“The iPhone is a fabulous slim, sleek and sexy device. Loaded with most of what you’d expect of a high end smartphone today, with most obviously an enormous bright high-resolution screen of 3.5 inches in size (for comparison my new Nokia N-93 that I was so happy about last week, has a screen of only 2.5″ in size,)” Tomi T. Ahonen blogs for Communities Dominate Blogs.
Ahonen writes, “The resolution of the screen is also impressive at 320 x 480. That is twice that of its typical music-playing rival smartphones from SonyEricsson, Motorola, Nokia, LG and Samsung. When combining video viewing, internet browsing and Apple’s smart touch-screen (they call it Multitouch), this screen size and resolution are both justified, and clearly differentiating from much of the competition.”
“The iPhone has the newest and best iPod features built in, so it is a true iPod phone, not like the sad Motorola Rokr was. No matter how much the industry has loved SonyEricsson’s Walkmans as “iPod killers” – we can safely trust that this iPhone will be the best of the bunch for music,” Ahonen writes. “And the rest of the phone features are pretty impressive too for a high-end smartphone, with quad-band GSM, meaning it works in every GSM network, meaning the most wide network coverage in the world, covering almost 80% of the phones in the world. It also has high speed cellular data, on the EDGE standard (what is often called 2.8G, just short of 3G) and WiFi and Bluetooth.”
Ahonen writes, “This is a serious flaw for the market outside of America, but not really a major flaw for the American market itself. Unfortunately adding 3G to the phone involves a complete additional radio unit, increasing weight, complexity, reducing battery life etc. So this is not an easy upgrade to the next iPhone. Adding 3G is a very complex and costly step, and it also requires “double” the amount of testing at all network operators before it is accepted into the supported handset portfolios of any operator. This may be part of the reason why Apple launches in America first (being the laggard market in mobile telecoms and in 3G) and Europe next, with Asia last (as South Korea and Japan are the industry leaders especially for handsets, mobile internet and music on mobile, as well as 3G).”
Ahonen writes, “Even if mobile phone sales grow only marginally in 2007, this means a target market for Apple of 120 million smartphones. And Steve Jobs talked (in his interview on CNBC right after the announcement at Macworld) about capturing 10 million of those, in its first year. 10 million is 1 percent of all phones, that is ‘reasonable’ but 10 million is 8% of the worldwide smartphone market – that is quite a tall order in its first year, and even more so with only two phone models.”
“Musicphone sales rocketed in 2006, more than doubling. It is fair to assume, even at very conservative rates, that musicphone sales will reach 400 million units in 2007. This of course includes most of the 120 million smartphones mentioned above,” Ahonen writes. “Now we are talking about a valid market opportunity for Apple. 10 million means only 2.5%, and that is quite do-able.”
Ahonen writes, “So back to America. If we again assume that the 7.5% of all musicphones are sold in America, it gives us a market of 30 million. If under half are on GSM, we’re at 14 million, and out of those, if Apple wants 4.7 million – that means 33.5%. A tall order, but it can be done.”
Much. much more in the full article, a very interesting analysis, here.
Related articles:
Apple iPhone tops Amazon’s bestselling electronics list in Germany – January 13, 2007
BusinessWeek explores ‘the real genius of Apple’s iPhone’ – January 12, 2007
Wired News: Steve Jobs’ iPhone shows the future – January 12, 2007
Cringely: Apple iPhone will suddenly go 3G, gain features, and be renamed ‘Apple Phone’ – January 12, 2007
Apple’s Phil Schiller gives CBS News hands-on tour of iPhone – January 12, 2007
20 unanswered questions about Apple’s iPhone – January 11, 2007
Report: iPhone could be upgraded to 3G with software update if Apple wishes – January 11, 2007
Report: Rogers Communications to offer Apple iPhone in Canada – January 11, 2007
David Pogue: hands on preview of Apple’s iPhone, ‘gorgeous and so packed with possibilities’ – January 11, 2007
PC Magazine hands-on test of Apple iPhone: multi-touch UI ‘takes the breath away’ – January 11, 2007
Mossberg’s initial take on Apple iPhone: ‘radical and gorgeous’ with ‘brilliant new user interface’ – January 11, 2007
NewsWeek’s Levy interviews Apple CEO Steve Jobs about iPhone – January 11, 2007
Why Apple’s iPhone doesn’t do high-speed mobile phone networks (yet) – January 11, 2007
RealMoney: Apple just blew up the whole damn mobile-phone supply chain with its new iPhone – January 11, 2007
ZDNet: Hands on with Apple’s iPhone: ‘elegant, ravishing, simple, sleek; impeccable & intuitive UI’ – January 11, 2007
Apple iPhone FUD campaign begins – January 10, 2007
Nine ways Apple changed the face of consumer electronics yesterday – January 10, 2007
Analysts and investors applaud arrival of Apple iPhone – January 10, 2007
Top 10 things to love and top 10 things to hate about the Apple iPhone – January 10, 2007
How Apple kept the iPhone top secret for 30 months – January 10, 2007
Hands-on with Apple’s iPhone – January 10, 2007
The only thing really wrong with Apple’s iPhone is its name – January 09, 2007
Is Apple building ‘The Device?’ [revisited] – January 09, 2007
Analyst Bajarin: Apple’s iPhone and Apple TV are industry game changers – January 09, 2007
Time: ‘iPhone could crush cell phone market pitilessly beneath the weight of its own superiority’ – January 09, 2007
Analyst: Apple iPhone should be given its own category – ‘brilliantphone’ – January 09, 2007
Cingular to use Synchronoss Technologies’ platform for Apple iPhone – January 09, 2007
iPhone photos from Apple’s Macworld Expo booth – January 09, 2007
Enderle: Apple’s iPhone is going to do very well – January 09, 2007
Apple debuts iPhone: touchscreen mobile phone + widescreen iPod + Internet communicator – January 09, 2007
Bloomberg writer: Apple iPhone won’t make long-term mark; will only appeal to a few gadget freaks – January 15, 2007
Dvorak on Apple iPhone: ‘I think Apple can do wrong and I think this is it’ – January 13, 2007
USA Today writer: Apple iPhone is an ‘ordinary, average product’ at heart – January 12, 2007
FUD Alert: Analyst – I am pretty skeptical Apple’s iPhone can succeed – January 11, 2007
The Register’s Ray: Apple ‘iPhone’ will fail – December 26, 2006
Analyst: Apple iPhone economics aren’t that compelling – December 08, 2006
CNET editor Kanellos: ‘Apple iPhone will largely fail’ – December 07, 2006
Palm CEO laughs off Apple ‘iPhone’ threat – November 20, 2006
