Especially since this study says few will pay even $500.
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 Inc. in order to get it, according to results of a survey released Thursday.
Online market research firm Compete 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.
More Like $300Among the 26 percent of respondents who said they’re likely to buy an iPhone, only 1 percent said they’d pay $500 for it. When Apple introduced the iPhone in January, it said it would cost $500 on the low end.
Or will they?
Apple has an uncanny ability to get consumers to pay big bucks for early but excellent technology, like the original iPod. And then there’s this interesting nugget from the aforementioned study:
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.
People can and do jump through hoops to get the best technology, and the iPhone will be no different. I think $500 and $600 iPhones will sell.
February 23rd, 2007 at 3:26 pm
I’m pretty sure they “thought” about this before laying out their pricing strategies.
If they had said $1,000 and then delivered at $600 the monkeys would have been thrilled.
February 23rd, 2007 at 4:25 pm
You calling us monkeys?
February 23rd, 2007 at 8:59 pm
As of January 2007 , Apple reports 88,701,000 iPods sold (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod#Sales).
Not sure a 379-response survey could accurately determine what to expect (saleswise) with that large an installed market base.
February 23rd, 2007 at 9:07 pm
In other words, I honestly believe a significant percentage of iPod owners (regardless of whether they want/need a cell phone) would gladly buy (at Apple’s asking price) primarily (and for some, even solely) because of its iPod functionality.
February 25th, 2007 at 10:58 am
johnc’s got it right
It’s a cool new touchscreen Nano with a ho-hum phone attached.
Great storage for a media phone (most come nowhere close to even the base iPhone’s capacity), but no productivity applications (it won’t tempt a Blackberry user)
Nor does it have any real data access (dialup speed at best via cellular)
Don’t get to far from the local Wi-Fi network if you want to use the web!
February 26th, 2007 at 8:47 am
I still believe the price is wrong. By June other great cell phones will offer even more than the iPhone right now and the price vs. benefit gap will grow even more. Unless Apple lowers the price to say $299.00 for the entry level phone, they will have a hard time getting mass market numbers to adopt this gadget beyond the ‘money doesn’t mean sheat to me’ crowd.