Apple and Orange fight over iPhone revenue

The French iPhone deal is being delayed by arguments between Apple and the France Telecom-owned network Orange over the amount of revenue that will go back to Apple from iPhone sales. The news comes as Apple takes a massive PR hit over its latest software update to the iPhone, which is all about locking the phone down to one carrier.

With the iPhone deal all but done the official announcement is still being awaited as Apple reportedly argues for over a third of the revenues, according to French weekly Challenges.

According to the article the argument stems from the fact that Apple realised only late in negotiations that it might not make much margin out of iPhone sales alone. This is because under French law handset and service contracts cannot be sold as one package. Hence Apple wants more revenues from the tariff. The article adds that if an agreement is not reached by the middle of next week, Orange will miss its Christmas sales window.

The legal separation of handset and service contracts is a situation which exists in several other European countries, meaning Apple may find rolling out the iPhone in a similar manner across Europe increasingly difficult. It’s ironic, since Apple is getting increasing amounts of revenue from European sales of its products.

More detail on this on TechCrunch France