“According to a recent report by NPD, the BlackBerry has overtaken the iPhone in unit sales for the Q1 2009. RIM has been operating an aggressive buy-one-get-one US campaign and its sales have surged 15 percent in the first quarter, though presumably at lower than normal hardware margins,” Seb Janacek reports for Silicon.com.
“The news will no doubt prompt some doomsayers to predict the death of the iPhone or some other such nonsense and call for Apple to respond immediately with a host of new models,” Janacek reports. “Assuming it needs to, what could Apple do to drive up iPhone sales?”
MacDailyNews Take: Short of giving away every other device for free like RIM, you mean? Apple doesn’t need to stoop to such levels. People actually want and will pay for Apple iPhones. Cut last quarter’s BlackBerry sales in half and that’s how many units they really would have sold. The fact is, Apple’s iPhone is killing RIM’s BlackBerry That’s why RIM and Verizon are forced to give them away.
Janacek continues, “The iPhone has taken first place in a consumer survey by J D Power published last week, dominating all but one of the categories: physical design, ease of operation, features, operating system, battery aspects and overall satisfaction. Most iPhone owners won’t be surprised to hear it came last in battery performance. In contrast, RIM’s BlackBerry – the competitor against which the iPhone is most often measured – scored highest in battery life but performed poorly in other categories.”
MacDailyNews Take: Get a Mophie battery case. There, now RIM loses in every single category and your iPhone is still thinner.
Janacek continues, “It seems likely that Apple will announce new iPhone hardware early this summer. However, I don’t think the company will diversify its iPhone product range just yet. Why? Because it doesn’t need to. iPhone sales are very strong at the moment (3.8 million in the last quarter) and, according to the old aphorism, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”
“Another option for the company to consider, as a way to sell more iPhones, is to end its exclusive ‘one carrier per territory’ deals,” Janacek reports. “I’m not convinced Apple will change this model or if indeed it needs to. With its exclusive deals, Apple can sustain high margins on the iPhone. The company can play carriers off against each other to negotiate the best deal. Breaking from this model will mean losing some bargaining power – and possibly lowering its profit margins.”
Janacek reports, “Lest we not forget that Apple is performing well in the smartphone market.”
Full article here.
