Today’s the day the iPhone hits Europe…Analysts have slammed the phone, saying the “toy” might be OK for the US but isn’t as good as other phones already available in Europe. Some complaints: Slower network speed (EDGE instead of 3G); smaller camera (2 megapixel when 3.2 is standard); the iTunes Wi-Fi store’s lack of support for podcasts, ring-tones and videos. “From the European consumer point of view, this is a toddler product without the sophistication of some of its rivals. Many of the iPhone features are ‘wants’ not ‘needs’. It whets consumer appetites, rather than satisfies their hunger” Aleksandra Bosnjak, lead telecoms, media and technology analyst at StrategyEye Digital Media is quoted as saying in VNUnet. All this has been said before, but the true test of any product is how well it sells, and the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) brand is strong enough that people are going to want the phone anyway.
At midnight the Deutsche Telekom (NYSE: DT) shop in Cologne had the iPhone available for hardy souls who braved the winter chill, and a few hundred people lined up to be cheered by sales staff when they got inside. If the phone is just a “toy”, what’s the reason? “All of us are Mac (Apple Macintosh computer) fans,” said a man who works in a MP3 store and was waiting with two of his friends. “The iPhone is the best phone in the world” he is quoted as saying in Reuters. The article goes on to say that outside of the fanboys there wasn’t a lot of interest, but it certainly wasn’t a scientific study of the populous and it’s a bit early to be judging the success of the iPhone either way. In the UK, M:Metrics has released a survey showing that 10 percent of UK mobile subscribers say they have a “high interest” in buying an iPhone according to Forbes, along with some reasons why they may not be eager. The Inquirer is a bit more colloquial in analyzing the survey: “Extrapolating the results of its research, bean juggler M:metrics concludes that most punters have been lying through their teeth. They won’t actually go for it…M:metrics’ Paul Goode pointed out that 50 per cent of those saying they’d go for the Iphone hadn’t paid a single penny for their current phone. Plus 50 per cent of those expressing an interest in the Iphone were on prepay.”
Quite a lot of that 10 percent probably won’t get an iPhone — a lot of people over-estimate the interest they have in things, more more precisely how likely it is that the interest will result in action — but Apple doesn’t need to capture 10 percent of the market. This is not a bulk play.
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