European iPhone could come to Vodafone, but with changes, sources suggest
Rumours continue to circulate about who’ll snag the iPhone in Europe. The latest to surface is that Vodafone will do a European deal with Apple, but not without challenging some of the iPhone’s features first.
According to “sources”, executives at Vodafone aren’t happy about how the iPhone implements YouTube. They would prefer it to operate more like the desktop web version.
They’d also press for the iPhone to synchronise easily with Microsoft Exchange and Outlook — believing many European iPhone users will be high-end business customers — potentially requiring Apple to license the Microsoft Activesync technology to achieve this.
Additionally, various firewall and security settings may need to change, in order to allow access to such services as Cisco Systems’ VPN (Virtual Private Network) format.
Added to that, there are a few boring issues surrounding how secure Wi-Fi works, plus the ongoing nag about the lack of “cut and paste” on the iPhone.
Vodafone may also call for Apple to release a 3G version of the iPhone. We still have no guarantee that Apple is considering this, though some reckon a 3G version could arrive in early 2008.
Of course, these are all effectively rumours, and given that nearly every large mobile network in Europe has been associated with the iPhone at some point over the past six months, we’ll wait until someone official makes a real announcement.
(Via iPhonic)
