Orange sells 30,000 French iPhones in 5 days, but is it a success?

The first official numbers are coming in from the iPhone launch in Europe, with France Telecom's wireless arm Orange announcing it sold 30,000 phones in five days.

Although the number pales in comparison to the 270,000 iPhones sold in the United States in the two days after launch, it meets expectations. Orange said it hoped to sell 100,000 iPhones by the end of the year, and it could still hit that milestone at the current sales rate.

Orange said 80 percent of its customers signed up for its special iPhone plan, rather than spending extra to buy the device unlocked and free from contract obligations. Almost half of iPhone buyers were switching from another wireless carrier, which was one of the goals of Apple's exclusivity deals.

The iPhone seems to be a bigger hit in France than in the UK, where some reports have estimated only 26,500 devices were activated in the first two weeks of availability. O2, the company selling the iPhone in Britain, has not released any official sales figures, but said previously it hoped to meet the same 100,000 end of year target.

However, O2 chief executive Peter Erskine indicated that iPhone sales number may be much higher than 26,500 after all, citing "tens of thousands" during the first weekend. In Germany, approximately 15,000 iPhones were sold by T-Mobile on the first day, according to reports, but no additional sales figures are expected until the end of the year.