Orange seemed pleased with the figures especially because 80% of customers sign up for a dedicated "Orange for iPhone" plan at the same time and 48% of iPhone sales lead to a new Orange line subscription.

According to Orange, iPhone is available in 680 Orange points of sale in France, on www.orange.fr and through Orange customer services.

But, as the French newspaper Le Figaro noted, the rumors about a new 3G iPhone could hurt the sales.

On November 29, during a meeting in California, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson told reporters that a 3G version of Apple’s gadget would be available in 2008. Although a 3G version of iPhone was also confirmed by Apple CEO Steve Jobs in June, he didn’t reveal any details or a possible launch date.

According to the media reports, 3G subscriptions plans are very successful in France. SFR, the French mobile operator owned by Vivendi and Vodafone, has introduced in November new 3G subscriptions plans with full Internet access.

Called Illimythics and priced from 49 euros to 69 euros per month for a two-year agreement, the subscriptions plans are offered with six mobile phones such as HTC TouchDial, LG KS20, Nokia N95, Sony Ericsson W910 and Samsung F700. SFR said in two weeks it has sold 40 000 Illimythics plans and 60 percent of them were acquired by new clients.

Tough, the French media agreed that 30000 units sold in five days represent a good debut for iPhone.

So far, it seems like iPhone is enjoying a real success in Europe. Last month a T-Mobile official said that 10,000 units were sold in Germany in the first day of availability. Also, Telefonica’s O2 named iPhone the fastest-selling device, but the company, which is the official distributor of iPhone in UK, didn’t release any sales data.