My friend Gary Mendel (CMO at eZee) pointed me to this story: Carriers Chosen for European iPhone

From the story:

Apple has chosen its carriers for the iPhone launch in Europe, according to a report published Tuesday in the Financial Times. The report, citing unnamed sources, said the chosen partners are T-Mobile Deutschland for Germany, O2 in the UK, and Orange SA for France.

The report noted that the contract, which had been signed “in recent days,” requires the carriers to pay 10 percent of revenues from calls and data transfers to the Cupertino, California-based company.

I don’t know if the above are rumors or not, but WOW! Steve Jobs rules. Steve, you are the man! No one in this Planet has done this kind of deal ever. First the deal with AT&T in the US and dictating the rules of the game, and now this in Europe. Apple is in the driver’s seat. Thanks to Apple/Steve, for creating a precedence…

Times are changing
Between Apple redefining and reshaping the handset/carrier relationships, as well as the rules of the game (and other areas such as the “mobile” web), and Google helping redefine the meaning of carrier control of the spectrum, as well as the web as the platform, things won’t be as they were — the times and the ecosystem are changing, slowly but surely, for good, right now, as we speak… Remember the year 2007.