The iPhone launches on Vodafone today - let the battle commence!

Last year saw the end of O2’s monopoly on the iPhone. During the last several months Tesco, Orange, and now Vodafone have begun selling the market leading smartphone.

However, as has been the case with other network providers there isn’t much difference between tariff prices. For example, users can get the 8GB iPhone 3G for free on a 24 month at £35 on Vodafone. This is practically the same as the Orange deal, except on Vodafone users’ get unlimited texts, which sweetens the deal ever so slightly.

The iPhone 3GS is only free on the £45 per month tariff for the iPhone 3GS 8GB and the £75 per month tariff for the 3GS 16GB. Users’ wishing to get their hands on a iPhone 3GS below these high-end tariffs will have to pay up to £239 for the privilege.

In addition to this, Vodafone is offering users’ 1GB a month of 3G data, which is significantly better than Orange’s pokey 750MB allowance but not quite as good as O2’s unlimited - and subject to an excessive usage policy - data package.

According to The Guardian, Vodafone has invested heavily in “deep pan” 3G network, which is probably a good thing as O2, since the summer, has had some serious issues with its 3G services.

With this mind, many experts have suggested that the four iPhone vendors will actually be competing on how good their respective 3G networks are and not on minutes and texts bundles.