Apple Unable to Find iPhone Partner in Europe?

A Vnunet.com article claims that European mobile operators are unwilling to concede to Apple's iPhone partnership demands.

"Operators consistently told us, not for attribution, of course, that they had spoken to Apple and found the company 'unbelievably arrogant', making demands that 'simply cannot be justified no matter how hot the product is'," Avi Greengart, a principal analyst at Current Analysis, wrote in an advisory on Monday.

Several operators went as far as to say they "will never offer the iPhone." It's been widely publicized that Apple has made several unconventional demands of their cell phone carriers. In the U.S., Verizon is reported to have rejected Apple's deal due to the terms of the agreement. Apple's terms with AT&T are rumored to include revenue sharing of the monthly subscriber fees for the iPhone.

The other option is for Apple to sell the iPhone directly to consumers without a Sim card, allowing users to later install one from their mobile provider. This, however, would require Apple to somehow bypass the provider's voicemail to enable their "Visual Voicemail" feature which requires server-side support.