Posted on 03/29/2007 10:54:25 AM PDT by The_Victor
BERKELEY (MarketWatch) -- The hype over the unreleased iPhone has actually increased over the past month despite the fact that nobody has seen or used the device. This, if nothing else, proves the power of branding and especially the power of brand loyalty.
It's the loyalists who keep promoting this device as if it is going to be anything other than another phone in a crowded market. And it's exactly the crowded-market aspect of this that analysts seem to be ignoring.
Apple Inc.'s past successes have been in markets that were emerging or moribund. Its biggest hit has been the iPod. But let's examine what happened here.
First the MP3 player business was segmented and unfocused with numerous players making a lot of cheap junk and not doing much to market any of it.
Apple does what? Advertise. Gosh, what a concept.
It advertises on TV, on billboards and on the Internet. Within no time the company takes over the business that would probably still be languishing without Apple.
Thus Apple does what it does best. It produces a jazzy product and promotes it like any good business should do. And in the process manages to get a high margin.
This is nothing more than the fundamentals.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
I'm not convinced that means they're going to fail, but it's not going to be the coast they had with the iPod.
Obviously Apple doesn't think that it will be, either - their initial target is to capture only 10% of the market.
Then it will hardly replace or compete with Blackberry. Nor will it compete with Windows phones for folks who want to display spreadsheets and such.
I personally have trouble imagining the need for this, but I was in a phone store when someone came in to buy a Windows phone. I guess the attraction is that someone else is paying for it.
My personal idea of a phone is something that fits in my shirt pocket and becomes unnoticeable.
The iPhone goes for 599 or 699 depending on the memory.
The most expensive Palm that turn up in my quick search was 299. I'll search again.
Now if I could only get it to stop re-booting when I get calls from certain old-style landlines.
-Eric
I agree. Believe the hype.
The iPhone is going to be bigger than the iPod.
Apple doesn't sell anything that doesn't have a very high margain compared to the rest of the industry. They don't risk their reputation because it took a while for the iPod to really take off as well. It will be given a grace period to start where the 1st adopters will pay a premium to be, well..... the 1st to have one. Rev 2 of the iPhone will be much more attainable and more feature rich. Those who wait will enjoy thier 2nd generation iPhones, and the industry will bow to the Apple steamrolling of the industry.
This will also be acheived when Apple creates an iTunes like setup where people go to apple to buy apps to enhance their iPhones, since it's running a version of OS X.
That's a good point, and price will be decisive, but I don't think so. Just IMHO.
Ummm, I don't own 'em :)
That feature is called the off button.
I understand margins are low in the cell phone industry in general. My point is that if Apple is charging over double what other equivalent devices cost, and still doesn't have any higher margin, they've got a big problem.
My phone, which has been on the market for a year, has integrated wi-fi. It's far from the only one available.
Treo 700p goes for ~$299.
One question, besides the fact that Dvorak is never right.
Is Apple going to release a server app that forwards Exchange messages to their Iphones like Blackberry has done so you can basically respond back and forth like you were at your desk?
On launch day eh? You buying the $500 or the $600 version? And will you be signing up for the $50/mo or the $80/month 2 year mandatory AT&T wireless plan that goes with it?
If they want to compete, they'd better.
Dvorak is an underappreciated national treasure. Simply by taking the opposite of whatever he says, you can be right more often than the wisest sage.
I bought a one-gig memchip for my new RAZR phone, and all I wanted to do was load a sizable chunck of my own MP3 collection in there. Not only did I find I had to buy additional software just to use the phone's USB to talk to my computer, the dammnable ITunes player won't let me load more than 100 songs, even though my memory is only 1/3 full. No way, no how. The Itunes people crippled my phone so that when their Iphone comes out, it won't be competition in any way, and I can't find a patch that works on my V3i RAZR that will get around it.
So, the heck with you, you arrogant, pompous, elitists at Apple. Let the bottled water crowd have your stinking name-brand phones. Do NOT buy a phone with Itunes, no matter what you do!
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