In a sidebar accompanying the article “iPhone mania nears fever pitch,” which we’ll get to in a moment, USA Today reports that “home computer market share” for Apple Mac in May 2004 stood at 3.2% and has now rocketed to 7.6% in May 2007. Those figures, which also accompany iPod and iTunes numbers, are sourced: “Apple, USA Today research, Wolf Bytes, IAG Research. By process of elimination, knowing what each source provides, we assume that the market share number came from USA Today research. We are also assuming these figures pertain to the U.S. market as opposed to worldwide which have always been lower historically.
Now, for the iPhone stuff:
Jefferson Graham reports for USA Today, “June 29 is the day many gear-heads have marked on their calendars as iDay, the release of what independent analyst Richard Doherty calls “the most eagerly awaited consumer technology device of the last 20 years.”
“The iPhone is being sold only at Apple’s 200 retail stores, Apple’s website and nearly 1,800 AT&T (formerly Cingular) stores beginning at 6 p.m. local time across the country. AT&T says it will close its stores at 4:30 p.m. and reopen at 6 p.m. Apple would not comment on its plans. No pre-orders are being accepted. Fans are expected to camp out in front of stores for days,” Graham reports.
“Online discussion boards debate shopping scenarios: Should you stand in line with mobs at a big urban store, only to discover they have only a handful of phones? Or go out to the suburbs and try your luck with a smaller, less-busy store?” Graham reports. “Doherty says that big urban outlets generally receive bigger supplies of must-have products, such as the Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation 3. He recommends going to the busiest stores that do the most volume.”
Graham reports, “AT&T won’t say how much its data plan for the iPhone will cost. A current “unlimited” data plan — which makes sense if you’re going to be surfing the Web from the phone — is $20 monthly. Couple that with a 900-minute $59.99 monthly voice plan and yearly usage costs could approach $1,000.”
“Gene Munster, who covers Apple for investment firm Piper Jaffray, says the iPhone could nearly double the size of Apple within two years. Apple revenue is now at $24 billion. Munster projects iPhone sales could push that to $42 billion — including $15 billion in iPhone sales — by 2009,” Graham reports. “It’s simple math, Munster says: The wireless industry is 12 times the size of the digital music player market that Apple dominates… ‘Within 10 years, I see Apple selling 100 million phones a year,’ says Charles Wolf, an independent analyst who has covered Apple for 22 years. “Apple will have 7% of the phone market.”
More in the full article here.
