France Telecom's Orange will sell Apple's iPhone handsets in France from the end of November, Chief Executive Didier Lombard said during an industry event in Hanoi on Thursday.
A company spokeswoman confirmed Lombard had unveiled the long-expected deal for France, which follows similar deals earlier this week to bring iPhones to Germany via Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile and to Britain through Spanish-owned O2.
France Telecom said it was sure the unsubsidized phones, which combine Apple's popular iPod music player, a video player and a Web browser, would spur sales in France.
No further details were immediately available.
Innovative U.S. consumer electronics company Apple broke in the mobile phone industry by unveiling its iPhone in January, and has flouted European telecommunication conventions with its first European distribution deal. Most European mobile phone customers, who sign up for 18-month to two-year contracts with wireless-services operators, are not used to paying extra for the latest handsets.
Analysts also expect Apple to have demanded a 20 to 30 percent share of service and voice revenues generated by iPhones in return for exclusive sales deals with telecoms operators.
The touch-screen phone will be sold for $558 in Germany and $538 in Britain, including tax, on top of the cost of the contract from November 9--in time for the key run-up to the Christmas shopping season.
iPhones flew off U.S. shelves when they first went on sale there amid much fanfare in late June.
But Apple slashed the price of its $599 model to $399 earlier this month, excluding tax, sending its stock tumbling on market concern that sales were slowing.
Nevertheless Apple--which is selling the handsets via top U.S. operator AT&T to U.S. customers willing to sign up for a two-year contract--has sold more than 1 million iPhones in the United States to date, beating its end-September target.
While many applaud Apple for its design creativity and its ability to create "status symbol" gadgets that consumers crave, others have complained the touch-screen device is cumbersome, that data speeds are too slow and battery life too short.
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