Judging by Orange’s first-day sales, the debut was quite a success. The iPhone went on sale at 7 am Tuesday and by 4 pm, Orange had sold more than 30,000. Not bad. In fact, according to Orange, it’s a new record. Said a spokesperson for the carrier: “Orange is delighted to reveal, that as of 4 PM yesterday, it…sold more than 30,000 iPhones across the UK–smashing what we believe is the previously published first-day sales record for a handset in the UK.”

Orange also claims to have registered roughly 250,000 iPhone presubscriptions, of which only a fraction have been fulfilled. If that is the case, the carrier will end up with a million iPhone users by the end of 2010.

Rabid demand for the iPhone has emptied not just the company’s physical retail outlets, but its online store as well. “We continue to see extremely high levels of demand for the iPhone which means it comes in and out of stock very quickly and will be why the Web site hasn’t had any since Monday,” an O2 spokesperson told the Telegraph.

News of the shortage comes just days after O2 rivals Orange and Vodafone both announced plans to carry the iPhone later this year, bringing an end to O2’s exclusivity deal with Apple (AAPL). If Apple is unable to meet consumer demand with just a single U.K. carrier, how will it cope with three?

A reasonable question, but one for which Apple presumably has an answer. Said Forrester (FORR) analyst Mark Mulligan, “I don’t think [Apple] would expand if it couldn’t meet consumer demand, as that would lead to extreme consumer dissatisfaction–which compared to its peers, Apple is usually good at avoiding.”

“We expect Apple to add new iPhone carriers in the U.S. within the next year (likely with a new product launch next summer), Munster writes. “By way of example, for various reasons the company moved from an exclusive relationship with French wireless carrier Orange to a multi-carrier model. In France, the company now enjoys dramatically higher market share (in the 40% range vs. about 15% in ROW) than in countries with exclusive carrier agreements (such as AT&T in the U.S. where the iPhone has market share in the mid-teens). We believe Apple is seeing the increased unit sell-through more than offset the slightly (~10%) deteriorated economics per unit involved in non-exclusive agreements.”

If Munster’s prediction proves true, it will undoubtedly be welcomed by iPhone owners–nearly a third of whom listed AT&T as the feature they dislike most in the iPhone in a recent ChangeWave survey. But it will be ugly news for AT&T (T), which could suffer some serious subscriber defections if the company loses its iPhone-exclusivity deal–particularly if Apple signs on Verizon (VZ) as a second carrier. As Pali Research recently noted:

“As the iPhone exclusivity period rolls off between AT&T Wireless and Apple, a material number of AT&T customers will flock to Verizon’s superior network. We estimate that nearly a third of AT&T’s post-paid customers are being retained by AT&T primarily because of the iPhone exclusivity.”

RIM (RIMM) is investigating the problem and says it appears to be specific to the Japanese market. “This issue appears to be specifically limited to the BlackBerry Bold devices sold in Japan since last week and sales of BlackBerry Bold devices in other countries are unaffected by this matter,” the company said in a statement.

Another tough break for the Bold, which has suffered quite a few of them since launch. Back in January U.K. carrier Orange was said to be considering pulling the device from its lineup because of persistent problems.

We have these fake queues at front of 20 stores around the country to drum up interest in the iPhone.”

– An Orange Poland spokesman lays the groundwork for a forthcoming Polish joke

Today, the company struck an extensive deal with France Telecom’s (FTE.PA) Orange wireless carrier to distribute the device in more than 10 markets in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Caribbean.

Orange, which became Apple’s exclusive carrier partner in France last year, will soon sell the iPhone in Austria, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Jordan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Switzerland, as well as the company’s African markets.

Interestingly, a few of these countries already have carriers with iPhone distribution agreements. It would seem then that Apple is indeed moving away from the exclusive iPhone distribution arrangements it’s been inking, as many suggested last week when Vodafone (VOD) and Telecom Italia (TI-A) both announced plans to bring the iPhone to Italy.

