O2's Key Briefs Jobs, Reveals Sales and Data Usage Figures

The Brits apparently love their iPhones, according to Matthew Key, incoming chief executive of O2 Europe, the nation's exclusive provider for Apple's iPhone handset. According to the Financial Times, Key traveled to California last week to brief Apple CEO Steve Jobs. To date, Key reported, 200,000 iPhones should be sold in Britain by early January, though reporter Andrew Parker claimed this estimate may be viewed as conservative and the actual number could climb as high as 400,000 units per the Gartner research firm's estimates.

"A 3G version of the iPhone will be launched by Apple next year; Mr Key is confident that O 2 will also have an exclusive deal for the mark two device," Parker reports. "O2 has signed a multi-year deal with Apple for the iPhone, and Mr Key insists Vodafone, for example, could not muscle in and take the 3G iPhone in the UK."

Another interesting element of the story points out data usage over in the UK. "About 60 per cent of iPhone customers are sending or receiving more than 25 megabytes of data per month, which is the equivalent of sending 7,500 e-mails. By comparison, only 1.8 per cent of O2 's other mobile customers on monthly contracts are consuming more than 25MB per month," Parker reports. "The O2 research suggests that, after years of dashed hopes for the operators, customers are on the verge of surfing the web on their mobiles in significant numbers."

[Via Financial Times]