European Operators Facing Losses on iPhone Sales

European operators are reported to be sitting on large stocks of unsold Apple iPhones and could be facing significant losses as they cut the retail price to clear stocks in anticipation of an imminent 3G launch.

The UK's Sunday Times newspaper , citing Kathryn Huberty, an analyst at Morgan Stanley said that losses on early model iPhones would be "significant" even though they may recoup some of this in monthly revenue from customers who bought the cheaper devices.

Ms Huberty said European mobile executives seemed to have become over-excited by the hype surrounding the iPhone at the time of its US release on the AT&T network last June.

O2 in the UK and T-Mobile in Germany have both cut the retail prices of the iPhones in the past few weeks. However, O2 Ireland and Orange France have not yet followed suit.

The newspaper also said that it understands that Apple has placed an order with its Asian suppliers to produce 200,000 of the new 3G iPhones by the end of May, rising to 2 million - 500,000 per week - in June.

One the web: Sunday Times

Posted to the site on 20th April 2008