Europe Sells Out at iPhone 3G Launch

[AppleInsider]

European retailers were sold out of the new iPhone 3G before stores in the US even opened on Friday, thanks in part to strong marketing from Apple's mobile partners.

The initial sales surge not only blew through stores' inventory but also delivered a knock-out punch to Apple's iTunes activation servers.

The Swiss daily newspaper "20 Minuten" reported that hundreds waited in line for hours in Zürich in front of the central Swisscom store. The mobile phone provider opened 100 of its retail stores at 6:30 AM and served snacks and water to those waiting in line.



In Bern, Swisscom's main shop in the Christoffel shopping center was sold out of 16 GB iPhones by 8 AM, and was sold out of all iPhones by two in the afternoon. An employee reported that the store had received an initial allotment of 3,000 iPhones. There are over a dozen other Swisscom retail stores in the Bern area, and all were sold out on the first day. Orange didn't open its stores as early in the morning, but was similarly sold out of all iPhones by early afternoon as well.

Several other retail shops in downtown Bern, including Mobilezone, Apple Specialist retailer Data Quest, and the Globus department store, which hosts a Swisscom store inside, were all busy selling the new iPhone to slow moving lines three customers deep all morning. All sold out of their inventories by early afternoon, although a few stores had held a unit or two for customers who had called in to reserve one.

Extensive Newspaper Coverage

The night before the launch, Swisscom paid to wrap the daily paper "Blick am Abend," (below) with an iPhone ad promoting the 8GB iPhone for 99 Swiss Francs ($99 US) with the purchase of a two year, 55 Swiss Franc ($55 US) plan, which includes access to 1100 WiFi hotspots.

Swisscom is also selling the iPhone 3G 8GB/16GB without a subscription plan for 519/619 Swiss Francs ($519/619 US), although the unit is still locked to Swisscom for service. Enterprising hackers will likely work around the SIM lock soon, making the Swisscom pricing one of the most attractive deals in Europe.



On Friday, Orange wrapped its own offer over 20 Minuten: the 8GB iPhone 3G for 99 Swiss Francs ($99 US) with a two year contract, although the contract price is higher at 99 Swiss Francs ($99 US) per month. Without a rate plan, Orange is selling the iPhone 3G 8GB/16GB for 759/859 Swiss Francs ($759/$859 US). Orange also includes access to 1,500 WiFi hotspots.




In addition to the service providers' literal newspaper coverage with advertisements, the papers themselves were reporting extensively on the launch, with 20 Minuten touting its own iPhone app featuring a news reader and a video portal. The paper also maintained an online section devoted to the iPhone launch for months.



Blick reviewed the new iPhone 3G as being, despite a few flaws (including its weak 2 megapixel camera, lack of video recording, and inability to forward SMS) "the best smartphone on the market."

.

Too Much of a Good Thing

As reported earlier, the top three Swiss mobile operators have already noted 42,000 iPhones on their networks in the year prior to the official iPhone 3G launch. Retailers who sold out their initial inventory on the first day expected additional iPhone 3G shipments within the week. Supplies of the new iPhone appear to be less constrained in the US, but sales and activation delays still resulted in long lines.

Brisk sales of the new iPhone model, along with iPod touch sales being promoted by mobile carriers (such as the Swiss Sunrise) that are not selling the iPhone itself, promise to build strong support for Apple's new mobile App Store platform. However, the strong surge of demand on launch day has resulted in big problems for both mobile carriers and for Apple.

Mass activations of the new iPhone 2.0 software have temporarily knocked out the company's iTunes servers, preventing new customers and existing iPhone users from completing their iPhone 2.0 software installations and rushing to iTunes to buy the new mobile apps.

The blow to Apple's iPhone App Store service capacity comes just as the new MobileMe service is recovering from its initial transition problems. Originally scheduled to come online yesterday, the MobileMe push messaging service and online suite of apps has just started to become broadly available midday today.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[kiwi66]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

European retailers were sold out of the new iPhone 3G before stores in the US even opened on Friday, thanks in part to strong marketing from Apple's mobile partners.

