Some trade rags have been attempting to make a story about the iPhone not reaching its 2 month sales targets, saying that they are 10,000 short of their 200,000 target.
Two things leap to mind: Firstly surely achieving 95% of one’s sales target is pretty good. If it was 100% surely they’d underestimated demand and the targets were too soft?
Secondly, is selling handsets really the sole objective of launching the iPhone? Or is it, as I suggest, more of a core brand message about Apple’s competence in tech convergence, and a forerunner to expansion into other new markets? (or something else entirely maybe?)
I’m not trying to foolishly suggest that they don’t care about selling the things, but surely the results after two months in terms of additional PR for O2 and Apple – have you noticed how it’s just about impossible to have a conversation or read an article about mobiles without the obligatory reference to the iPhone these days - and brand value development (I’m guessing that if Apple do anything as outmoded as quant brand tracking, they’ll be seeing how those innovation and newsworthy measures have soared over the last few months) are making somebody pretty happy. Not to mention the claimed numbers of people flocking into O2’s stores to have a look.
Also I’d love to see how much those 190,000 people are what the more outdated of us might call ‘early adopters’ meaning that their subsequent reach and influence is probably not to be underestimated. Judging by the numbers being flashed around Soho’s private members clubs at the moment, I’d say it’s becoming a bit of a statement amongst the celebs and jetsetters that the tabs and mags like to deify so regularly.
Boomshanka,
dm
PS The fact that I’m so wary of even writing about Apple and am worried about verging into obvious cliche speaks volumes for the success of their PR campaign, don’t you think? Anyhow, no more Apple posts for a month. I promise…
Loading ...
Matthew Kershaw 21 Jan 2008
ReportI suspect they have undersold iPhone by more than the 5% magin you are suggesting. One branch manager of a mobile shop I spoke to said they were expecting to sell 30 a week and were only selling 3-4.
I’m also obsessesed by Apple, but I haven’t bought an iPhone yet. At twice the price of the rival high-end Nokia it’s an ask maybe even Apple can’t get away with…
Stephen Pirrie 21 Jan 2008
ReportI wonder whether not meeting what some thought was a conservative sales target says much about the iPhone as it is now or how it will be in the future. Consumers are wary of buying first version hardware from Apple but for Nokia and other phones, I am not sure people wait for the higher spec version to come out. So should the sales figures be compared to other phones or should they account for the fact that so many of us will wait till the iPhone has a greater capacity?
One thing is for sure and that is that Apple is transforming the way mobiles access the web. Its makes up the lion share of Google mobile visits but accounts for less than 2% of the market. Impressive stuff. Lets see if the focus remains on early sales figures on the long game.
PS: Its also worth bearing in mind that the 200k figure is for O2 stores alone, and doesnt include Apple stores or online sales. I wonder what those figures were.