“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,” Nancy Gohring reports for IDG News Service.
“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,” Gohring reports.
“Among the 26 percent of respondents who said they’re likely to buy an iPhone, only 1 percent said they’d pay $500 for it,” Gohring reports.
“Forty-two percent of those who said they’re likely to buy the phone said they’d pay $200 to $299,” Gohring reports. “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.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “drew_ill” for the heads up.]
Let’s conduct our own survey — admittedly using a much larger sample than Compete Inc.’s — right now:
Of those interested in our scrumptious new candy bar, how many would buy it at $1? Okay now, how many of you would buy it for 40-50 cents?
Gee, imagine that, whodathunkit? More of you want it for less money than for more. We’ve got a secret for you: when we release it four months from now, we’re charging $1 each for them because we already know that 26% of you describe yourselves as “likely” to buy it anyway and that’s the highest we’ve ever seen in all our years making candy!
Seriously, Apple has most certainly done their market research. As has AT&T. Let’s skip the goofy surveys with their tiny samples and flawed methodologies and wait to see what actually happens, okay?
Related articles:
Palm CEO can’t stop talking about Apple iPhone – February 19, 2007
How Steve Jobs played hardball in iPhone deal with AT&T (Cingular) – February 17, 2007
RUMOR: Apple iPhone 4GB for $299, 8GB for $399 with 2-year AT&T contract? – February 16, 2007
Telstra exec tells Apple to ‘stick to its knitting’ as iPhone looms – February 15, 2007
Digit takes a closer look at Apple’s iPhone – February 14, 2007
Microsoft caught off-guard, beaten badly by Apple’s iPhone innovations – February 13, 2007
Palm CEO: ‘We don’t want to follow design fads’; Nokia CEO challenges Apple over iPhone – February 13, 2007
RIM co-CEO doesn’t see threat from Apple’s iPhone – February 12, 2007
Apple’s soon-to-be iPhone rivals sound just like iPod rivals circa 2001 – February 01, 2007
How Verizon blew the Apple iPhone deal – January 29, 2007
O2, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile battle for exclusive rights to Apple iPhone in UK – January 26, 2007
Rogers to offer Apple iPhone exclusively in Canada – January 25, 2007
FUD Alert: Apple iPhone ‘isn’t very practical’ and a ‘security risk’ for business – January 24, 2007
Research in Motion downgraded due to Apple iPhone competition – January 23, 2007
Ihnatko: Hands-on with Apple’s iPhone (which runs Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard) – January 18, 2007
Microsoft CEO Ballmer laughs at Apple iPhone – January 17, 2007
RealMoney: Apple just blew up the whole damn mobile-phone supply chain with its new iPhone – January 11, 2007
eWeek: Apple iPhone fallout: ‘They must be crying in Nokia-ville and other telephony towns today’ – January 10, 2007
Jefferies downgrades Motorola on fears of market share loss to Apple iPhone – January 10, 2007
The massive FUD campaign against Apple’s iPhone ramps up – January 10, 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
Apple debuts iPhone: touchscreen mobile phone + widescreen iPod + Internet communicator – January 09, 2007
It’s all about relative value. There have been plenty of phones that sold for more money but didn’t do things as well as the iPhone appears to do them. Visual voicemail is something I’ve been yearning for since I first used a cell phone. If they add GPS to Google maps, the iPhone is cheaper than a Garmin, and the Garmin won’t play music or make telephone calls!
Here’s what we know you get with the iPhone:
iPod/iTunes
Phone
Safari web browser
Google Maps
Camera
Visual Voicemail
Email
And we knowthat all of these are easier/better than on every other smart phone.
Here’s what might also come with it:
GPS – Combine this with Google Maps and the iPhone beats the pants off Tom Tom, Garmin, etc.
Other OS X applications and utilities, like file sharing, Rendevous, VOIP.
I’ll make my decision when I can get my hands on one, but it’s looking like a good deal so far. Keep up the complaining though, I’d love to get it cheaper!