Is this a surprise if you read that a whole country like Belgium had exactly 250 iPhones for the launch?
I bet switzerland had less than 1'000. Given that over 15'000 old iPhones are already imported from USA, this is absolutely no surprise. This is a marketing gag, nothing else. Feedback I have from Switzerland is that the demand is far lower than expected. The Geeks will have taken all iPhones but hefty sim locks and 24 month contracts (even on prepaid!) are a good reason to not buy it.

[SpamSandwich]

Sounds to me like Apple had anticipated much lower demand this go 'round, thus the shortages.

[csimmons]

Originally Posted by kiwi66

Feedback I have from Switzerland is that the demand is far lower than expected. The Geeks will have taken all iPhones but hefty sim locks and 24 month contracts (even on prepaid!) are a good reason to not buy it.

I'm sorry, but WHO ARE YOU and WHY SHOULD WE CARE?

[mr O]

Originally Posted by kiwi66

Is this a surprise if you read that a whole country like Belgium had exactly 250 iPhones for the launch?

It's official: every authorised shop (in Belgium) did not have more than 15 iPhones.

[addabox]

Is this a surprise if you read that a whole country like Belgium had exactly 250 iPhones for the launch?
I bet switzerland had less than 1'000. Given that over 15'000 old iPhones are already imported from USA, this is absolutely no surprise. This is a marketing gag, nothing else. Feedback I have from Switzerland is that the demand is far lower than expected. The Geeks will have taken all iPhones but hefty sim locks and 24 month contracts (even on prepaid!) are a good reason to not buy it.

Feedback from my ass says otherwise.

[SwissMac2]

Originally Posted by kiwi66

Is this a surprise if you read that a whole country like Belgium had exactly 250 iPhones for the launch?
I bet switzerland had less than 1'000. Given that over 15'000 old iPhones are already imported from USA, this is absolutely no surprise. This is a marketing gag, nothing else. Feedback I have from Switzerland is that the demand is far lower than expected. The Geeks will have taken all iPhones but hefty sim locks and 24 month contracts (even on prepaid!) are a good reason to not buy it.

What a load of rubbish. I stood in a queue of 80 people for 4 hours, saw loads of people walk out with iPhones, and I was in just one of six Swisscom stores in Basel. On top of that there were three Orange stores, plus some independents. Yet they still ran out very quickly. All day I popped in and out of various mobile phone outlets, seeing other people doing exactly the same. There really is huge demand for the iPhone here - it's just a shame the few thousand (apparently 10,000 per week) allocated to CH were a drop in the ocean when Swisscom has a waiting list with 50,000 names on it. This is after all the richest country in Europe (GDP per head of population basis).

While Swisscom contracts are too long term (24 months really is taking the P155) Orange have a 12 month option - just like all phone companies. While the Orange deals are very generous, the Swisscom ones are expensive for anything other than low use users. Orange also seem to care far more about existing customers than do Swisscom though, as they gave them priority while Swisscom actually acted like they were totally unimportant - they didn't even have prices for contract extensions today.

Looks like Apple messed up big time here. And why so many of an 8Gb iPhone? That's ridiculous when people are used to an iPod with 160 Gb and an iPod touch with 32 Gb. Do Apple really think people in Switzerland cannot afford the tiny difference in price the networks are offering the two phones at?

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by SpamSandwich

Sounds to me like Apple had anticipated much lower demand this go 'round, thus the shortages.

If you mean lower demand than the first iPhone, I don't see that at all. I do think they underestimated the level of demand, but there are 22 countries who have received the iPhone this Friday. I wonder how many have been sold today worldwide?

[grahamw]

Gentlemen, I've been informed by a good authority on the Swiss Imperial Family™ that Kiwi66 is actually the Empress of Switzerland. Please show her all the respect due to a monarch of a small nation of watchmakers, chocolatiers and yodelers posting on an internet technology board.

Please keep it clean and polite. Thank you!

[mr O]

Originally Posted by mr O

It's official: every authorised shop (in Belgium) did not have more than 15 iPhones.

