Tag: handsets

Apple's iPhone with 10-30% market share? I don't think so

On 25/04/2007

Another survey with interesting numbers: according to this one, 9% of all US consumers are “very” or “somewhat” likely to buy Apple’s iPhone. Funny that: The iPhone is initially only available on Cingular/AT+T (cf here), which has a market share of 28%, so just about 1/3 of all Cingular subscribers (or c. 19 million) would have to be interested in buying an iPhone.

Folks, buy Apple stock now. But then (screeech): Apple said they were only targeting 1% of the market, which makes it 1m devices, and AT+T’s COO says they have already 1m inquiries … this would lead 18 million willing Cingular subs + everyone outside the US without the sleek and coveted thing. Not so good…

Isn’t all this somewhat weird? The phone costs $499 and $599 respectively (at least according to this), and 1/3 of a carrier’s subscribers going for one of the top-priced options would be contrary to everything we’ve seen so far. Rather unlikely, I’d say. So: if the price was dropped to below $300, an additional 10% would buy the 4GB model and a staggering 20% the 8GB model. Make that 30% market share then – with one device. Woah.

The blurb concludes that Apple should exceed its sales goals for, wait a minute, 2008 (sic!) and then closes with the beautiful caveat “provided the device lives up to consumer expectations”. Amen!

If Apple gets it right (which I hope as I like them), then 1m devices in 2007 would not be a bad start (considering it is one carrier and one country), in particular as high-priced as they are. Assuming that they could in fact open the pipeline for higher demand, we could well be seeing one of the top handsets in the market place (so-called blockbuster handsets regularly are between 2-3.5% share of all handsets on a carrier). That would be impressive enough.

Then they would only have to add 3G, I suppose…

GPS mobile phone showcase – 30% take-up with the right service!!!

By Volker

On 09/04/2007

And the pretty news comes from Disney Mobile. The MVNO shared some insight on usage patterns of its subscribers, and there is some interesting little pieces of information that would suggest that the combination of a consumer value driver (here: security) with a technology (here: GPS) might make a business:

Allegedly 30% of the their subscribers use its GPS location tracking services (parents can locate their kids via the handsets’ GPS functionality), and parents who do so use the feature 14 times per month on average.

56% of Disney Mobile subscribers are adults and 44% are children.

A take-up rate of 30% of a relatively novel service with high service usage (every other day) is pretty impressive for any media!

Final blurb: 30% of location requests were made from the Web and 70% from the handset, demonstrating the cross-platform nature of the application – and the huge potential of mobiles.

Which mobile are you?

By Volker

On 05/04/2007

Here’s who you are according to the mobile phone brand you carry:

Nokia – the choice of family-minded, middle aged managers
Motorola – favoured by fashion conscious under 24s
Sony Ericsson – for ambitious young men trying to make their mark
LG – favoured by mums
Samsung – for young women focused on their career

That’s at least what Nielsen Media Research says… I wonder where all the divorced, child-less middle managers are…

>1/3 of mobile handsets were changed in 2006

By Volker

On 04/04/2007

So this is how fast the hardware landscape can change. Imagine BMW’s market share could double (or be halved) in one year. With dynamics such as the ones reported here for the mobile handset sector, this would be entirely credible:

Some 36% of mobile phone users in Argentina replaced their handsets in 2006, according to a recent study by local consultancy Carrier y Asociados as reported by Cellular News.

The study, called Telefonía móvil 2007: Segmento individuos, concluded that replacement of mobile devices was common in all income segments.

According to the study, one out of four mobile telephony users in the country plans to replace their handset in 2007, which would mean nearly 8mn new devices.

“Young people aged below 18 tend to replace their device more than others because they want telephones with new features such as MP3 or cameras,” Carrier told BNamericas.

Carrier also stressed that handset subsidies operators offer to clients are crucial to keeping turnover high, although he considered subsidies are lower than a couple of years ago.