O2 is set to win the rights to sell the iPhone in the UK, people familiar with the matter told the Financial Times. Apple will limit iPhone's European launch this autumn to the UK, France and Germany. It will follow elsewhere in Europe next year, when it will also launch in Asia, according to the paper. As in the US, the phone will be a 2.5G, not 3G, handset. The four European mobile operators in the running for the exclusive contract were T-Mobile, Orange, O2 and Vodafone. O2 said it had not signed a contract with Apple. The UK's Independent meanwhile reports that Orange will win the iPhone distribution in France and T-Mobile in Germany, as Apple goes with the largest operators in each country.