Here's the link if you know how to read Dutch: http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Deta...1&kanaalid=308

It gets even worse as the authorised shops in the Netherlands did not have more than 15 iPhones either

Is Apple buying free publicity by creating an artificial shortage

[kresh]

Originally Posted by kiwi66

I bet switzerland had less than 1'000. Given that over 15'000 old iPhones are already imported from USA, this is absolutely no surprise. This is a marketing gag, nothing else. Feedback I have from Switzerland is that the demand is far lower than expected.

hmm. Which of these statements should I believe? The one above or the one below?

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

In Bern, Swisscom's main shop in the Christoffel shopping center was sold out of 16 GB iPhones by 8 AM, and was sold out of all iPhones by two in the afternoon. An employee reported that the store had received an initial allotment of 3,000 iPhones. There are over a dozen other Swisscom retail stores in the Bern area, and all were sold out on the first day.

[grahamw]

Originally Posted by mr O

Here's the link if you know how to read Dutch: http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Deta...1&kanaalid=308

It gets even worse as the authorised shops in the Netherlands did not have more than 15 iPhones either

Is Apple buying free publicity by creating an artificial shortage

What gives you the idea that it's artificial? The spyshots from Cupertino of employees building forts out of 3G boxes or the Trojan Palette of 3G phones delivered to Redmond?

It's only artificial if you don't have enough. Rolling it out in 22 countries on the same damn day implies to me that the stock that's been shipped out has been prioritized according to forecasted demands - but that they're not holding any back.

[Chris_CA]

Originally Posted by grahamw

Gentlemen, I've been informed by a good authority on the Swiss Imperial Family™ that Kiwi66 is actually the Empress of Switzerland. Please show her all the respect due to a monarch of a small nation of watchmakers, chocolatiers and yodelers posting on an internet technology board.

And she's got an army knife, so be careful!
(Get it? Swiss army knife?)

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by mr O

It gets even worse as the authorised shops in the Netherlands did not have more than 15 iPhones either
Is Apple buying free publicity by creating an artificial shortage

How many stores are there in Netherland that were selling iPhones today? How many iPhones did the other 21 countries receive?

Considering that Nokia is from there and has it's own fan base, I wonder if that country isn't one of the lowest for an average iPhone per store. Of course, there are many other factors to weigh, but we need to consider which markets need the most, it's not like Apple has unlimited supply of stock. They take time to produce, package and ship. Since iPhone v2.0 didn't hit Golden Master until 8 days ago all iPhone were packaged and shipped just a week ago. That is a lot of product to push in a short time.

[Hutcho]

Was there any demand like this for the first iPhone? No. There wasn't.

Everyone was wondering why it wasn't selling well in Europe, and I gave the answer in the beginning - 3G. Now it has that, you can't buy one anywhere because they are all sold out.

[NanoAkron]

Originally Posted by Hutcho

Was there any demand like this for the first iPhone? No. There wasn't.

Everyone was wondering why it wasn't selling well in Europe, and I gave the answer in the beginning - 3G. Now it has that, you can't buy one anywhere because they are all sold out.

Quoted for truth.

I queued up with a friend at 6.45am for an 8am opening outside our local O2 store in the UK. I was 13th! in the queue. Number one was there from 4am...

They had stock of 16 x 16Gb iPhones (lucky me) and about 20 of the 8Gb ones. All had been allocated to people queuing come opening time at 8am.

They sold out very quickly.

However, O2 were being complete retards and the majority of people there were waiting to upgrade but they obviously hadn't tried to accommodate the early morning rush - the first guy had to wait an hour and a half for the salesman to get through to the O2 upgrade department by phone.

The store staff were brilliant and offered around drinks. The problems were definitely not of their making, but from problems at O2 corporate.

I went back around 4pm because my old 2G SIM didn't work in my (now charged) iPhone and had to get a 3G SIM. The number transferred over about 3 hours later. The store staff were dealing with a large number of people who were still trying to get iPhones.

They only had very few other enquiries that day - mostly people who thought the iPhone was too big for their pocket.