Don’t they realize that consumers are already paying exorbitant amounts for sidekicks, pocket pcs, q’s, blackjacks, and blackberry’s? Sure the prices drop, but when they first come out, those phones are fuckin expensive. Months later they drop down.
If people stop looking at the iPhone like a phone and think of it as a more portable duo touch tablet/laptop, the price seems too low!!
There are only three things that true: lies, damn lies, and statistics.
I’d buy a brown Zune for $1500 just to shove it up Balmer’s fat….well….you get the pic…..
On a more intelligent note, I am guessing the respondents to the survey did not know it was also a full fledged video iPod, nor had those people seen or were aware of the navigational web browser features.
“A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”
“There are lies, damned lies and” survey results.
Mark Twain
The only problem for some is the fact that the mobile carrie defacto is Cingular/AT&T. It is a pity that there are not more options such as Sprint, Verizon, or T-Mobile.
Curious though and hope someone has an answer. I was interested in buying the B&O and Prada phones. In particular, the Prada is only available in Europe. I contacted T-Mobile and Verizon. Both looked at the specs and said, why yes. You are welcome to buy this phone…even though it is not a Verizon or T-Mobile selected phone…and connect it to their network. My question is…since the specifications are in-line with both T-Mobiles and Verizons minimum requirements…. I am wondering if the same might be true for the iPhone. If I buy the iPhone in Europe, could I possibly connect it to another carrier than Cingular. Cingular/AT&T is a disaster here in Sacramento.
Any opinions?
Don’t get your shorts in a bunch. Apple said they only wanted 1% of the market. Sheesh.
What a bunch of “Crazy Foams”!
DavidEGo is spot-on. I’m surprised it took so long for this point to be made. The article’s headline is misleading, and the actual statistics are positive – they support Apple’s stated initial goal of capturing 1% of the market.
Sheesh, indeed!
MDN is right. This is about Apple selling a hot product into a huge market with a modest early target of 1% market share by the end of 2008. All they need are the early adapters at the high price. It does not matter worth a flying f*** whether you or I find the price acceptable, but whether there are enough early adapters.
The costs to Apple will be driven down by volume and the price will drop once the high price blocks the desired growth rate Apple seeks. It is a good thing that Apple management is running the show, not a bunch of solipsist twits who judge the wisdom of a company’s pricing decisions on their own personal needs.
MW: want, as in: The fact the you want something from me does not obligate me to give it to you — you socialist bloodsucker.
Well, I don’t have a smartphone, and I don’t want one. I’m using a Sony Ericsson Z520a, yes, with Cingular, and I have over a year left on the contract. I like this phone, never use up my 450 minutes a month, have a gazillion minutes carried over, and never use it for web access or anything like that. In short, I am not on Apple’s marketable list for the iPhone. Then again, I have four iPods, but three of them are Shuffles…. No screen, just function. I also don’t like the form factor for the iPhone. Sue me, but I’m not in line for it, no way.
It’s not the iPhone that will be too expensive – it’s the wireless service that will be too expensive. And that will be month after month.
That is why I will not be buying an iPhone.
Well, let’s see. A survey – where we can’t see the real questions, the order that they were asked, and the methodology of selecting how many people of the 379 who responded – conducted by “Compete Inc.” and reported by notoriously anti-Apple IDG – says that $500 is too expensive. Uh huh. And just what was the #2 story there?
Well (2), Compete Inc is another “brilliant idea” from Bill Gross (the fellow who started GoTo) who likes to toot his own horn: “Compete, Inc has developed a unique methodology created by experts in the fields of mathematics, statistics and the data sciences to aggregate, transform, enhance and normalize data in order to estimate U.S. Internet traffic.”
Yeah, right.
Seriously, there can be no reliabliity in reporting their disembodied numbers without specifying margins or error and methodology. That “26%” could be ± 10%! Without more info, it’s just bleating of sheep. These reports remind me of Abe Lincoln’s oberservation about another politician:
“He can compress so many words into such a small idea.”