In any event, Apple’s deal with Orange will expand the iPhone’s reach to about 40 countries and will effectively quadruple its total addressable market. “Currently Apple’s total addressable market includes 153 million subscribers in six countries with AT&T (T), T-Mobile Germany and Austria, O2, and Orange,” Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster observed in a research note today. “These announcements increase those numbers to 575 million subscribers in 42 countries, including recent agreements with Vodafone, SingTel, America Movil (AMX), Swisscom and Orange. … To give some context to these numbers, Apple sold 3.7 million iPhones in 2007 into a total addressable market of 148 million subscribers (or 3% penetration). Taking the recent carrier announcements into consideration, we are modeling for Apple’s penetration rate to remain at 3% in 2008 and double to 6% in 2009.”

To keep you abreast of tech news while he’s away, we’re compiling a daily digest of 10 must-read tech stories. Our Tech 10 appears below.

1. Bienvenue, iPhone: France Telecom has begun selling Apple’s cellphone at selected Orange stores in Paris and other cities. The device itself will cost about $1,106 with no plan attached, or 399 euros (about $590) with one of four “Orange for iPhone” plans, Computerworld notes, adding it will cost 100 euros ($148) to unlock the handset.
2. FCC Says ‘Uncle’: A proposal by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin to tightly regulate the cable TV industry has been “drastically” trimmed, reports the New York Times, which noted that Martin had sought more diverse programming and reduced cable costs.
3. Amazon: 1; Feds: 0. The federal government has lost its bid to compel Amazon to release details about the book-buying habits of thousands of its customers, according to Declan McCullogh on his blog, The Iconoclast. The Justice Department sought the information to prove its case against a former Madison, Wisc., city official accused of evading taxes in selling used books online.
4. Google, Online Snitch? The search colossus has voluntarily given the IP address of an Israeli blogger who used “Google Blogger” to allegedly slander municipal council members running for reelection, the Israeli Web site Globes Online reports, calling the move “unprecedented.”
5. YouTube, Censor? The popular video-sharing site has suspended the account of a well-known Egyptian anti-torture activist who posted videos of alleged brutality by a number of Egyptian policemen, Wael Abbas told Reuters, claiming that about 100 images he had sent were no longer available on YouTube.
6. But It Doesn’t Mind those CondéNet Vids: CondéNet is announcing today that it will distribute videos from its various consumer-interest Web sites via YouTube, The Wall Street Journal reports, adding that the deal is the latest in a series for Condé Nast Publications’ digital division.
7. LinkedIn Link to News Corp.? A “well-placed source” has told VentureBeat that News Corp. (owner of this site) is in talks to buy business-networking site LinkedIn. But LinkedIn CEO Dan Nye told Fortune’s Adam Lashinsky that “It would take a helluva lot” to get him to sell.
8. The Earth, Updated: Google Maps is updating its features, prompting Duncan Riley at TechCrunch to wonder if the new features won’t ultimately send Google Earth down the path of the dodo.
9. Feeling Insecure: Web applications and holes in Windows Office are the top concerns of Internet users, according to the annual security report by SANS, a computer training and security organization, in its Top 20 risk assessment for 2007.
10. How Green Is My Gaming? Greenpeace has released a report slamming Nintendo and Microsoft for making their video-game consoles with toxic chemicals, reports BusinessWeek, noting that the enviro group’s latest ranking of electronics firms this week also highlights questions over the environmental impact of the products and how much consumers care about them.

–posted by Associate Editor John Sullivan

Apple CEO Steve Jobs confirmed yesterday that the company’s iPhone will go on sale in Britain Nov. 9 and be carried exclusively by Telefonica SA’s O2 division (which was apparently willing to give up a kidney as well as its first born to win the deal).

As in the states, U.K. iPhones will run on a 2.5G EDGE network. An odd choice, given the prevalence of 3G-enabled phones in the country and O2’s British EDGE penetration, which apparently hovers around a paltry 30%.

Speaking at London’s Regent Street Apple Store, Jobs defended Apple’s decision to support EDGE and not 3G, saying to do otherwise would compromise the iPhone’s battery life. “The 3G chipsets are real power hogs,” said Jobs. “Most phones now have battery lives of two to three hours, and that’s due to these very power-hungry 3G chipsets. Our phone has 8 hours of talk-time life. That’s really important when you start to use the Internet and want to use the phone to listen to music. We’ve got to see the battery lives for 3G get back up into the five-plus hour range. Hopefully we’ll see that late next year. Rather than cut the battery life, we’ve included Wi-Fi and sandwiched 3G between EDGE and a more efficient Wi-Fi.”

