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Does Carphone sellout to BestBuy pave the way to an Apple iPhone venture?

A joint venture has been announced between America's Best Buy, and Europe's Carphone Warehouse.  This will revive speculation in informed quarters that Charles Dunstone's group might be creating an iPhone retail network with the cash.

Todays "official line" says nothing specific about why CPW needs so much money, beyond the "threefold purposes" of boosting TalkTalk, rolling out the Best Buy brand in Europe, and injecting CPW expertise into the US.

But a joint venture between Apple and CPW has been whispered about, as NewsWireless reported back in January:

A franchise would be an excellent idea. Alternatively, a takeover could be considered. Whatever the mechanics, if 1,200 CPW premises were suddenly re-branded as "Apple" it would solve Dunstone's plummeting sales problem, and the CPW image problem, and Apple's need for widespread distribution.

On the face of it, today's release kills off the iPhone idea. The official launch date of the 3G iPhone is widely expected to be before the August date when Best Buy and CPW have to agree terms and conditions.

But much depends on the gap between the US iPhone launch and the European release. And even more may depend on the rumours of a version 1.1 of the 3G iPhone, which say that the "real deal" will be one with an integrated wireless and data software stack, due out for Christmas.

Steve Jobs does still need more retail outlets, with more focus on his product, in Europe.

So far, sales of the 2G iPhone have been disappointing in Europe, for good technical reasons as well as retail access limitations. If the new model sorts out the technical problems, it would be a shame to spoil sales for lack of widespread high street retail outlets; and a deal with Best Buy must be one option.

But the primary message of the Best Buy deal is probably the simple one: that the original rumours of an iPhone retail chain were based on early leaks about the current merger.