[pooped]

Originally Posted by solipsism

How many stores are there in Netherland that were selling iPhones today? How many iPhones did the other 21 countries receive?

Considering that Nokia is from there and has it's own fan base, I wonder if that country isn't one of the lowest for an average iPhone per store.

ehrm...
last time I checked Nokia was from Finland, not the Netherlands.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia

all the papers here reported the before mentioned 10/20 phones per shop, depending on the size of the city. and t-mobile really doesn't have that much outlets. and believe me, everybody was waiting for it, it is not (as implied) a conservative situation where people stick to their brands. in fact: over the last 6 months I have seen more stores sell unlocked imported iPhones here, than there are t-mobile stores in amsterdam.

and I find it weird that some reactions here are so condescending towards the european comments on this board, and the world market in general. (especially csimmons' remark of: "I'm sorry, but WHO ARE YOU and WHY SHOULD WE CARE?")
get your head out of your ar*se, america is not the capital of the world, it doesn't even come close.
the only thing it is great in is egos and ignorance.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by pooped

ehrm...
last time I checked Nokia was from Finland, not the Netherlands.

Mea culpa.

the only thing it is great in is egos and ignorance.

Judging by your statement, you are or could be an American.

[pooped]

Originally Posted by solipsism

Judging by your statement, you are or could be an American.

I was neither saying anything that would suggest I was better or more important than others, nor was I ignorant in the things I said, but maybe I was generalizing a bit, yes.
it was just a reaction to what felt like a last drop after reading so much from people on this forum recently about iPhone functionality that wasn't necessary because there is hardly a use for it in the states, combined with some other stuff that was all put in such a way as if product development from apple for functions that had no place in the american market were all useless, for any apple product.

[Charel]

I ordered a 16GB iPhone via the internet shop of TMobile yesterday and was informed that delivery delays were 6 weeks. So the thought that both the supply was hugely inadequate and the demand far greater than anticipated in the Netherlands must be correct.

I am a firm believer that Apple does not take the European market seriously enough. They could do much better here if they put some effort into it.

[SwissMac2]

Originally Posted by Charel

I am a firm believer that Apple does not take the European market seriously enough. They could do much better here if they put some effort into it.

I think it is more a case that they don't actually understand Europeans. I mean, there's even on this thread an example of someone who can't tell the difference between The Netherlands and Finland. Not surprising when so few US schools teach World Geography any more.

Apple tried to force a US model of mobile/cell phone use onto the UK and launched with a single provider on an exclusive deal that prevented large numbers of people from applying because O2 simply does not cover all populated areas in the UK. Small wonder loads of people hacked the iPhone then. Europeans are used to having freedom of choice.

On top of that they launched with an out of date v1 iPhone that only had a brilliant user interface going for it. If they built sales expectations for iPhone 3G on top of past demand, then no wonder they got caught out.

With iPhone 3g Apple have made significant improvements (although there is still plenty of room for more) and the demand showed that.

Sometimes Apple is too US centric. Or should that be - too deaf to what Europeans are telling them because as always, as Americans they think they know best?

[Charel]

Originally Posted by SwissMac2

I think it is more a case that they don't actually understand Europeans. I mean, there's even on this thread an example of someone who can't tell the difference between The Netherlands and Finland. Not surprising when so few US schools teach World Geography any more.

Apple tried to force a US model of mobile/cell phone use onto the UK and launched with a single provider on an exclusive deal that prevented large numbers of people from applying because O2 simply does not cover all populated areas in the UK. Small wonder loads of people hacked the iPhone then. Europeans are used to having freedom of choice.

On top of that they launched with an out of date v1 iPhone that only had a brilliant user interface going for it. If they built sales expectations for iPhone 3G on top of past demand, then no wonder they got caught out.

With iPhone 3g Apple have made significant improvements (although there is still plenty of room for more) and the demand showed that.

Sometimes Apple is too US centric. Or should that be - too deaf to what Europeans are telling them because as always, as Americans they think they know best?

