna be sharing with Voda soon?