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But the difficulty of integrating the iTunes-oriented iPhone with Vodafone's Live platform is thought to have given T-Mobile the edge, according to MarketingWeek.

Several carriers are thought to have been competing for the prestigious contract, among them Orange, O2 and Telefonica. 3 was ruled out at an early stage as the phone does not yet support 3G, largely because Apple is concerned that the technology is too power hungry and would unduly shorten battery life.

Apple has agreed an exclusive deal with AT&T in the US; iPhone will only be available with a two-year contract and will not go on general sale (unless

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you are prepared to pay in excess of $1,000 on eBay). Apple is expected to follow suit in Europe when the smartphone cum iPod launches in Europe later this year. The assumption is that it is looking for a single deal, rather than country-by-country agreements. However no single operator covers every country in the EU, never mind the whole of Europe, while at least one country, Belgium, does not allow phones to be sold with contracts.

As Gartner research director Martin Gutberlet explains, the market is very different from the US.

'It would be in Apple's best interests to get more than one operator to distribute the phone because the European market is more fragmented,' he said.

For its part Apple is, as usual, keeping stumm, ahead of the iPhone's launch next month.

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