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Lisa Napoli: I won’t bore you with another word about the frenzied Apple fans lining up to buy the iPhone later today — but I will let Stephen Beard in London tell you how there’s a different sort of clambering going on about the iPhone in Europe.

Stephen Beard: Vodaphone and the biggest German and French cell phone operators are all said to be vying for the exclusive rights to iPhone. Vodaphone appears to be the front-runner.

The new handset is considered a blockbuster device. It could draw in many more customers for the operator — and offering a wider range of cell phone services it could generate higher revenues per subscriber.

One problem is the price of the iPhone… up to $600. It’s far more than Europeans are used to paying for cell phone devices, says analyst Neil Mawson.

Neil Mawson: What will happen, I think, is that these big mega-operators will be able to subsidize the device down to much lower price points, so they cut the price of the device when you first buy it.

This will be very costly for the operator that wins the iPhone contract. Most Europeans pay less than $100 for mobile devices. In London, this is Stephen Beard for Marketplace.