O2

iPhone boosts O2's earnings, heads for Ireland

The iPhone has been very good to O2 in the U.K.

Apple's (AAPL) British-accented partner reported yesterday that the iPhone has become its fastest selling device, helping the U.K. division of Telefonica (TEF) achieve its strongest quarter on record. Sales were up 9.5 percent in the last quarter of 2007 -- the first to show the effects of the iPhone. O2 did not provide sales figures for the iPhone alone, but MORE

iPhones initiate 50 times more searches than other handsets, says Google

For a device that represents about 0.4% of the mobile handset market, the iPhone generates an awful lot of Internet traffic.

How much, you ask?

"Unheard of levels," according an executive at O2, which on Monday announced plans to deploy a network of bandwidth boosting femtocells across the U.K. to handle the extra load. (see here)

And yesterday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, a Google (GOOG) executive offered a more precise MORE

Fuzzy Math: How many iPhones did Europeans buy?

End-of-year sales figures for Apple's (AAPL) iPhone in Europe are trickling in, but not in any form that can be definitively pieced together.

That latest news comes from Germany, where the head of Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile division said in an online interview Saturday that it had signed on 70,000 customers in the 11 weeks since the device went on sale. (link)

What's not clear is whether that number represents iPhone sales or MORE

British iPhone insurance scam

Employees at Carphone Warehouse, the U.K.'s largest cellphone retailer and the main distributor of Apple's (AAPL) iPhone in Britain, have been caught trying to mislead customers about what is and isn't covered by the purchase agreement, according to the BBC.

Responding to viewer complaints, undercover researchers from BBC One's Watchdog unit visited five Carphone Warehouse stores. In three out of the five, a salesperson told BBC staffers posing as customers that MORE

Signal trouble: British iPhone mystery

Is O2's network to blame, or Apple's (AAPL) iPhone?

That's the question posed by more than a few British iPhone owners who purchased the device in the past two weeks and have been struggling ever since to get decent telephone reception on it.

The problem surfaced two days after the phone went on sale in the U.K. when "Matlock" in Derbyshire started a discussion thread on Apple's support board entitled "UK 02 MORE

Brits snapped up Apple iPhones

Britons snapped up Apple (AAPL) iPhones at a healthy clip over the weekend, according to sales estimates that appeared in the British press this morning.

The Guardian and The Times quote Peter Erskine, CEO of O2 UK, estimating that "tens of thousands" of the devices were sold at Apple, O2 and Carphone Warehouse stores over the weekend. The Mirror, citing an unnamed O2 spokesperson, put the number at 70,000, according MORE

Europe's Phony iPhone Frenzy

For the faithful, waiting long hours in line for a new Apple (AAPL) product has become one of those formative experiences they'll be retailing to their grandchildren.

It's "a bit like going to a rock concert," Paul Waite told the London Times after sitting in the bitter cold outside Apple's Regent Street store for 12 1/2 hours on Friday for a chance to buy an iPhone on its first day of MORE

Apple iPhone set to launch in Germany and U.K.

Apple's (AAPL) iPhone makes its European debut Friday, starting with a special midnight event at T-Mobile's flagship Telekom shop in Cologne, Germany. Sales in the U.K. start at 6:02 p.m. at Apple, O2 and Carphone Warehouse outlets.

The openings have been preceded in the U.K. by the usual Apple marketing drum roll: TV ads in heavy rotation, flattering reviews in the national media (the Telegraph) and the Web (Trusted Reviews), and MORE

Behind the Scenes: The British iPhone Deal

A week before the scheduled Nov. 9 release of Apple's (AAPL) iPhone in the U.K., the Daily Telegraph has published a long interview with Matthew Key, the O2 UK chief executive who negotiated the deal with Steve Jobs. The story offers an interesting perspective on the iPhone, Apple, and its CEO as seen through the eyes of a English businessman.

According to Key, it started with an early morning call on MORE