Telefonica Czech: No Deal With Apple On Selling iPhone 4S
October 27 2011 - 6:49AM
Dow Jones News
Telefonica Czech AS (BAATELEC) has so far failed to reach a deal
with Apple Inc. (AAPL) on offering the U.S. company's iPhone 4S in
the Czech market, a company spokesman said Thursday.
"We haven't agreed with Apple on mutually acceptable conditions
yet," Hany Farghali told Dow Jones Newswires in a telephone
interview.
Telefonica Czech is still continuing to hold talks with Apple on
adding the new iPhone model to its portfolio, Farghali said,
without elaborating.
Czech units of T-Mobile, owned by Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE.XE),
and Vodafone Group PLC (VOD)--both main rivals of Telefonica
Czech--have said they are planning to launch the iPhone 4S on
Friday.
Telefonica Czech, majority owned by Spain's Telefonica SA (TEF),
is unlikely to add the iPhone 4S model to its pre-holiday offering,
said a person familiar with the local mobile market who asked to
remain anonymous.
Instead, the company will focus on already much higher volume
sales of smart phones based on rival operating systems, including
Google Inc.'s (GOOG) Android and Nokia Corp.'s (NOK) Symbian.
"iPhone sales in general are pretty small on the local market
and well below Android models and even still Nokia phones," the
person said.
-By Leos Rousek, Dow Jones Newswires; +420 222 315 290;
leos.rousek@dowjones.com
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