Apple will not recieve follow on revenue from its new iPhone partners

Apple will not receive follow-on revenue from most of its new telecom partners according to SEC filing Form 8-K for APPLE IN. This is a very interesting development for several reasons.  It means that Apple is stuck in their original agreements with AT&T, O2, Orange, Tmobile, etc.  It also means that the old model wasn’t optimal for Apple and it is going for a new model where it is no longer taking a cut of monthly revenues.

The new carriers will be doing the writeoff themselves for the new countries.  How this will affect Apple’s sales model is unclear.  Will they sell them in the Apple stores for the $199 price?  Will they still be Jailbreakable and/or downgradable?

So many questions… From the SEC Filing:

Item 8.01. Other Events

Apple Inc. ("Apple") Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs announced today at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference that Apple has sold over 6 million iPhones to date, including over 700,000 in the current June quarter. Mr. Jobs also announced that the new iPhone 3G will be available initially in 22 countries, and that the iPhone 2.0 software will be available to all iPhone customers, both beginning on July 11, 2008.

Apple has signed multi-year agreements with carriers authorizing them to distribute and provide network services for iPhones in over 70 countries. These agreements are generally not exclusive with a specific carrier, except in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Ireland, and certain other countries. Under the vast majority of these agreements, Apple will not receive follow-on revenue generating payments from carriers for the new iPhone 3G beyond the purchase of the device by carriers or a commission on sales of the device by Apple. Apple will continue to receive payments from cellular network providers related to first-generation iPhones as long as they remain active on authorized networks.

Apple assumes no obligation to update any of the statements in this Form 8-K regarding the iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPhone 2.0 software.