iPhone could hit retail for as little as ?360

On the eve of the French launch of Apple’s iPhone, Didier Lombard, France Telecom’s CEO, has said that his company would sell iPhones "significantly lower" than its rival, T-Mobile, are in Germany.

Last week T-Mobile was forced to sell iPhones unlocked after a successful complaint by Vodafone to the German court. In response T-Mobile slapped a price tag of €999 (£714) on the unlocked device, which would surely put off consumers from buying it for alternative carriers.

However in a radio interview with Europe’s Radio One today, Lombard said his company’s Orange subsidiary will undercut T-Mobile with a price point between €500 (£360) and €1000. French law states that mobile phones have to be sold without customers having to commit to a carrier contract.

Lombard also said that Orange has set an end-of-year sales goal of 100,000 iPhones.