It could be time for Apple and Orange to consider lowering the price of the iPhone in France considering the poor sales in the country and it looks like it's on the way.

After T-Mobile in Germany and O2 in the UK, Orange's executives flew to Cupertino so as to renegotiate the iPhone's business model for the French market, a report [1] by the French newspaper Les Echos claims.

But things aren't that simple as Orange wants to renegotiate the portion of its customers' monthly bill which it gives to Apple, currently estimated between one fourth and one third of the bill.

Orange has sold a little more than 100 000 iPhones in France so far. This numbers sounds pretty ridiculous when compared to iPhone sales in the UK which are closer to 300 000. The company has put little effort to advertise the iPhone in the country since its introduction and sells it only in a very limited number of France Telecom branded stores.

By renegotiating the contract from the ground up, Orange risks losing its exclusivity in the French market as Apple would see little interest to lock its customers' choice to one mobile carrier if it doesn't get a consequent return in profits.

T-Mobile and 02 both started subsidizing the iPhone earlier this month. The first now sells the iPhone for as little as 99€ (or $157) with its most expensive plan and the second is selling it £169 ($336) with all plans. Both are limited offers which end in June.

The most likely to happen in France is a similar scenario to what happened in Germany, or a heavy subsidizing on the price of the iPhone by Orange for a limited time period, as Apple clears its inventory and paves the way for the launch of its 3G model in the coming weeks.