Link: Mac Rumors: Apple iPhone is 4th Top Selling Mobile Phone in U.S.
Strategy Analytics states that the iPhone has been the top selling phone for AT&T accounting for 13% of all AT&T phone sales, which makes it the 4th top selling handset in the U.S.
Well, maybe there’s hope for the dire US handset marketplace, afterall?
Update: Do check Ricky’s comment below — he links to a slightly irate Russell Beattie who points out that ‘4th’ isn’t anything to be proud of, considering the hype and marketing behind the device.
However, let me say this: In a marketplace where, despairingly, right now, people are walking into mobile operator stores and *paying* for 5-year old (yet newly manufactured) featureless Motorola handsets complete with a 24 month contract, the fact some people are selecting an iPhone warms my mobile heart. Of course, an iPhone-sporting public aren’t entirely useful to the raft of mobile operators around the planet who’ve made it their business to create games, applications and services for the likes of Symbian or Windows Mobile. But at least they can adapt to the iPhone — and the iPhone doesn’t render the premium text path unsuable. If anything, hopefully the iPhone will, along with existing efforts, push more modern handsets from the likes of Nokia and Sony Ericsson into the forefront in America.
Otherwise, it’s just dire. Dire. Absolutely dire. The amount of times I had to stop in total despair walking around Los Angeles… LOS ANGELES, come on, it’s meant to be a hip place, modern, with-it… and the teenagers sitting next to me in The Cheesecake Factory bring out 100% grade-A shite handsets. Send a text. Then carry on talking. The handset, for many, will never — not in the next five years, anyway — be more than a functional communications device.
And while that continues, the mass marketplace across America will remain the domain of the quick-draw holstered Motorola RAZR crowd who spend $25 a month AND NO MORE on their telecoms services. Because why should they? $25 a month should be enough for anyone, right? A few minutes, a few texts and a once-in-the-blue-moon call to an auntie in England.
So, the iPhone is doing well in America? Good. Thankfully. PRAISE BE TO JOBS. At least SOMEONE has strode into the market and shaken it up. He’s done everyone a very big favour. Forced some innovation and hopefully awoken the concept in many-a-mind that your handset is not just a glorified walkie talkie but a personal communications and multimedia wonderland of sorts. So instead of just getting the 34th iteration of the RAZR when your two year contract is up in 2010, maybe you’ll take a look at the new version of the Nokia N95, or a Sony Ericsson K890 or similar.
Gahh.
I really have to put blinkers on when I’m walking around in America lest I start grabbing people and marching them to the nearest Nokia store.
They’re everywhere man…
..although it’s nice having someone say: “Hey, nice device.” – everytime I get my N95 out.
🙂
get your N95 out for the lads!
Oh, Ewan, I was *so* hoping you wouldn’t carry this story. The best reaction I have seen as of yet to this piece of news is from the old Russell Beattie. Here’s the link: http://www.russellbeattie.com/blog/fourth-most-what
Best quote? “What was the fourth most popular phone before the iPhone arrived? Who the stink* knows, because I sure don’t……..So if the fourth most popular phone wasn’t news yesterday, why the goof* is it news today?”
(* = changed for language)
I’m in 100% agreement. I’m all for acknowledging the things that the iPhone has done to the industry, but is it really news worthy that it’s not even in the top 3 anymore? And yeah, how come no one noticed that it’s NOT in the top 3? I mean, it only came out, what, 4 months ago? 5? Ugh.
…but remember, this 4th place is with no subsidy, on a rubbish network. When a lot of users go in for free on-net family plans.
Hmmmm. My wife and children get the iPhone immediately. Not my N95, despite living with it for over a year. Geeks love to repeat the “there’s no place like my N95” ad nauseam, but they are in denial. I’m no Mac evangelist, I just know fab design when I use it. The iPhone shows just how utterly crap the current mobile UI’s are.
Dean Bubley is a big fan of divergence, and I agree. I doubt we will ever see the perfect device. But the iPhone is the closest yet. Can’t wait to see Nokia’s response.
(written on my iPhone, much easier than on the N95 )
what was 1, 2 and 3 then…?
The RAZR, the SLVR and the RAZR 19……………. (i’m just making it up…)
@Mike
I’m not questioning the fact that it’s with no subsidy, and obviously it’s not the most crap network if it has (and had pre-iPhone) the most members in the country.
I’m just questioning why exactly it’s news that something’s in 4th place. I’m not sickened by the iPhone, I’m sickened by the fact that if the thing sneezes, it’s worldwide news.
Hi Ricky
Check out AT&T’s Wiki entry under ‘fewest dropped calls’ for the reality of being a USA mobile user. AT&T are rated the worst or among the worst by more than one group. Biggest does not mean best.
The 4th place claim, yeah, meh. But shifting that many in one market, unsubsidised, on a whackingly big tariff, on a crap network – that is IMHO news. In the US, over that time, did it outsell the beloved, the precious, the One Device To Rule Them All? ….. dunno. Love to hear. Now THAT would upset the N95terati 😉
In the US, the carrier ratings are a mess, Mike. I’ve been an AT&T customer since 1999, when it was SouthwesternBellWireless. I can count the number of dropped calls a year on one hand. I live in the Dallas/ Ft Worth, TX market. When I was in L.A. recently, with the same phone and SIM card, I *rarely* had full bars, and dropped calls left and right. I was lucky to get an SMS out. It varies so much from market to market, there’s no true test.
I work part-time in retail cellphone sales, and have for 3 years. I’ve met people on AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon that swear by it, and others that abhor any given network. The only way to pick a network truly is to find out the coverage in your local area.
And the tariff on the iPhone isn’t really all that bad. It’s the same price as with any other phone, it’s merely labelled as the “iPhone plan”. I just don’t really think it’s ‘news’ that the Apple-claimed best handset in the world is only 4th in the US, even after a 30% price drop and 4 months. I find that somewhat sad, really. But that’s just me.
As for your constant comparisons to the N95, they’re pointless, imo, as the N95 is most certainly not targeted towards the mass market, but that’s another discussion for another time.
I guess the only true test of a network is a wide scale independent review, and that’s what pegged AT&T as pretty poor. There will always be exceptions both ways.
The N95 comparison is valid IMHO, as it is apparently a multimedia computer. The iPhone is absolutely one too. Both have been purchased by people who just like the look and couldn’t give a toss about all the geek stuff.
Cheers
Mike