US pc giant Apple has apparently succeeded in its goal of signing a raft of European mobile operators to a revenue share agreement for its new iPhones. The contract, which the London Financial Times reports was signed yesterday with a trio of mobile companies, will see 10% of all mobile call and data revenues generated by the new handsets handed straight to Apple.

The first three operators to agree to Apple's terms are said to be O2 in the UK, Orange in France and T-Mobile in Germany. An official announcement is expected later this month.

The deal will be one of the first to give mobile manufacturers a direct share of the revenues that their phones generate and some analysts have pointed out that this may mark a shift in the relationship between the parties. Such a move has, so far, been fiercely resisted by the operators but it is now expected that other similar deals may follow.

Apple has already signed up AT&T in the US to a similar agreement, which is reportedly heavily weighted in favour of the pc and phone maker.

The mobile operators, perhaps in particular T-Mobile, hope that the tie-up will help boost their image as well as attracting a new set of high-spending customers.