“Apple has been increasing its penetration into entry-level smartphone markets and the OEM production of iPhone 3GS has continued steadily with the volume likely to reach two million units in the fourth quarter of 2011 and 1.4-1.6 million units in the first quarter of 2012, according to industry sources,” Yenting Chen and Steve Shen report for DigiTimes.
“Meanwhile, the production of the CDMA version of iPhone 4 is expected to top 800,000 to one million units in the fourth quarter of 2011 and 500,000-600,000 units in the following quarter, estimated the sources,” Chen and Shen report.
Read more in the full article here.
The power of “free.”
I think you mean free*
As in free upfront, but far from free in the 3 year contract
“Upfront” is all that matters for a lot of consumers, even though they are essentially taking a two-year loan with the wireless carrier to pay for the phone.
Most North American carriers don’t offer any monthly discount for buying your phone unlocked (or bringing an unlocked phone from elsewhere).
So unless you travel abroad, and the majority of Americans don’t, most consumers have very little reason NOT to go with a subsidized phone. There’s the argument an unlocked phone sells for much higher on ebay if you flip it every time Apple releases a new iPhone, but that still falls outside the majority.
I think the key point is that typical consumers are not that familiar with the specs and specific features of each iPhone model. So a “free” iPhone sounds like a great deal, even though the total cost of ownership after two years is not that different between an iPhone 3GS and an iPhone 4, or even 4S (and that customer could have been enjoying a much better iPhone during those two years). And that’s the power of “free.”
The two-year contract is like a loan, where you pay back the subsidy. Except with a real loan, you stop payment after the term has expired. With the wireless carrier contract, you keep paying as long as you keeping using that same phone.
True – you don’t get a discount for having an unlocked phone. You pay the same, unless you want to use Sprint’s $50 “unlimited everything” plan, but that doesn’t have tethering. I use a lot of minutes, but most of them are free mobile to mobile calls so I only need a 450 minute plan. 450 might as well be unlimited, for me (and I presume a lot of people).
Plus, my subsidized iPhones always sell for about what I paid. I sold my iP4 for $325 – it “cost” me $300. I doubt one could sell a 1.7-year-old unlocked iPhone for what one paid.
Basically, my $97/month phone service (including tethering and tax) from ATT includes the price of my phone. I think it’s a great deal.
On that note… I found one of my old bills from LA Cellular from the late 80s whilst cleaning out a closet recently… $45/month just to have the line, $0.45/min from 7am-7pm, and $0.27 minute from 7pm-7am and on Sat and Sun. That was it. No “included minutes” plans, except for the one where you paid $250/month and got 550 minutes.
And phones cost $600 and up.
Amazing how a 2 , soon to be , 3 yr old device
Is still a hot item !!
Kudos to Apple ….
This reminds me a bit of when the iPod mini came out. Apple were able to address a lower cost market and it (along with iTunes for windows) really took hold of the business.
Its a great way for Apple to grab more of the market without having to develop a new phone.
The plans that come with subsidized iPhones are way to expensive. On the contrary, if you have an unsubsidized phone, you can get away with all kinds of (say, prepaid) plans that only charge you per day of 3G activity, or you can only activate the data plan if you intend to be away a lot from WiFi connectivity.
Of course everything depends a lot on your usage.
I still have a pay-per-second-from-the-first-second plan (with a small connection charge, and mainly use it to make very brief phone calls (“I am leaving now”, “I’ll be 20 min late, bye”), and to be reachable all the time. This costs me approx. €10-15/mo. I can top up my data plan with 50MB for €5 (valid for a month, BUT if I top up the data plan on day 30, it carries over the balance of my GB’s to the next month. If my data plan runs out -50MB is not a great deal of data- I just top up with an additional 500MB for 10MB, which is more reasonable).
All this to tell you that if you don’t take out an expensive all-in subscription and manage your prepaid card wisely, things may be a lot cheaper. I spend roughly €30 every 2-3 months.
Sorry, I meant: …I just top up with an add’l 500MB for €10,…
I don’t believe that figure. IMHO it is way too low. iPhone 3GS was though sold out from Finland after 4S, so it is selling very well.
Can somebody explain why they refer to ‘OEM’ production of 3GS phones rather than simply production of them ?
Are these specific models for certain ISPs, rather than the official Apple iPhone 3GS that is normally sold ?