I guess I enjoy hype about as much as the next person. So even though they are plenty of reasons not to buy an iPhone, go ahead, buy one anyway! No really, buy one! Heck, buy two! Why? Oh, I don’t get a commission or anything like that. But I am very selfishly motivated nonetheless. I figure that there are plenty of people out there who have the money for what is likely to be the next high status gadget. The rest of us will have to wait for the cost to come down, and for any bugs to be worked out. The more iPhones Apple sells, the sooner that price will drop due to the usual economies of scale. And more beta test…er first time adopters mean the bugs will be worked out that much faster! So unless the iPhone blows it in a Newtonesque fashion, I hope to be seeing a much cheaper and better iPhone by this time next year. So please people, buy those iPhones tomorrow, for the childr…er me!
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2 replies on “Everyone! Please Buy An iPhone Tomorrow!”
Judging by yesterday’s selloff, I think potential customers are starting to realize how expensive the iPhone will be. If you sign the mid-range $99.99/mo service plan after purchasing the 8GB iPhone model, that alone will set you back $3000 during the two-year contract (without any accessories)!
Other potential hurdles:
* You must be an AT&T customer to use the iPhone. With a market share of 20%, that means 80% of wireless customers must cancel their current contracts to sign with AT&T. Being a Sprint customer, I would have to pay a $175 cancellation on top of the $3000 price tag for the iPhone. AT&T’s exclusive contract runs through 2009.
* Only 4 & 8GB of hard drive space? My tiny video iPod holds 30 GB for less than $200.
* Recent surveys have shown that the majority of IT departments will not even consider the iPhone due to its PC incompatibilities & exclusive AT&T contract. That will dampen business spending & all but eliminate demand for the higher-tier contracts.
This is the ultimate “sell the news†scenario. On Jan 9th 2007, Steve Jobs announced the iPhone at the Macworld Conference & Expo. The stock has since been on fire rising 50% to $125, adding $30 billion to the company’s market capitalization. Will the iPhone really hold that much value for Apple? This huge runup comes after a fantastic finish to 2006 after Apple’s stock bottomed out at $50 in October. Thus, nearly everyone holding Apple is sitting on huge gains.
Shhhh! Don’t tell them that! If people start getting all logical about this, I’ll never get my cheaper and better iPhone next year! LOL All of the above points are completely valid, the iPhone will almost certainly sell mostly on hype and gee whiz factors to the softer targets presented by the casual consumer market. Still, it is a big risk. After all, Sony tried selling the Playstation 3 on their brand and hype, but the market response was far less than hoped for primarily because of the large PS3 price tag. How this all turns out is going to be fun to watch!