Carton reports, “Our survey of 3,489 Alliance members – conducted April 4-10 – reveals exceptionally high levels of excitement surround the iPhone’s upcoming release. Nearly one-in-10 respondents (9%) say they are likely to buy the new iPhone once it becomes available in June. Another 7% say they are likely to buy the iPhone as a gift for someone else.”
“These are big numbers, especially when you consider the worldwide market for cell phones is around 1 billion and Apple’s goal is to get to 1% of that market in year one – which would mean selling about 10 million phones,” Carton reports.
Carton reports, “Clearly the current results, while similar to our January survey findings, provide strong evidence that Apple should exceed its iPhone sales goals for 2008 – providing the device lives up to consumer expectations.”
“To gain a full sense of the iPhone’s looming impact on manufacturers, we compared their current market share in our survey with planned consumer purchases for the next six months,” Carton reports.
“Currently, Motorola (MOT) (33%) remains the leading manufacturer among Alliance cell phone owners, with LG (LPL) (15%) second and Nokia (NOK) (14%) third. But when you look at planned future buying the iPhone’s impact becomes clear,” Carton reports. “For the second-consecutive survey, Motorola’s future share among consumers has seen a dramatic decline – falling from 33% last October to just 17% currently. Nokia has also fallen from 11% to 9% during this period. We see the same pattern among service providers…”
Full article, with informative charts and graphs and more details, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Nathan” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Note: Apple’s stated goal is to sell 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008. iPhone is set to begin shipping in June. 10 million is a lot of little Mac tablets – oh, sorry, “iPhones” – to have running around out there, but we think Apple will do much better than that before the end of 2008.
Microsoft CEO Ballmer laughs at Apple iPhone on CNBC-TV (January 17, 2007):