Do iPhones from operators such as Vodafone, O2, Orange etc. (especially Orange) come with custom apps/wall paper/boot animations installed are they just as there sim free brethren (all be it locked to a network)? Orange are terrible offenders on Android for filling there phones with crap. Same question to WP7 users.

I have a pathological hatred of carrier customisation, luckily on Android it is easy to get rid (of course the converse is that it is easy for the carriers to put it there in the first place). I would hope that Apple would make them keep there grubby hands off but I am not to sure about Microsoft.

On WP7.5 it's straightforward to get rid of any customisation with the exception of the boot animation, for that you need to debrand the phone which is a bit tricky.

But you should never need to see it as there is little need to turn the phone off and you can just look away when it's happening.

The only thing O2 added to my iPhone was in the browser bookmark page, links to an O2 help screen. Other than that, nothing.

Same with Orange.

Thanks for clearing that up, I did wonder.

As a general rule Apple don't allow the providers to customise the phone at all, which is great.

And 3

During July (I think) Orange gave away a different app every day for a month for WP7 and if you collected them all there was over £70 quids worth, I missed the first few days but got the rest some good apps and games amongst them as well.