If you were to say that the iPhone was the most hyped consumer electronics device in history, you wouldn’t get an awful lot of argument. Hype, however, doesn’t always equate sales, but, in the case of the iPhone, it does. It really, really does
The iPhone outsold every other smartphone in the U.S. including the BlackBerry in the month of July.
According to research group iSuppli, the iPhone accounted for 1.8% of all U.S. mobile handset sales and they are forcasting the that the device will sell 4.5 million units this year.
Lets put this into perspective for a second. In practically it’s first month of existence, the iPhone outsold all other feature phones in the United States with the exception of the LG Chocolate, the most popular phone, which the iPhone equaled in sales. By the end of the year over 4.5 million iPhones will have been sold. That is an iPhone for over 1.5% of the population in it’s first 6 months.
I know that we are all crazy about our BlackBerrys but we have to give Apple props on the iPhone.
[Source]
Wow, that’s impressive. I didn’t think that it would.
There’s no reason why we can’t like both the iPhone and the BlackBerry. Both have their value and uses in the market.
The BB is the king of portable email; they have that market figured out and have years of experience perfecting their product. That’s one reason why others cannot catch up so quickly.
But just the same, Apple is the master at figuring out the consumer market. They know just about better than anyone how to capture the public’s imagination. Just as with the BB in email, others will not be able to catch up to Apple so quickly because of all of their years of experience doing what they do well.
Any BB users also using the iPhone? How do the two match up? Where does each show the way? Can the iPhone be counted on for reliability and delivering email like we all know and expect out BB’s to do? Seems RIM must get the WiFi BB’s on the market to keep up with the iPhone in that respect.
And now priced $200 dollars less, Apple is being more aggressive and will kick even more ass selling the 8G iPhone for $399.
hellno: I have an iPhone as well as a BB…in a nutshell, my impressions:
BB is still superior in email and I still prefer a physical keyboard for typing…but the iPhone is a fantastic device, and very reliable…haven’t had it crash yet…the OS is rock solid, fast and smooth.
The iPhone is super easy to set up and use…for instance, setting up voicemail is easier than with any other phone; ditto with making an entry into the phone book.
For multimedia, the iPhone cannot be beat…there is no other phone that can do a music or video player like Apple.
Mobile Safara, as Mossberg notes, makes all other mobile browsers look primitive.
All in all, I’d easily recommend an iPhone or at least the new Touch iPod to anyone. It’s a great experience.
Thought,
If you had it to do over again, would you still have bought an iPhone, or, would you go with the iPod Touch?
I was just thinking dropping the price of the iPhone immediately while announcing that the iPod Touch would be available at the end of the month is a brilliant marketing move.
For the passed two months, Apple has sold the iPhone to every fanboy that could afford one. Now that all of the folks willilling to shell out $500 to $600 are weeded out, a price drop was inevitable.
Knowing, however, that coming out with the iPod Touch before a price drop on the iPhone could eat in to sales, Apple, in a act of marketing genius announces that the iPod Touch will be avaiable by the end of the month and drops iPhone prices immediately.
People that would gladly go out an buy an iPod Touch at the end of the month may actually go out and buy an iPhone figuring, that for the same price, they might as well get an iPod with a phone built in especially since the iPod that they are really interested in isn’t available yet.
My prediction is the iphone will continue to sell well, the new touch ipod will fly off the shelves and that you won’t be able to find one at Christmas time. Steve Balmer will stomp around the room, yell, throw furniture and spontaneously combust due to poor Zune sales and the introduction of the new Google phone.
“isuppli”? I love their half-page ad for the iphone on their homepage. *rolls eyes*
http://www.isuppli.com
Any other technology companies do this?
http://www.apple.com/hotnews/openiphoneletter/
Robb: great question. It’s funny you should ask that, because one person in the Wall Street Journal was quoted as saying that the iPod Touch is the iPhone for Verizon users!
That being said, I don’t regret at all getting an iPhone and would still prefer it to the Touch iPod. (for those not reading above, keep in mind I still have a BB on VZW).
One, I am glad to be able to try out the phone and email features. What I do like is that in so many ways Apple has designed a very easy to use experience. Visual voicemail is also very cool.
However, I’m not one to use voice that much and use my iPhone mainly for the iPod and Safari browser features. Obviously, those are on the iPod Touch. However, the main reason why I still prefer the iPhone to the Touch is that you can use the browser anywhere there is a cellular connection.
It’s funny, but before I had a phone with WiFi I thought that WiFi was becoming so widespread, but now with the iPhone I realize just how limited WiFi is. Most of the time I use Safari on the iPhone I have to rely on EDGE, which really hasn’t been that bad for me, either in download speed or coverage. There is no doubt however that a 3G iPhone would kick butt.
So the main reason why I would choose the iPhone over the new iPod Touch is that I wouldn’t want to be limited to WiFi connectivity, like on the Touch.
There is no doubt that Apple will sell a huge amount of both units, esp. in the holiday season.
Err… except it turns out that Blackberries outsold iPhones 2-1 instead.
http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2007/09/06/correction-blackberry-outsells-iphone-2-to-1-in-july