Maybe they should poach a marketing/sales genius from an EU multinational to teach them how to market in Europe. They surely could afford it. I wonder if they realize that the European market is as big as the US market, yet they hardly make a dent here.

[Dick Applebaum]

Originally Posted by Charel

Maybe they should poach a marketing/sales genius from an EU multinational to teach them how to market in Europe. They surely could afford it. I wonder if they realize that the European market is as big as the US market, yet they hardly make a dent here.

Mmmm... Do da name Ruby Begonia ( Jean-Louis Gassée and Mike Spindler ) strike a familiar note?

[jodyfanning]

Come on, saying Europe sold out based on what happened in Switzerland is a total joke.

I haven't seen reports from any other country in Europe yet, but at least here in Finland it was a total non-event.

http://www.hs.fi/talous/artikkeli/iP...799285?ref=rss

And for those who can't read Finnish, the article points out that most of those in the picture were only there for the free music and didn't even know what was going on.

The Finnish TV media called the iPhone over-priced and old technology wrapped in a new package. Probably a bit harsh, but not a total exaggeration.

Hopefully Apple will figure out the European market sometime, but I have to wonder if they can survive a price war with Nokia. No one else ever has.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by jodyfanning

The Finnish TV media called the iPhone over-priced and old technology wrapped in a new package. Probably a bit harsh, but not a total exaggeration.

Hopefully Apple will figure out the European market sometime, but I have to wonder if they can survive a price war with Nokia. No one else ever has.

Sapporobaby also commented about the non-event in Finland, but that was somewhat expected. After all, that is Nokia's home court. The Finnish launch seemed a bit odd to me, they had to know the response would not be great. Then I noticed that Sonera also launched the iPhone yesterday in Denmark, Sweden and Norway. The only other country they are in is Latvia, but they have just under a 50% stake so perhaps there is a reason there.

As for the TV media, the comment is backwards. The packaging is almost identical to the first, especially if looking at only the face. It's the inclusion of GPS and 3G and v2.0 (aka new technology) that is the major different over the old one. Now, if they are comparing to Nokia, then it's also incorrect as that is current technology.If they are nit-picking about the camera, they have a case there but to base a whole assessment of a MID/cellphone on the camera is still stretching it.

Remember, this is Apple's second attempt at a cell phone and it's only been 12 months since the first one was released. I think Apple the App Store and OS X are going to the powerhouse for the iPhone, but Nokia knows this, and they have started taking steps improve that aspect of their devices. Whether you want an iPhone or not, its presence is good for all users, which include Finns with Nokias.

Apple typically doesn't care about price wars, unless it's based on their predicted sales. For example, for the last several years SanDisk has lowered teh price of it's PMPs by a sold 40% for the holiday season, which give them a huge cut of the market for the quarter, but Apple never competes with that as unit sales mean nothing if there are no profits.

[nvidia2008]

Originally Posted by addabox

Feedback from my ass says otherwise.

This is by far the BEST iPhone-related post I have read in the past few months. If I wasn't focusing carefully on drinking my tea I would be on the floor rolling over and coughing my lungs up in laughter.

[nvidia2008]

Let's face it, Europe = iPhone 3G all finished. What else need be said? I will be calling up several Italian retailers and post my findings back here.

[nvidia2008]

Europe (that includes UK) iPhone 3G sales = epic win.
Europe (that includes UK) iPhone 3G activation day one = epic fail.

Chance that 25 million iPhone 3Gs will be sold by December 31 2008 = very bloody high.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by nvidia2008

iPhone 3G sales = epic win.
iPhone 3G activation day one = epic fail.

Chance that 25 million iPhone 3Gs will be sold by December 31 2008 = very bloody high.

That estimate is even high for me. I wonder how many were sold yesterday? I bought one yesterday, but have to wait for AT&T to get the product in store. I'll be going by an Apple Store tomorrow so I'll see if they still have stock as I pass by, but I'm okay with waiting.

[nvidia2008]

Originally Posted by nvidia2008

Let's face it, Europe = iPhone 3G all finished. What else need be said? I will be calling up several Italian retailers and post my findings back here.

