Unless you've been living in the hills for the last four months without the influence of television, newspapers, or the Internet, you all know about the iPhone. But are you actually going to buy one?
Well, if you're like a majority of respondents to a recent Markitecture survey, the answer is no. The market-research firm asked 1,300 people whether they had heard of the iPhone, and whether they would buy one. While 77 percent said they knew about the iPhone, 66 percent of those people said there was no chance they'd actually purchase one. And only 6 percent expressed a desire to own one. But according to Markitecture, 6 percent may not be as piddling as it sounds. As the firm points out, the ubiquitous Motorola RAZR had about 6 percent of the market at its zenith.
So what did people list as the big deterrent? Price, of course. At $499 or $599, the iPhone costs quite a bit more than most people (myself included) are willing to spend on a cell phone (granted, it pretty much includes an iPod as well). This was followed closely by carrier and contract issues, meaning people who either don't want to or can't convert to AT&T, the phone's exclusive carrier.
Six percent of a market of what, maybe 150 million people at the high end? - that's 9 million devices! The 6-9 million early adopters will pay the $500-$600, then the price will steadily drop and many more customers will pile on. Apple already has the strong brand recognition of the iPod; if it translates to the iPhone they may have another enormous winner on their hands.
Also, there's substantial buzz from Verizon/T-Mobile customers figuring out how to get out of their contracts so they can get an iPhone from AT&T. The movement of customers to AT&T is the big story - not the fact that Apple will never sell 100 million iPhones.
I'm not sure what the point of this article is. Are we supposed to be surprised that less than 89% of respondents to the survey are interested in actually owning an iPod? C'mon...
I thought the iPod was a "mp3 player for dummies" until I actually got one as a gift to replace my RIO player (anyone remember the first one that came out? lol)...anyways, this iPod is pretty nifty, imho the best part about it beside the huge storage capacity has been the ease of use - controls, attainability of music/podcasts/videos etc in an easy to understand iTunes application....
I was wary about a phone version of an "iPod" but at the same time cell phones overall have seemed to become lackluster in terms of usability so I really hope this new iPhone changes that. Good Luck Apple!
-Hawk3ye