*-)
I am looking at “multi-function” phones right now and find the prices of $900 to $1500 – with no plans… iPhone isn’t even close to too expensive.
Here is another “I-want-to-be-noticed-by-the-world-because-people-don’t-usually-pay-attention-to-me-or-my-opinions-so-I-will-get-on-the-bash-the-iPhone-bandwagon” bozo.
As far as I can see the market surveyors didn’t take a look at what was on the market already.
In my brief survey, I have discovered that no one phone has all of what I want and most certainly does not even desire to cater to my needs as a businessman. What they (the manufacturers) actually do is supply a few items in one phone and supply other aspects/services/features in another in their phone line. If I want all of the things I need in a phone – I would end up buying several phones.
The iPhone comes the closest so far but it (as of the initial introduction – and Steve Jobs indicated that he isn’t letting all of the kittens out of the bag) has several things that I would still like. Most especially voice recognition, so I can voice dial. What I would really like to see is voice recognition to where I can say -“iPhone, dial the following number” and either direct the phone by voice to dial a stored number – “Ron Johnson at Apple”, the last number dialed by saying – “last number dialed”, the last caller by the same method – “dial last caller” or give it number values (i.e. – 00111408974XXXX) and it would dial that number”. *(With real values in place of the “x’s” – I am not giving out any real Apple numbers, now am I? 😀 )
That one “little” feature would put the iPhone in the number one position in the marketplace and there would not need to be any lame-assed survey bozo asking dumb-assed questions. “Would you be willing to train your phone to your voice, so that you can dial telephone numbers by voice activation or do you prefer swerving and lane jumping in traffic whilst causing multiple auto collisions as you try to read the tiny print on your phone to call the office that you will be late?”
MDN = position.
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The first DVD player to hit the market cost 1,000 dollars…and it skipped a whole lot.
People will buy it at tit’s current pricing thusly making it’s manufacturing much cheaper…by the time I get out of my two year contract….
It’s be 60 gig iPhone for $199.
Or will it be 100 gig for $199…ahh whatever.
I will be an early adopter, and I will be happy to pay the price… twice. My wife and I both are tired of our Nextel phones/service.
MW: Plans. Wow, eerie. The cost of the plan is the one thing that I am not sure about. It’s like the Magicwordinator™ is reading my mind!
And remember, with MDN links you always have to read the articles. MDN likes to leave out the parts of articles that make them less controversial.
Such as what this article closed with:
>The phone may start out around $500 because early adopters will pay >that, said Neff. But pricing will likely drop by $100 to $200 to target the >mass market, he said.
the Iphone is not a phone. It’s way more… and for God’s sake it’s not expensive.People in this country should learn to spend money on these things if they want to catch up to with the rest of the world.
500 dollars is the cost of 5 apple shares. If you invested in Apple when the Iphone speculation started seriously,ie mid 2006, 5 shares would have cost you 250 dollars!
and by the way
the nokia N92 sells for 950 dollars on ebay. who would buy that?
Contract price usually subsidises about 250 dollars off a phone.
So if Apple phones are found on ebay for 750, that will be a steal…
Right now, for everyone, the iPhone is an abstraction- it’s an intellectual exercise at best. No one has looked at one up close, held one in their hand, seen their buddies use one in action. No one who has taken this survey, that is.
Until they are actually released, until people actually see one in use, this kind of opinion is kinda irrelevant.
Once people start seeing them in the wild, see what they can do- that’s when the lust will take hold and folks will start to reconsider spending the dough.
I don’t think Apple will have any trouble selling these.
@OpJ
“Right, because surveys and statistics are facts, and we don’t worry about facts…….”
Haven’t you heard? There are three kinds of lies; Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics. – Disrael
After the keynote, it took me 1% of 1 second to decide to go to my bank site and transfer $600 into money market for my iPhone purchase in June. I doubt I’m the only one. People will always pay for quality. They’re gonna sell loads of these things…
In Australia it costs 500 or so dollars for a Sony Ericson and it’s shit compared to the iPhone.