iPhone to Go on Sale in UK on Nov. 9

Network operator O2 (UK) Ltd. will sell Apple Inc.'s iPhone in the U.K. from Nov. 9 for €269 (US$538), the companies announced Tuesday, marking the start of the iPhone's move into Europe.

O2 will sell the smartphone, which plays music, connects to Wi-Fi networks and has a touch-sensitive screen and 8G bytes of memory, with contracts priced €35, €45 or €55 per month. For that price, customers will get 200 minutes of talk time, 200 text messages, and "unlimited" free data transfers. They will also have free access to a network of 7,000 Wi-Fi hot-spots, O2 said.

The company has an exclusive deal as the only U.K. operator to sell the phone, although it will also be available through Apple retail stores and through the independent Carphone Warehouse retail chain.

Apple launched the iPhone in the U.S. on June 29, exclusively with operator AT&T Corp. The 8G-byte iPhone initially cost $599, but Apple cut the price to $399 on Sept. 5.

At €269, the iPhone will face stiffer competition in the U.K. than it does in the U.S. That's because prices for other smartphones are typically lower in Europe, where many operators subsidize the cost of new phones in order to attract customers. For instance, O2 customers signing a €30-a-month contract for 18 months or more can get Nokia Corp.'s top-of-the-range N95 smartphone with Wi-Fi, camera, music player and GPS for free.

The European iPhone is substantially unchanged from the U.S. model, which already had the capability to operate on the 900MHz and 1800MHz GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) bands used in Europe and Asia, in addition to the 850MHz and 1900MHz bands used in North America. Like the U.S. model, it has no 3G high-speed data capability, and will instead operate on O2's GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) and EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) networks.

Apple revealed a new version of the iPhone firmware, 1.1.1 on Friday with a new settings menu for international options not seen in previous versions.

Such settings will be useful as Apple moves away from English-speaking countries: Apple is widely expected to announce similar deals with operators in France and Germany over the coming weeks. France Telecom SA's mobile-and-Internet subsidiary Orange and Deutsche Telekom AG's subsidiary T-Mobile are the front-runners to sell the phone, according to research director Carolina Milanesi of Gartner Inc.

Apple will need to enter new markets if it is to meet analysts' sales expectations for the smartphone. The company said it sold its first million iPhones in just 74 days, but U.S. market researcher iSuppli Corp. said on Sept. 4 that it expected Apple to ship 4.5 million of the devices worldwide this year -- and between 10 million and 15 million next year.

Although the iPhone was the fastest-selling smartphone in the U.S. in July, accounting for 1.8 percent of all handset sales there according to iSuppli, it will face stiffer competition in Europe where other brands of smartphone are more entrenched. Nokia said it sold over 10 million of its Nseries and Eseries smartphones during the quarter to June 30 -- including 1.5 million of its flagship N95.

In the U.K., the iPhone will also face competition from Apple's own iPod Touch, which went on sale there earlier this month. In the U.S., the iPhone had a four-month head-start. The iPod Touch offers many of the same functions as the iPhone -- with the obvious exception of telephony. In the U.K., the 8G-byte iPod Touch costs €199 ($398) including tax, while the 16G-byte model costs €269 ($538). In the U.S., the same devices sell for $299 and $399, excluding tax.