T-Mobile CEO Hamid Akhavan hinted yesterday that the operator would remain the exclusive distributor of the iPhone in Germany even after Apple has introduced the much-anticipated 3G version of the device, rumoured for launch next month, reports Reuters. Like O2 in the UK and Ireland, Orange in France and AT&T in the US, T-Mobile has been the sole distributor of the first generation of the iPhone in Germany since its launch last year. However, Apple has recently struck deals with the likes of SingTel, Vodafone and Orange to launch the device in many more markets, effectively abandoning its previous strategy of tying the device to one exclusive operator per market. The recent deal with Orange, for example, means that both T-Mobile and Orange will be selling the device in Austria.

Reports suggest that Apple’s change in strategy could be a way of ramping up sales of the first generation of the device to clear stocks ahead of the launch of the 3G model. It is not yet known whether Apple will revert to the exclusive model once the 3G iPhone is available, but Akhavan suggests that T-Mobile’s exclusive arrangement with Apple will remain in place. “We have a very good relationship with Apple … at least in Germany it is exclusive, and we expect it to remain as such,” he told the Reuters Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit in Paris. “If and when there is a 3G iPhone we expect to have it exclusively in Germany as well.”