The last few months have been important for Orange, first with their purchase of T-Mobile – a merger which will see the new operator take the UK network top spot in terms of market share – and now the announcement they will be officially offering the Apple iPhone 3G and 3GS later this year.

It’s not much of a stretch to imagine these two events are linked, as when Apple chose O2 to exclusively sell the iPhone, the carrier occupied the highest step, now they are set to be replaced by T-Orange, or whatever the name will be, Apple have signed on the dotted line with them, a deal no doubt made easy by the Orange iPhone already selling in France.  The news also comes on the back of rumours O2 would be losing exclusivity when their contract ran out on November, and one can also wonder as to the impact O2′s Palm Pre exclusive deal had on their Apple relations.

At this stage, Orange have only released the fact the iPhone will be available with them via their own shops and ‘selected high street partners’, with nothing concerning phone pricing, tariffs or the final release date as yet.  It’s also worth noting that Orange do not mention anything about exclusivity, so expect O2 to still offer the phone for sale too.