On Friday we saw Vodafone release its first quarter figures and as expected the UK arm of the company isn’t performing well with revenue has falling 4.7% year on year.  It seems that Vodafone cant make a statement nowadays without commenting on the Iphone quietly blaming it for the fact that O2 are out performing the once market leader.

Whose fault is it that Vodafone do not have the Iphone in the UK? Vodafone’s that’s who. The company was too complacent, and too wrapped up in its own hype that it decided not to meet the demands made by Apple instead settling for exclusivity in other OpCo’s.

Is Vodafone winning in the markets it has exclusivity on the Iphone? Not as well as O2 are in the UK.

So given those two points Vodafone needs to do more than just secure the Iphone to for its UK customers. Im sure the Iphone would help but unless it’s an exclusive deal then it’s unlikely to change the company’s position in the UK.

TechCrunch are reporting that come September, the 3G Iphone will be available from T-Mobile, Orange and Vodafone but not the 3GS that will still be exclusive to Apple themselves, O2 and the Carphone Warehouse.

This is a great move by Apple as they get more sales channels for an outdated Iphone 3G handset.

It suits O2 as they get to keep the exclusivity for the 3GS.

Its a strange move by Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone. None of these three were happy to jump through the hoops well enough for Apple to give them the exclusive deal which O2 eventually won. But now, Orange, Vodafone and T-Mobile are happy to but in return they get an albeit good, but seriously outdated handset.

Why would a customer purcahse a phone that has already been superceded, tieing themselves down for 18 to 24months in the process. Does anyone love their network that much? Nowadays thats not the case. People are more driven by handset rather than the network.

We will have to wait and see what actually happens.

Now before I get into this post let me make something clear, my maths is rubbish. I have on a few occasions put 2 and 2 together and got 5. Im hoping that this isnt one of those cases.

It has been widely reported that Orange and T-Mobile are set to get their hands on the older versions of the iphone this September. What strikes me as odd is that Vodafone’s name has not been mentioned anywhere. Can we read anything into this? Are Vodafone uninterested in the 3G Iphones because they have the next gen phone lined up already?

Big product launches are epxected later in the year around Vodafones Now+ / mobile internet offerings. Could the Iphone be one of them? Fingers crossed.

Google have announced that they are building an os that will seriously compete with windows. It is expected that Google Chrome as it is being dubbed will be a lighter faster more secure open source OS built around web capabilities.

It is possible beta code will be made available as soon as later this year will a full release early 2010.