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O2 has won the right to become the first mobile operator in Europe to carry the iPhone. Apple and 02 revealed the news at press conference in London today.

The British carrier has signed a multiyear deal for an unspecified length of time (AT&T's contract with Apple in the U.S. is said to be for five years) with Apple for exclusive rights to the smartphone. Rumor has it O2 agreed to give up a whopping 40 percent of iPhone revenue for the privilege, however.

O2 is due to start carrying this country's hottest selling smartphone on November 9th for £269 (about $538). It'll be available through European cell phone retailer Carphone Warehouse, Apple stores, and, of course, directly from 02.

Purchasing an iPhone will require signing up with O2 for an 18-month stretch with O2.

Subscription plans start at £35 ($70) for 200 minutes voice, 200 SMS messages and unlimited data, going up to £45 ($90) for 600 minutes and 500 messages and £55 ($110) for 1200 minutes and 500 messages.

While it was thought that Apple would introduce a 3G-enabled iPhone for Europe, that isn't the case—at least as far as O2 is concerned. What 02 will roll out is essentially the same 8GB (sorry, not 16GB as expected) version as is available in the U.S., but with the latest iPhone firmware update (version 1.1.1) already installed; this adds an iTunes WiFi Store icon, the iPod Touch's home button access to music functions, support European language keyboards, etc.

This also means the O2 version tops out at 2.5G EDGE cellular data transfers like the AT&T edition. In addition to being far slower than 3G, O2's EDGE network has a much smaller footprint than its American counterpart, covering a mere 30 percent of the country.

02 is offering iPhone users free access to the 7,500 hot spots run by Cloud, in a bid – it seems - to make up the difference, however.

Expect to hear what carriers will offer the iPhone in France and Germany in the weeks ahead. The latest rumors have Orange in France and Deutsche Telekom AG's subsidiary T-Mobile or Vodafone in Germany leading the pack right now.

Research firm iSuppli says the iPhone lead all other smartphones in the U.S. in July by taking 1.8 percent of the market. Apple sold its first million iPhone in only 74 days.

Earlier this month, iSuppli predicted Apple would ship 4.5 million units before the end of 2007. More conservative analysts put the number closer to 3 million, which is still 700,000 more than originally anticipated.

While Apple's stated goal is ship 10 million iPhones in 2008, iSuppli thinks the number could reach as high as 15 million. .