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72% of UK consumers say they have no intention of ever purchasing the iPhone, with the vast majority of Britons saying the device looks good, but is far too expensive, according to a survey by market research firm GfK NOP.
I’ve been wavering on the iPhone in the UK. Really wavering. I wonder if I’ve over estimated the appeal of the device versus the UK public’s pinpoint knowledge of phone price plan norms.
£270 for the device followed by £35 a month — that gives you 200 minutes and 200 texts — is a patently useless basic price plan. Yes you get unlimited data, but for your chap on the street, it’s the minutes and texts together with the cost of the handset that actually influences the purchase.
£270 up front is a phenomenal amount to ask for upfront.
This dude is not surprised.
Don’t waver, don’t forget the time-lines either and don’t forget the iPod.
The first iPod was revolutionary and set the _industry_ on its head but had almost no retail impact. It was over-spec’d, clunky to use and very expensive. Subsequently the retail market sat on its head with regard to the specification and price and the idiosyncrasies of UI were subjected to aggressive improvement. At that time, the gap between the dominant CD walkman and the dreadful MP3 players was possibly as big as the Nokia/iPod divide is now.
I don’t question the iPhone’s market: it is for every work-provided blackberry user who really needs that same functionality for private use, that is people with organisational ability, cash and travel in their days. But it isn’t being marketed as that in the UK – probably because neither Apple nor 02 control the backends (principally Google Mail and Yahoo) and both Apple and O2 would rather strangle themselves with their own cartaroid arteries than aggressively promote a 3rd party data provider. I know there are technical ties but where are the big-billboard ads in Tottenham Court Rd? It might be that this demographic is only now going to have their personal data kicked off their work phones now that there is an alternative: treasury and legals have known for a few years that this has to happen, but the alternative for the business was unacceptable. The iPhone is an acceptable second phone/organiser for a stockbroker in an overpriced pub full of easy lays because it is so obviously personal but also very functional.
When will it be time to waver? When you do that survey of 15 year olds again and they know what the iPhone really is (in a 15 year old kind of way) and they don’t anticipate owning one as the mark of success in adult life. They won’t necessarily want one for the same reason they don’t want an e61- they are too big, do too much adult stuff like diaries and are too expensive to drop during a scratch game played on asphalt.
The price plans suck.
Or to put it another way 28% of UK consumers are considering buying an iPhone, which would make it a phenomenal success, particularly given that Apple’s hardware margins dwarf those of most of their competitors.
Don’t get me wrong, I bought an iPhone months ago and found it to be nothing more than a pretty toy (I went back to my battered old BlackBerry Pearl), but I’m sure that Apple will achieve its market share targets and make a lot of money in the process.
The iPhone is the chav must-have for Christmas! Now their mates have twigged that them having a thing in their ear that blinks blue every few seconds doesnt mean that anyone phones them / they are important, an iPhone demonstrates that they can “afford” £269 + £35 pm and pushes them back up the Chavometer
If Apple had priced the iPhone @ £100 pm they’d had sold in their tens of thousands – and been respected for it (think VW) – and ultimtely they could have increased the price
The iPhone could, in Europe, prove to be Apple’s first backwards branding step for a long time
Sorry, should have read “priced the iPhone @ £100”, not “£100pm”
[…] http://www.smstextnews.com/2007/11/72_of_uk_consumers_will_never_buy_an_apple_iphone.html I’ve been wavering on the iPhone in the UK. Really wavering. I wonder if I’ve over estimated the appeal of the device versus the UK public’s pinpoint knowledge of phone price plan norms. […]