This will take some time. Maybe a few bloody days. Hopefully it means nobody there has really bothered to buy or sell an iPhone 3G so I can go and get a prepaid one there.

http://www.slowtrav.com/valerie/ital...ning_hours.htm

[nvidia2008]

Originally Posted by solipsism

That estimate is even high for me. I wonder how many were sold yesterday? I bought one yesterday, but have to wait for AT&T to get the product in store. I'll be going by an Apple Store tomorrow so I'll see if they still have stock as I pass by, but I'm okay with waiting.

I think it all depends how many iPhone 3Gs can Apple sustainably produce. As we can see from July 11 (a day that will go down in (Apple) infamy...!!!) Apple can sell 30-50 million phones in 5 months if it wants to. But the company would be in turmoil for years to come trying to manage all the chaos.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by nvidia2008

I think it all depends how many iPhone 3Gs can Apple sustainably produce. As we can see from July 11 (a day that will go down in (Apple) infamy...!!!) Apple can sell 30-50 million phones in 5 months if it wants to. But the company would be in turmoil for years to come trying to manage all the chaos.

I'm curious about the numbers for Friday worldwide. I can see 2M units being sold, which include people like me that paid on Friday but are still waiting for their product.

[SwissMac2]

Originally Posted by jodyfanning

Come on, saying Europe sold out based on what happened in Switzerland is a total joke. I haven't seen reports from any other country in Europe yet, but at least here in Finland it was a total non-event. Hopefully Apple will figure out the European market sometime, but I have to wonder if they can survive a price war with Nokia. No one else ever has.

You didn't look far before belittling the first eye witness report did you - what do you prefer, to believe Nokia influenced propaganda? After all, Nokia does represent over 50% of the Finnish stock market. You really don't have to look far to find reports from the larger EU countries such as Germany that also sold out pretty quickly. The UK too.

As for a price war, Apple don't do price wars. They aim at premium markets and settle for high profits from lower volumes from high end products and get economies of scale by using the same components in many designs. Just look at the computer market - Microsoft has 90% market share but only twice the cash mountain as Apple, and as PC users are so used to saying, Apple only has a 3% market share (7% in the US). Apple also has no huge court cases in progress with steadily growing fines to pay for monopolistic practices.

Naturally, as a Finnish person you are patriotically supporting your only National world brand, and that's only right that you should. But I suspect there is also a little bit of envy in there too because you can see the iPhone is far more advanced than anything Nokia offers and is therefore a threat to the Finnish identity.

To paraphrase George Bernard Shaw, patriotism means that you support the country in which you were born (and everything that was made in it) because you were born in it.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by SwissMac2

But I suspect there is also a little bit of envy in there too because you can see the iPhone is far more advanced than anything Nokia offers and is therefore a threat to the Finnish identity.

I agree with your post, but that sentence should be qualified to refer to the iPhone's software as being far more advanced. To Nokia's credit, they have admitted to being behind on that aspect and invested a lot into addressing it.

[jodyfanning]

Originally Posted by SwissMac2

You didn't look far before belittling the first eye witness report did you - what do you prefer, to believe Nokia influenced propaganda? After all, Nokia does represent over 50% of the Finnish stock market. You really don't have to look far to find reports from the larger EU countries such as Germany that also sold out pretty quickly. The UK too.

As for a price war, Apple don't do price wars. They aim at premium markets and settle for high profits from lower volumes from high end products and get economies of scale by using the same components in many designs. Just look at the computer market - Microsoft has 90% market share but only twice the cash mountain as Apple, and as PC users are so used to saying, Apple only has a 3% market share (7% in the US). Apple also has no huge court cases in progress with steadily growing fines to pay for monopolistic practices.

Naturally, as a Finnish person you are patriotically supporting your only National world brand, and that's only right that you should. But I suspect there is also a little bit of envy in there too because you can see the iPhone is far more advanced than anything Nokia offers and is therefore a threat to the Finnish identity.

