Apple iPhone versus REST Smartphone Makers

Apple’s iPhone is without a doubt a game-changer for smartphones, whether it actually sells well itself or not. Smartphones have simply been to clumsy to use to be practical for a wide audience. That all changes with the iPhone, and it doesn’t even have to sell well - nay, doesn’t even have to actually be available - in order to harm the competition. According to USATODAY, Cellphone users set their sights on Apple’s iPhone:

Priya Sanghvi wants an Apple iPhone from AT&T’s Cingular Wireless when it comes out in June, and she is already strategizing how to get it. Now a Verizon Wireless customer, she’s exploring a range of options, including trying to wrestle with Verizon to let her out of her contract early, using one of the new online swap services to dump the remaining months of the contract, or even just paying the $175 early-termination fee.

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Interst in the iPhone Still High

In a survey of 2,500 U.S. customers, Morgan Stanley found that "more people are interested in buying an iPhone than the combined number of people who already own or are planning to buy a similar high-end device" in the near future. According to the survey, 23 percent of customers are interested in buying the phone, while 19 percent already own or are planning to buy a similar gadget.

Double-Digit Growth Expected

"Between now and when the iPhone is expected to be released in June 2007, there are few catalysts for the stock, and we believe that this provides an attractive price point for investors in the meantime," the analyst wrote, upgrading the Cupertino, Calif., company to "Overweight" from "Equal weight."

With several product launches in 2007, the analyst said Apple will be able to "meaningfully expand its addressable market, which should enable it to sustain double-digit revenue growth."

iPhone Interest High

Morgan Stanley analyst Kathryn Huberty reaffirmed an "Overweight" rating on Apple and said the market is underestimating the likely success of the iPhone. In a survey of 2,500 U.S. customers, Morgan Stanley found that "more people are interested in buying an iPhone than the combined number of people who already own or are planning to buy a similar high-end device" in the near future.

According to the survey, 23 percent of customers are interested in buying the phone, while 19 percent already own or are planning to buy a similar gadget. "We view Apple's powerful brand, distribution and customer experience engine, and product development as key to driving incremental revenue growth," Huberty added.

Study: Apple iPhone 'too expensive'

Consumers aren't willing to pay what Apple may ask for the iPhone but if the price drops they'll switch their mobile service to AT&T in order to get it, according to results of a survey released Thursday.

Online market research firm Compete Inc. surveyed 379 people in the U.S., most of whom had heard of the iPhone and have shopped for an iPod, to find out how interested they are in the device to produce the uncommissioned report. The iPhone is a combined music player and cell phone that Apple plans to start selling in the U.S. in June.

Among the 26 percent of respondents who said they're likely to buy an iPhone, only 1 percent said they'd pay US$500 for it. When Apple introduced the iPhone in January, it said it would cost $500 on the low end.

Forty-two percent of those who said they're likely to buy the phone said they'd pay $200 to $299.

The iPhone will be available only to subscribers of Cingular Wireless, now part of AT&T. In a blow to the operator's competitors, 60 percent of those in the survey who said they were likely to buy the phone said they'd switch their mobile operator in order to get it.

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How Steve Jobs played hardball in iPhone birth

During a visit to Las Vegas last December for a rodeo event, Cingular Wireless chief executive Stan Sigman received a welcome guest: Steve Jobs.

The Apple Inc. chief stopped by Mr. Sigman's Four Seasons hotel suite to show off the iPhone, a sleek cellphone designed to surf the Web and double as an iPod music player.

The phone had been in development by Apple and Cingular for two years and was weeks away from being revealed to the world. And yet this was the first time Mr. Sigman got to see it. For three hours, Mr. Jobs played with the device, with its touch-screen that allows users to view contacts, dial numbers and flip through photos with the swipe of a finger. Mr. Sigman looked on in awe, according to a person familiar with the meeting.

Behind the scenes in the making of the iPhone, Apple bucked the rules of the cellphone industry by wresting control away from the normally powerful wireless carriers. These service providers usually hold enormous sway over how phones are developed and marketed -- controlling every detail from processing power to the various features that come with the phone.

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iPhone to run $300-400 after contract?

Everything we've been told with regard to the iPhone's pricing structure has suggested that the 4GB would hit at $499 and the 8GB at $599, and that this would be an on-contract price -- expensive, yes, but likely still in the right range to keep sales brisk. New advertising allegedly leaked out of a consumer survey suggests that the 2-year contract price could come in a full two hundie lower, though: $299 for 4GB, $399 for 8GB.

This would sorta jibe with a Cingular exec's comment regarding the availability of units to folks outside coverage areas at a contract-free price, but perhaps more importantly, it's fabulous news for folks who will be able to take advantage of a contract re-upping. Of course, this is all coming out of a survey -- perhaps gauging reaction to pricing -- so we need to wait for some more clarification from the powers that be before declaring our wallets a little less burdened come June.

Read more over here.

Rogers & iPhone

It’s offical, Rogers Wireless will exclusively carry the iPhone in Canada. Rogers Wireless has sealed a deal with Apple Inc. to become the exclusive carrier for iPhone in Canada, according to a customer advisory notice sent to subscribers this week.”

This doesn’t come as much of a surprise though; as Rogers wireless is the only GSM carrier in Canada anyways. So technically, no other company could carry this phone. The exclusivity contract, however, is great news for Rogers. This will surely lead to a lot of profit’s for Rogers through both airtime wireless services and wireless data services over the EDGE network.
So far, Rogers Wireless has said that availability and pricing were still being sorted out, but they have made it clear: Rogers will be the only wireless carrier to offer the Apple handset in Canada.

Rogers has not given us a specific date, but says the phone will be launched within Canada as soon as possible. Apple is planning to introduce the iPhone in Europe during the fourth quarter of 2007 and in Asia during 2008.

Found at: iPhonenews.ca.

Apple and Cisco talk

Apple, the company busily threatening little technology companies around the world who dare to use the word pod as part of their products' names, is back at the negotiating table with Cisco over its use of the iPhone name, a trademark held by Cisco for years.

Apple believes that iPhone is a generic name and therefore Cisco should not have exclusive claim to it and that there would not be any confusion between its new combination mobile phone and iPod and Cisco's VoIP phone. Cisco, which owns rights to the name in the US, begs to differ.

"Cisco entered into negotiations with Apple in good faith after Apple repeatedly asked permission to use Cisco’s iPhone name," Mark Chandler, senior vice president and general counsel, Cisco, said earlier this month. "There is no doubt that Apple’s new phone is very exciting, but they should not be using our trademark without our permission."

Read the full article here.

Introducing the iPhone

iPhone combines three products — a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, maps, and searching — into one small and lightweight handheld device.

iPhone also introduces an entirely new user interface based on a large multi-touch display and pioneering new software, letting you control everything with just your fingers. So it ushers in an era of software power and sophistication never before seen in a mobile device, completely redefining what you can do on a mobile phone.