London - Telefonica's (NYSE: TEF) O2 wireless network in the U.K. on Thursday announced the launch of My Play, a mobile music store joint venture with major label Sony BMG. The store, powered by Momac's GoMedia publishing platform, will offer videos, full-track downloads and ringtones. In addition to being available from the O2 Active portal, consumers will also be able to access the My Play store by clicking on artist micro-sites.

London - O2, Apple's iPhone launch partner in the U.K., was forced to stop taking pre-orders for the device Monday when a crush of customers who received text messages of the offer from the company crashed the site, The Register reported. O2 had offered to have the iPhone delivered via courier on Friday to customers placing a pre-order. "The response was so great that the online store completely sold out of iPhone 3Gs within just a few hours," the company said. "Though O2 had invested several million pounds to increase the order capacity of the site, at times the site still couldn't process the sheer weight of demand."

London - Apple's (NASD: AAPL) U.K. iPhone launch partners, O2 and Carphone Warehouse, have slashed the price of the device there by 100 pounds ($197) in anticipation of the launch of a new model of the device, Reuters reports. The 8GB version will now sell for 169 pounds, while the 16GB model will stay at 329 pounds; a similar price cut was enacted by T-Mobile in Germany earlier this month. Apple told Reuters the O2 promotional pricing would not extend to iPhone sales at its own stores.

London - U.K. mobile operator O2 fell just shy of its expected early sales of Apple's (NASD: AAPL) iPhone, and will report sales of 190,000 for the device's first two months of availability -- as opposed to the 200,000 it projected, FT.com reported. O2 declined to comment on the sales figures leaked to FT.com, but said that the iPhone was the company's fastest-selling handset ever "by a significant margin."

London - Apple's (NASD: AAPL) 8GB iPhone went on sale in the U.K. and Germany on Friday, sporting price tags of about $563 (GBP) at O2 and Carphone Warehouse in the U.K. and $583 (euros) at T-Mobile stores in Germany.

It hasn’t received much attention in the media over the last week so you probably haven’t noticed, but the iPhone goes on sale in the UK today. 02 is the exclusive British carrier, although the phone will be available via three separate retailers: 02, Apple and Carphone Warehouse. As the table below illustrates, these three companies combined received over 60% of all traffic from the search term ‘iPhone’ during the 4 weeks ending 3rd November.

London - U.K. mobile network operator O2 announced that it has signed a deal with Warner Music for the initial exclusive rights to Led Zeppelin ringtones in the country, Billboard reported. O2 will offer master ringtones of 22 of the band's songs at about $5 each from Oct. 15 until Nov. 12, when the band's full catalog will go on sale from all digital retailers. A promotion will enter fans who purchase a ringtone into a contest for tickets to the band's one-time-only reunion show at the O2 Arena on Nov. 26.

Two big music stories have caught the media’s attention over the last couple of weeks. Firstly there was the announcement last Wednesday (September 12th) that the remaining members of Led Zeppelin are to reform for a one off reunion concert in November. This was followed yesterday (September 18th) by the UK launch of Apple's iPhone. The common thread is mobile telco O2, which sponsors the venue for the Led Zep gig (the former Millenium Dome, now rechristened The O2), and will also be the exclusive network provider for the iPhone in the UK.

London - Apple announced in London on Tuesday that wireless carrier O2, a unit of Spain's Telefonica, will be the exclusive U.K. carrier of the iPhone when it launches there on Nov. 9.

London - Apple has invited media to a press conference in London next Tuesday, at which it is expected to announce which European wireless carriers will offer its iPhone when it launches there in the fall, Reuters reported.

Munich, Germany - Apple has secured deals with three European wireless carriers for the launch of its iPhone, which require them to share 10% of revenues from calls and data with the company, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.