Mobile working Toolkit

Story: Vodafone to sell the iPhone next year

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Too little too late?

Can't fault Vodafone for their speed of response to the announcement from Orange - but it must be a concern that they will be third to market with the iPhone, and whilst Orange will launch in November Vodafone have to wait to the New Year. The iPhone saga must be a painful reminder to Vodafone of the cost of not going further in the initial auction for exclusivity. When he was appointed as CEO, Mr Colao admitted that the outcome had hurt the business and stated that Vodafone needed to be 'faster' - faster to adapt to changing consumer needs, faster to market with new products, ... they still need to deliver on that promise.

My sense is that Vodafone's response - partnering with RIM on the Blackberry Storm has failed to live up to expectations. Although popular with some business users, many Blackberry fans seem to have opted for the QWERTY keyboard option and the Storm has too many usability issues.

I have enormous respect for Vodafone - they have traditionally had the best network, the best customer service for business users and are a great example of a UK business leading an industry. For these reasons it seems unthinkable that a market leader is facing potential relegation to third place in terms of market share and speed to market with the iPhone.

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