Talk about a hectic day at the Apple camp! Sadly, my predictions weren’t all that accurately. I picked up that an online store was offering sim-free O2 iPhones in the UK, which was (of sorts) the pre-event warning that O2 was to be the UK carrier, which of course they were. Moments before the even took place, the O2 store went ‘down’. Though not confirmed, I’m willing to place a whole lot of money on T-Mobile being the German carrier and Orange being the French carrier, although all European countries besides the UK are still in the dark as to who really is their official carrier.

No official report on how much the O2/Cupertino UK contract was valued at, but moles report that it could cost O2 as much as 40% revenues from all iPhone related activity. The same source also revealed that T-Mobile, Vodafone and Orange all believed at some point during the proceedings that they’d be the UK carrier of the phone. Sorry chaps - Cupertino aint’ got you covered this time. Anyhow, UK iPhone sale price is £269 or about $535 for all you Americano beans reading along. The date? November 9th.

“We’ve been thinking about what kind of ads to run for the iPhone, we need to get out of way and let the iPhone speak for itself.”

Too right Stevey! The “Do you want to see them?” ads get a British voiceover. Coolio Jones. Another interesting tid-bit… You know all the iPhone web shots that keep popping up, of a full-screen New York Times? Well, guess what… The Guardian won the lucrative UK advertising deal, if that is indeed what it is.

“Why do I want to bring it to my customers in the UK? The iPhone will bring us another breakthrough experience. We’ve partnered with Carphone Wharehouse, 1300 points of distribution in the UK. Every store will have an expert on the phone.”

That’s the O2-UK CEO, speaking there. 1,300 iPhone ‘experts’. Oh joy. Engadget reports that visual voicemail is enabled and unlimited data plans ranging from £35 to £55 will be available. “No worry tarrif on EDGE and GPRS”. No 3G support, either. Reportedly though - the service will offer number transfer from whichever provider you’re currently using and port it to your iPhone.

“Our phone has a talk time of 8 hours and that’s really important when you want to use your phone for internet and music. 3G needs to get back up to 5+ hours, something we think well see later next year. … WiFi is way faster than any 3G network. Energy efficient EDGE with better, faster WiFi. That’s why we chose it.”

Whether this indeed means extended battery life or not, we’ll have to wait and see.

Q: What are your plans for iPhone launch in Europe, and your reaction to upsetting other carriers who feel played-off in terms of not getting this deal?

Steve: “We said we’d be in a few countries in Europe and we still plan to do that. As to the carriers, we took the approach to see who would be the best fit — it’s like going out on a few dates before getting married. So yeah, we have a few upset girlfriends out there.”

What a great way to put it… Steve - you can sure think on your feet! Before I send you off on an east-egg trail reading other sites takes, I’d like to highlight one thing Steve said which I found very interesting.

We’re working on the next iPhone and the next one after that.

So yes, boys ‘n’ girls. It’s confirmed. The iPhone 2.0 is in development. Officially.

In other news, iTunes 7.4.2 has patched a few of them lovely ringtone hacks we’ve all (Haha!) been avoiding. Image via Giz