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Maneuvering Around the Mobile Phone Market
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 ames Derk - Scripps Howard News Service
Apple has learned a few lessons with the release of the iPhone and some are coming back to haunt it in the board room.
The company's stock price has been whipped around since Steve Jobs announced a whopping $200 price cut on the iPhone just two months after it was released. That move, which may spur more sales of the hefty phone, annoyed the Apple faithful, some of whom waited overnight in line for the honor of spending 600 bucks on a phone.
The cool device is now $399, which Jobs hopes will spur more sales for the upcoming holiday season. Analysts had been wondering if the price cuts came in response to disappointing sales of the phone, which is tied to AT&T's network (for now.)
Jobs countered last week by noting the iPhone had surpassed 1 million units in sales and claims the iPhone will have 10 million units sold in a year.
In the wake of the price cut Apple was deluged with e-mails from customers who were less than thrilled with having the honor to pay full price. Apple responded by offering the early adopters a $100 store credit in the Apple Store, which is a nice gesture but did little to placate the annoyed.
Mobile phone experts pointed out that such price drops were common among high-end handsets (the same thing happened to the new BlackBerry model and the Motorola Q) but the Apple buyers were not convinced they were buying a phone as much as a mobile computer. (The cool Motorola Razr was released at $500 and now is less than 50 bucks or even free with a long-term commitment.)
"There are two groups of people," Gene Munster, a senior analyst with investment-banking firm Piper Jaffray, told MacWorld. "The first wave doesn't care because they knew what they were getting into. The second wave is pretty upset, but with Apple everyone has an axe to grind. Whether it's a battery or a screen, it's always something."
At the rate Apple announces new products and major revisions I would not be surprised to see the new and improved iPhone within six months.
As for the iPhone as a phone, I have one friend, a cutting-edge kind of guy, who bought one on day one, lost it off his belt, and went back and bought another one. He likes it THAT much. I have another who thinks it is a cool toy but not a great phone and too slow at Web browsing.
As for me I am staying put because I don't want to break my long-term contract with my provider. Maybe for Version 2 I will bite (after the price break.)
WEEKLY WEB WONDER: Technology took a large leap forward recently with the announcement that people on the Internet could assist in the search for pilot Steve Fossett. Amazon.com's "Mechanical Turk" program allows volunteers to sign up and closely examine new maps from Google Earth for signs of a plane crash.
This is frankly amazing stuff and one example of how cool the Web can be for cool causes. There are lots of other projects you can work on too; in some cases you're even paid.
Check it out at www.mturk.com
James Derk is owner of CyberDads, a computer service company and tech columnist for Scripps Howard News Service. His e-mail address is jim(at)cyberdads.com |
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