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What do football managers and Vodafone have in common? Nothing and thats the problem.

There are is one golden rule when opperating in the transfer market:

Never announce publicly that you are interested in a player. Why? Because the selling club will take advantage of the situation and put the price up. What does this have to do with the Newbury based company?

Vodafone have bleated on about the Iphone ever since they missed out on getting the rights to sell the Iphone in the UK. Vittorio Colao has said that the company has been penalised by the situation and the Vodafone Finance director stated that the company would like to offer the phone in more of its markets. These were Vodafone’s fatal mistakes which have lead to Orange claiming rights to sell the latest models of the Iphone.

Apple will have no doubt seen the headlines and reports hinting at the importance that the company places on the device and will have raised the bar and increased the number of hoops it asked Vodafone to jump through in order to join O2 in the exclusive club.

O2 are the biggest mobile operator in the UK and they have the Iphone.

Once T-Mobile and Orange merge they will be the biggest operator and they will also be selling the latest models of the Apple Iphone, the 3G and 3GS.

Vodafone, once the market leader and frequent innovator has on numerous occasions stated how much of a negative impact not selling the Iphone has had on customer numbers. The latest announcement from Orange will be a very painful kick in the teeth to Vodafone.

When O2 secured the Iphone, Vodafone should have learnt its lesson. After publicly stating its regret on the decision not to pursue the Iphone with more than a token gesture approach, the company now finds itself in a very uncomfortable position.

No longer the major player in the market, Vodafone faces increased competition from outside the industry e.g. Google, and has a brand that needs a serious overhaul in order to get across to the younger, cooler, bigger spending customers. It is clear that all Vodafone’s eggs well and truly lie in the basket called Vodafone 360, the recently announced web services offering.

When you consider that the Iconic phone has been named at the top of the coolest brands list for the UK with Apple holding a total of 3 of the top 5 places its mad to see that Vodafone hasnt gone after a major link up with everything it had. Lets not forget, Vodafone is massive. No other mobile telecoms company comes close so why Vodafone hasnt used its size to out muscle the opposition wreaks of stupidity of the highest order.

One question that remains, in other markets where Vodafone has exclusivity on the Iphone, is big red mullering its competitors the same way O2 has been in the UK. The answer is a definite no.