T-Mobile has issued a press statement regarding the court order Vodafone brought against the rival mobile company regarding the German deal for the iPhone.

Vodafone got the order, through a court in Hamburg, claiming that the way the iphone is being sold in Germany, exclusively through T-Mobile, is wrong for that particular territory and customers should not be forced to sign up to a 2-year deal.

The German Vodafone chief executive Friedrich Joussen said in a statement that they want consumers to be able to buy the iPhone without tying themselves into a long contract.

T-Mobile will  now offer an unlocked iPhone for 999 euros, which equals about £720.

Before Vodafone stepped in and got the court order, customers had to sign up to a T-Mobile contract costing a minimum of 1,176 euros in order to buy the 399 euro phone. In the UK, the iPhone is £269, with a minimum of 18-month contract with O2. An unlocked, or pre-pay version is not offered.

“Everyone clearly wanted to get a piece of the Apple iPhone pie, and are trying to make things hard for Apple. A similar pre-pay offering is planned for the French launch, so the iPhone business model is not rolling out as smoothly as Apple would have liked,” our insider said.