Comments on: How many iPhones will Apple sell in 2009?

By: arizona

arizona — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 08:45:12 +0000

Many Asian countries have much more advanced networks that the US. We are left behind in the dust. Just go look how long Asia has had 3g for.

By: JD, Twin Cities, MN

JD, Twin Cities, MN — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:28:21 +0000

Chuck, you can't compare the iPod Touch pricing to the iPhone pricing, the iPhone is much more expensive, although the consumer is not paying the higher price out of the box. The cell phone company, AT&T in the case of the US market, is subsidizing the purchase price and will recoop that subsidy over the life of the 2-year contract. This is what they do on all cell phones now. You can buy a new cell phone for $20 if you sign-up or extend your current contract for 2-years, or pay $200 without a contract. In the case of the iPhone, the cost if probably $599 but you will only pay $199 with a 2-year contract.

By: Jim, Clovis, Ca

Jim, Clovis, Ca — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 01:00:14 +0000

Longaapl–

Are you referring to the conference call in April or a later one? Do you have a link as I would like to review it to see if the semantics leave anything to question…thanks in advance…

“you will see that they shipped and booked orders in June…”

Actually, you don’t have to wait for the financials. Last analysts call, Apple made very clear they were NOT booking iPhone sales at all from the time they announced the 2.0 software in May until the 2.0 software ships. Feel free to look it up. This quarter was going to show zero iPhone sales for 1/2 of May and now all of June, regardless of when they ran out.

Posted By LongAAPL, San Francisco, CA : June 11, 2008 6:51

By: Scott, New Orleans, LA

Scott, New Orleans, LA — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 16:25:27 +0000

Steve, nice analysis on the cost structure of cell phone plans and how they make the iPhone MUCH more expensive than a Touch. But in your one sided musings, you assume that the Touch owner doesn't own a cell phone at all. I don't know many tech enthusiasts that spend hundreds on an Mp3 player but DON'T have a cell phone. So an iPhone buyer might in fact spend $1900 on the service and equipment, but a touch owner with a cell phone is probably paying close to the same ammount and certainly NOT $1600 less than the Iphone owner. Plus they have to carry 2 gadgets around and don't have NEARLY the convenience that the iPhone offers.

By: Adam. Singapore

Adam. Singapore — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:39:53 +0000

Joop.

You're also wrong about asian carriers not having the infrastructure to carry mobile web. I live in asia and i surf at 7.2mbps.

By: Steve, Gainesville, FL

Steve, Gainesville, FL — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:56:34 +0000

Yes, the Touch costs $100 more to buy on day one than the iPhone. But as many have pointed out, in two years the iPhone will cost around $1900 after AT&T bills you 24 times. So, if you don't want the phone part, the Touch is about $1600 less.

By: mark, Boston, MA

mark, Boston, MA — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 02:38:26 +0000

Joop: As all the others have said, you're wrong about this. Not only a maximum price of $199 for almost all countries, but in some places, iPhone will be even cheaper, down to free, such as in the UK when combined with the more expensive plans. So I'm not being America-centric. Apple has clearly gotten many agreements for this subsidized price of $199. Possibly this is the cause of the holdup with China's carriers.

By the way, Apple is up to 79 countries – Malta, Croatia, Hungary, and Liechtenstein have also been announced.

By: Mr.B, Costa Mesa, CA

Mr.B, Costa Mesa, CA — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 02:29:31 +0000

Good point chuck. I supposed people would be willing to pay $100 more for a Touch because it's skinnier than the Phone…..NOT!!

By: Joop - Scottsdale, AZ

Joop - Scottsdale, AZ — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:19:37 +0000

@Roman,

Don't forget who started and dominated the smartphone market – Palm. And they opened their OS to whoever wanted to develop apps for it. Unfortunately even that OS was proprietary and didn't have a massive group of sharp people constantly upgrading it.

Make no mistake, the mobile market will end up being HW differentiated with an open OS and a massive amount of great apps as a result.

Many examples of this over the years: VCRs, computers (note where Linux and Solaris is in market share), etc. Trying to build Rome yourself (no pun intended with your name!) only makes the competition stronger.

But will agree to pleasantly disagree. We'll see where iPhone is in 1-2 years.

By: chuck,la,ca

chuck,la,ca — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:15:55 +0000

So let me get this straight the phone is 199 the touch is 299 (8 gig versions) the phone does every thing the touch does and then some. so why not have standard ipod features activated (on the iphone)out of the box

Then users can activate the phone features (phone gps and browser) later if they want to. Last I heard nothing works until the AT&T account is activated. Seems to me like apple customers that don’t want the phone part will be upset with less features costing more. I would hope there’s an adjustment to the ipods so they will cost less than the phones. AT&T may be picking up the tab on the difference but that doesn’t stop customers from seeing the bottom line if more (phone) can be sold for $199 then less (touch) can be too.