Tesco To Sell Apple's iPhone In UK
By Kathy Sandler, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Tesco PLC (TSCO.LN) is the latest telecomnunications
provider to announce it will sell Apple Inc.'s (APPL) iconic iPhone in the U.K.,
potentially bringing its lower-priced ethos to the smartphone market.
Tesco didn't confirm a start date or tariffs for the iPhone but said in a
brief press release both the original iPhone 3G and the new iPhone 3GS would be
available shortly.
After two year's exclusivity with Telefonica SA's (TEF) O2, Apple opened up
its distrbution channels in the U.K. earlier this month when France Telecom SA's
(FTE) Orange network began to sell the phone, and Vodafone Group PLC (VOD) is to
follow in the new year.
Tesco Mobile is a joint venture between Tesco and O2, and it derives the
majority of its sales from low-margin, low-priced pay-as-you-go phones operating
on the O2 network.
While the company does sell a small proportion of longer-term mobile
contracts, a lack of in-store sales staff dedicated to signing up new customers
has limited the sale of these more lucrative contracts.
But with service expansion in its sights, Tesco has already started to roll
out its in-store dedicated phone shops, with plans to have 100 open by the end
of 2009, building out to a countrywide network of 500 phone shops in-store.
-By Kathy Sandler, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-207-842-9293; kathy.sandler@
dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
11-26-090652ET
Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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