NEWBURY, England - Apple has made a clever, however late move that will allow it to widen its iPhone consumer base in the United Kingdom. Vodafone is the most recent retailer to announce that it will market the iPhone 3GS, with a release date scheduled for the 14th of January. The next-generation version of the device was also spotted, set to run on the new OS4.0.

Consumers may already pre-order from Vodafone UK's website, or from stores. The network will gift free Vodafone-to-Vodafone calls to those who had registered and pre-ordered the handset, as a plan to move stock.

Prices have already been announced, with the cheapest option being a free iPhone 3GS 32GB at £35 (US$) per month in a two-year contract, with other plans involving the iPhone 3GS 16GB and iPhone 3G 8GB versions.

Apple's iconic smartphone is responsible for most of the global mobile web traffic according to monthly reports by AdMob, while research firm comScore has estimated nine million iPhone owners in the US against seven million Windows Mobile smartphone owners in the same country for October. Earlier in July, the latter two operating systems consumed approximately the same amount in online content, showing a rise in iPhone usage in internet, which indirectly communicates its rise in the global smartphone market.

A survey conducted in the US, in October, showed that the iPhone stood in second place in the smartphone league, with RIM smartphones dominating, and Microsoft Windows Mobile devices just behind iPhone models.

In Japan, the marketshare of the iPhone is even higher, at 46% of the total smartphone market. This is indeed difficult to believe, as the iPhone offers features far weaker than other Japanese phones, but reports suggest that its exclusive network, Softbank, has put front an aggressive marketing campaign in order to move stocks.

The next-generation iPhone, set to replace the 3GS, has been spoken-of numerous times, with Verizon Wireless being reported the exclusive network to retail it, instead of AT&T. More recently, an "iPhone OS4.0" was found by blog BoyGeniusReport, suggesting that the new iPhone model would run in this newer version of the operating system.