“The jury is still out on whether Apple Inc.’s iPhone will be a commercial success, Verizon Wireless’ General Counsel Steve Zipperstein said Wednesday,” Dow Jones reports. “Testifying before a House Telecommunications Subcommittee hearing into the future of the wireless industry, Zipperstein acknowledged that the company was approached by Apple before AT&T Inc. was about being the exclusive supplier of phone service for the new device. ‘We didn’t view it as the right opportunity for us at that time,’ he said.”
“Zipperstein said that it was too early to tell whether the iPhone would ultimately be a success in the market,” Dow Jones reports.
“‘Despite the hype about the iPhone in the media over the last couple of weeks, the product has only been available for the last 10 days,’ said Zipperstein. ‘The jury is still out and we will have to see how the market reacts.’ According to reports, nearly 1 million iPhones have been sold in its first 10 days. Apple has set a public target of selling 10 million devices by the end of the year,” Dow Jones reports.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple has set a public target of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008, not by the end of this year. Apple has not reported any iPhone unit sales figures to date.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Dion” and “Mike in Helsinki” for the heads up.]
Must be OJ’s jury.
I don’t think Apple is going to announce the sales number for just the last 10 days or for 1 million or 2 million sold. Announcing sales number for units sold to cultists no matter the volume is going to be meaningless to a certain extent to wall street. Wall Street has already built into the stock price their expectation of what sales will be like for Apple GIVEN the cultists and trend-setters. If you want to present a more useful number, you provide total sales made at the end of the first sales quarter after the hype has died down, all the reviews are in and the leading edge buyers start walking into Apple stores and walking out with iphones.
Hey MDN, how about a “People who left VZ for the iPHONE” page?
As soon as I saw that I could get a cell/data plan for 59 bucks a month, the same price I paid for my shitty VZ cell only plan, I was ready to jump. If it had been 99 bucks I would have passed but now I got the phone and it is incredible and my monthly bill will be about the same.
I’m sure the real reason Verizon passed is they balked at a low monthly price for both data and cell.
MW: “run” as in run away from Verizon asap.
When Apple holds it’s quarterly analysts call at the end of the month we may get an official number of how many iPhones have sold. An equally interesting number that may have to come from ATT is how many switchers they pulled in.
I can just imagine the VZN CEO’s next analyst’s meeting and him having to explain losing a couple of hundred thousand customers in the space of a month.
Based on current sales, Apple will reach 10 million in about 90 days. Note: The sales goal Steve Jobs stated at the keynote was 10 million units IN calendar year 2008.
His name is Zipperstone…
yah yah… and Rob Glazed donuts thinks the Jury is still out on the ipod.. whadduagonnado?
Apple will likely choose the quarterly results announcement to disclose the iPhone sales figures. This must be coming soon.
Remember though that Apple are accounting for the iPhone sales over 2 years since they are getting a cut of the service fee.
Actually, OJ’s jury wasn’t out for all that long.
I think Verizon’s Steve Zipperstein (jeeze, another Steve!) should wait 5 or 10 years before deciding what to do about the iPhone.
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Actualy, OJ’s jury wasn’t out for all that long.
I think Verizon’s Steve Zipperstein (jeeze, another Steve!) should wait 5 or 10 years to decide what to do about the iPhone.
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FACK Verizon!
Tell us why.
(Only if the iPhone is available in your market).
Why haven’t I bought?
Ummm…4 phones on a Verizon plan. That would be $175/phone to cancel!!
We have to wonder why they sad no. A good reason could be fear of giving control to Apple. It might be that in a few years we look at att as a starting point where telco’s (like isp’s) where pushed back to a commodity company (please give be bandwidth and shut the f*** up). Most telco’s still think they can and should be more. Apple in many ways (like MS) a very scary partner to work with they can destroy your ideas by their own and take you for a ride. MS is the same in many ways but use monopoly instead of vision as its main tool.
Hope this makes any sense, my only point was maybe they didn’t do it because they had a vision of the future and didn’t like it.
Daniel.
The iPhone is already a success, according to the Institute of Noticing the Obvious.
The “Jury is out”?
I guess the judge gave them a break so they could go and buy iPhones.
-jcr
The “Jury is out”?
I guess the judge gave them a break so they could go and buy iPhones.
-jcr
The “Jury is out”?
I guess the judge gave them a break so they could go and buy iPhones.
-jcr
The “Jury is out”?
I guess the judge gave them a break so they could go and buy iPhones.
-jcr
At least you’ll get your $175 worth and pressure VZ into better calling plans for the rest of your phones.
Did you ever notice how the Z in the Verizon logo disappears at the end? Just like their cell signal…