O2 hopes to sell 200,000 Phones over this Christmas.

According to the latest on O2, the company estimates that the iPhone may sell up to 200,000 handsets during this Christmas and New Year season in the UK.

O2 chief executive Matthew Key expects “a couple of hundred thousand” to be sold during the first two months after the official launch which is to take place on next Friday, Nov. 9th. Besides O2, the iconic handset will be sold by Carphone and Apple itself. Matthew Key added that 02 had ordered “hundreds of thousands” of iPhones from Apple for stores and online outlets run by 02 and Carphone.

However impressive O2’s estimates would be, other analysts say that iPhone sales potential is much bigger. Carolina Milanesi, analyst at Gartner, a consultancy, said between 350,000 and 400,000 iPhones could be sold in the first two months. iPhone rivals like Motorola’s Razr and Sony Ericsson’s Cybershot and Walkman phones, have caused a similar interest among mobile users. Their sale numbers weren’t, however, as impressive as those of an iPhone.

iPhone’s weak side in comparison with it’s competitors maybe the fact that it is operating on 2.5G mobile networks, which are slower than its 3G rivals. Mr. Key says that Apple should be ready to present iPhone’s 3G version in the second half of 2008.

Thanks: Telegraph.co.uk

Tags: app, Apple, iPhone, O2, OS, UK, USA

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