02 as of today have ceased their sales of the iPhone in the UK. Nothing specific was conveyed by O2 except a ubiquitous ‘iPhone no longer available’ on their website. No details, nothing. This announcement by O2 comes right at the footsteps of Apple’s 8GB model officially reaching the end of its rather long and illustrious life late last month and as has been quoted before, the stocks reportedly will not be replenished.

However, an odd coincidence or rather an accidental finding was that the UK store of Apple Inc.’s still shows both iPhone models - the 8GB and the 16GB versions as being readily available and ready to ship. Maybe O2 has started bracing itself for a hit which Apple need not fear. O2 which sells the phone in UK, and T-Mobile, the German distributor are said to have significantly overestimated the number of first version iPhones that would sell in Europe.

As was the conversation on the online grapevines, Kathryn Huberty, an analyst at Morgan Stanley specializing in Apple, reportedly said the losses on early model iPhones would be “significant” even though they may recoup some of this in monthly revenue from customers who bought the cheaper devices. European mobile executives seemed to have become over-excited by the hype surrounding the iPhone at the time of its US release on the AT&T network last June.

Maybe that or maybe they are just phasing out the past generation right in time for the next generation iPhones to fill their store shelves.