And that appears to be Apple’s party line as it continues its iPhone march across Europe. This morning, Apple announced T-Mobile–the only network operator in Germany to offer EDGE throughout its entire GSM network–as the exclusive German carrier of the iPhone. Presumably it will announce a similar deal with France Télécom SA’s Orange in the days ahead.

Correction: Because of an editing error, an earlier version of the first paragraph of this post incorrectly referred to a “2.5-gigabyte” device instead of 2.5G device (as in “generation”) as the author intended.

To keep you abreast of tech news while he’s away, we’re compiling a daily digest of 10 must-read tech stories. We’re calling it the Tech 10 and it appears below.

1. As inevitable as death and taxes: YouTube, the world’s No. 1 video site, will begin placing ads in its videos, All Things Digital’s Kara Swisher reports. The animated advertising will appear no earlier than 15 seconds into a video, overlaid on the bottom fifth of the screen. Citing viewer revulsion, a YouTube product manager told NewTeeVee the site will not use the dreaded preroll or postroll.
2. Apple, leveraging its deal-brokering with AT&T stateside, has signed up European partners for iPhone sales and service. A report in the Financial Times notes that three telecoms–T-Mobile in Germany, Orange in France and O2 in the United Kingdom–will fork over 10% of the revenues made from iPhone calls and data transfers.



3. Stargazing earthlings will get a new perspective today, as Google unveils Sky, its view of the heavens from Earth. The New York Times reports that users will be able to zoom around to view millions of stars and galaxies, much as they do on a smaller scale with Google Earth.
4. Henri Richard, the very visible top sales officer of Advanced Micro Devices, is leaving the troubled chip maker. Confirming an earlier report on Hexus.net, Tom Krazit of CNET describes the executive vice president’s departure as a “significant development in what has been a disastrous year for AMD,” precipitated by its postponement of Barcelona, its quad-core server chip.
5. Regrouping years after the dot-com implosion, the online-trading business is in for some consolidation now that TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. and E*Trade Financial Corp. are holding merger talks. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the potential union could create a single dominant force in what has been seen as a highly fragmented industry, with many small companies in the competitive fray.
6. Spotting potential in the social-networking trend, U.S. spy agencies plan to develop an information-sharing portal based on MySpace and Facebook. According to the Register, taxpayers, rather than advertisers, will foot the bill for the spook Web site.
7. Darkening the cloud of suspicion hanging over electronic-voting machines, California’s secretary of state has accused Election Systems & Software of selling about 1,000 uncertified electronic-voting machines to five California counties in 2006, according to IDG News Service. The state has instituted new security standards for all electronic-voting machines after a review sharply criticized the technology.
8. Reconsidering the upswing in PC gaming, Microsoft is bringing back its SideWinder line of peripheral equipment, starting in October with a new mouse, reports the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The device will cost $79.95 and includes a wider scroll wheel, special buttons and other doodads for gameheads.
9. Joining the competition for the thinnest TV screen, Sharp is unveiling a 2-centimeter thick LCD screen. PC World reports that the prototype TV will get its signals via a high-speed wireless link, eliminating the need for a cable.



10. Talk about a cybervirus. Epidemiologists have found that studying an imaginary epidemic in an online game world could provide valuable clues to coping with the real thing. Writing about research published in the September issue of Lancet Infectious Diseases, ABC News reported that researchers from Tufts and the University of North Carolina are serious in applying the lessons of online epidemics (in particular, the “corrupted blood” that spread on World of Warcraft in 2005) to disease-control efforts worldwide.

–posted by Associate Editor John Sullivan

Apple had initially planned to sign a distribution deal with a single pan-European operator, leading many observers to conclude that Vodafone–Europe’s largest carrier–was the front runner to secure exclusive European rights to the iPhone.

It’s not yet clear why things don’t seem to be playing out that way, although it may be that Apple’s terms were a bit too onerous for Vodafone. Certainly, it’s not difficult to imagine Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin wincing over the AT&T-style arrangement that is rumored to give a portion of monthly subscription revenue to Apple.

One last point to make here: Contrary to current speculation, people close to the situation said European iPhones will not operate on 3G mobile networks of companies such as Vodafone, but on their slower 2.5G counterparts–just as they do in the U.S.