Apple does not finish the exclusivity with AT&T in the US because that company was the partner that Apple needed to build, test and launch the iPhone making it a real product. They first tried with Cingular but they didn't accept the conditions Apple wanted. So after AT&T did accept and helped Apple to revolution the mobile industry I guess they are not easy to leave behind. I mean their contract should have guaranteed AT&T to keep having benefits...at least exclusivity even now that they may offer a so bad service at least in NYC...

Orange have the best 3G network coverage but the worst data policies, charging arm+leg for data.. although their iphone one isn't too bad.  I know a few who are waiting to see what Vodaphone will do.

In other news, O2 are now allowing official unlocks of iphones from day 1 of the contract (makes sense since you're tied in for 18 months anyway).  They still expect you to keep PayG ones for a year though (which is unlike other phones - normally you just have to deposit some money in the account and get the unlock, so I'm going to have to stick with jailbreaking my 3GS for now).

Vodafone not Vodaphone

Apple has been selling the iPhone, iPhone 3G and now the iPhone 3GS on the O2 network for two years so it is interesting to see so much pent up demand on another carrier (Apple...are you getting ideas for the US here?).

One big difference between the Europe and the US is that in Europe there is one mobile technology standard: GSM.  In the US, there are two: the legacy CDMA used by Verizon and Sprint, and GSM.

Yes, there are two major GSM providers in the US: AT&T and T-Mobile.  But T-Mobile's 3G service in the USA is an odd duck and is incompatible with handsets that aren't specifically designed to support it.  So that means being stuck at EDGE-class speed.

In the mean time, AT&T is the only provider in the US that provides 3G with HSDPA using the world-wide norms.

Add to that the unwillingness of the service providers to support the handsets, and Apple gets to the point of "why bother".  Does service provider support really matter?  Yes, service providers still hold a lot of the cards when it comes to handset success. 

Case in point: Nokia makes some awesome smartphones, but have bottom-of-the-barrel sales in the US due to Verizon and all the others ignoring them. 

Sorry I meant Verizon, not Cingular.

As others point out, the iPhone has to cater for the majority of the world that uses GSM (all carriers in the UK are GSM). In the USA, Verizon's network is CDMA. Apple would need to make another model just for American Verizon customers. Until all US carriers use the same 4G network, you will be stuck with AT&T

Mind you, Orange had been plugging the iPhone to current customers for a good few months, so it's likely a large proportion of those 30,000 were already Orange customers who were using their upgrade to join the iPhone brigade.  I suspect there may have been a few O2 iPhone users, too, who were shopping around for another network (because of signal problems, perhaps, or frustrations with the company).

It's a bit odd to think that there were 30,000 people in the UK who desperately wanted an iPhone but hated O2 so much that they had to wait for Orange to release it...  So what does this number actually mean (beyond the obvious fact that the iPhone is still a desirable phone)?

100,000 ?? Impressive ! And sad too because 256 MB for apps cap is preposterous. Also the UI looks disgusting. Waiting to see how the Nokia N900 Maemo does.

To be honest I don't quite understand what all this iPhone carrier issues in the US are about...

Here in New Zealand both our major providers, Vodafone and Telecom sell iPhones.. Lucky us I guess?