The 3G iPhone: Apple’s OTHER trojan horse
This is why I own Apple stock…
[Maps courtesy of macblogz.com]
Yeah, I took a little liberty with the June 29th worldwide iPhone date – most international carriers have simply announced deals to carry the iPhone, not firm release dates – but odds are the majority of countries should not be more than a couple months after the US rollout.
Like the iPod, only more so
As nice as the potentially billions of dollars in sales and monthly shared revenue will be for Apple with their new international iPhone partners, I see the real value in the iPhone’s global release is to serve as a potential catalyst to drive overall Mac sales and brand presence world-wide. While the iPod certainly helped increase Apple’s global brand awareness (and paid for all those cool Apple retail stores) the mobile phone market is globally FAR more important to the youth of the world than the portable music player market, and given a choice most teens would choose their mobile phone over an iPod. With the iPhone, however, Apple can deliver the best of both markets in one device, and give new customers a taste of the OS X user experience in the process.
Growth
If the iPhone generates even half the press worldwide that it has here in the US, Apple will have a bright future.
The best thing about Apple being driven nearly out of existence 15 years ago is that it now has a nearly limitless amount of market share to recapture, and even small gains yield huge profits. If Apple captures even 3-5% of the global phone market in the next 2 years, that is still BILLIONS of dollars Apple can use to have Steve Jobs gold plated. Factor in that many analysts think it is not unreasonable to expect the iPhone to capture double digit market share numbers in its first 18 months of global release, and you’ve got the potential for the iPhone to act as a Trojan Horse, leading the 2nd wave of the invasion into the minds and wallets of the global consumer that the iPod began. If iPhone sales drive a subsequent rise in Mac sales worldwide as well, the entire city of Cupertino may begin to sink under the weight of all that cash.
And Apple has not even announced a China deal yet…
🙂
A deal with China yeah. And what about a deal with Russia. I have a friend just back from Russia a couple weeks ago and he says anyone who can get their hands on one there has one. He was with a group, and they bought and used iPhones to pay for bus tickets, etc. Apparantly Russians don’t like to exchange US dollars or accept them because of the falling value, but they’ll take an iPhone for 35 bus fairs any day.
Dammit now I want a gold-plated Steve…
Errrr…. why are Saudi Arabia, China, Burma, Malaysia, PNG and Cuba in grey? Are these Windoze Mobile strongholds?
“Next time you’re in Malta and you need an iPhone 3G, we’ll be there for you.” 😉