To paraphrase George Bernard Shaw, patriotism means that you support the country in which you were born (and everything that was made in it) because you were born in it.

Heh, I wasn't born in Finland. And that is an ad hominem argument.

But anyway, of course they sold out in Germany, because they didn't have any phones to sell! It was the same everywhere else as well. Stocks were extremely limited everywhere. So it is pointless to crow about sales until after a few weeks or months when they actually have enough time to produce them.

And I know Apple tries to market itself (in most cases) as a premium brand and they will probably never achieve (nor want to) high percentages in any market. But it is extremely funny to me to watch everyone talking as though they will take over the mobile industry. Maybe they will, but only in a small niche. I have a house full of Apple products, but you guys really need to get a grip on reality. Anyway the comparison with Microsoft is pointless. The mobile market is an entirely different kettle of fish.

Technology wise, there is absolutely nothing about the iPhone that is new apart from the user interface. Most of the technological features of the iPhone are several years behind the market leaders. It even uses standard, off the shelf, components! So don't tell me that it is anything remarkable about it . I'm interested to see what they will do with their recent purchase of the chip design company though.

Still, Apple's biggest danger is that good enough bets the best. You do realize that Nokia is the largest manufacturer in the world of digital cameras, digital music players, and soon GPS devices?

[brlawyer]

Originally Posted by jodyfanning

Heh, I wasn't born in Finland. And that is an ad hominem argument.

But anyway, of course they sold out in Germany, because they didn't have any phones to sell! It was the same everywhere else as well. Stocks were extremely limited everywhere. So it is pointless to crow about sales until after a few weeks or months when they actually have enough time to produce them.

And I know Apple tries to market itself (in most cases) as a premium brand and they will probably never achieve (nor want to) high percentages in any market. But it is extremely funny to me to watch everyone talking as though they will take over the mobile industry. Maybe they will, but only in a small niche. I have a house full of Apple products, but you guys really need to get a grip on reality. Anyway the comparison with Microsoft is pointless. The mobile market is an entirely different kettle of fish.

Technology wise, there is absolutely nothing about the iPhone that is new apart from the user interface. Most of the technological features of the iPhone are several years behind the market leaders. It even uses standard, off the shelf, components! So don't tell me that it is anything remarkable about it . I'm interested to see what they will do with their recent purchase of the chip design company though.

Still, Apple's biggest danger is that good enough bets the best. You do realize that Nokia is the largest manufacturer in the world of digital cameras, digital music players, and soon GPS devices?

It's pretty funny to see such comments when living and working in Switzerland...the fact is: the iPhone sold out in ALL Swiss outlets, period. And this in a country where pretty much every "advanced" phone is available as well, and where people normally don't care about new products.

As for Nokia, they have dropped the ball a long time ago, and none of its products gets even close to the iPhone in terms of friendliness, features and UI. Yes, I am talking about an EASY way to use those features...not just to brag that your phone has a "browser", is 3G or handles email in a "easy" way.

The iPhone is the FIRST to do that, and that's why it's blowing every competitor out of the water. As for being "behind any other competitor", your comment can only be seen as a joke. Macs are better not because they use the latest XPD4560 chip out there...it's because they WORK in a seamless way to ordinary users.

Face it, patriotism or no patriotism: Nokia was great and one of the pioneers in the field (I even visited its nice headquarters when studying in Sweden); but its offerings are pretty pathetic when compared with even the FIRST phone product from Apple.

THIS is a result of sleeping on its laurels, and presuming others would not catch up.

[jodyfanning]

Originally Posted by brlawyer

The iPhone is the FIRST to do that, and that's why it's blowing every competitor out of the water. As for being "behind any other competitor", your comment can only be seen as a joke. Macs are better not because they use the latest XPD4560 chip out there...it's because they WORK in a seamless way to ordinary users.

Now that is funny . I was just using my Intel iMac and the Dock froze. Then it wouldn't connect to our Linux server. Finder just got stuck trying. Then I decided screw that, I'll just update to 10.5.4 and the latest iTunes/Quicktime. Then when it rebooted afterwards it got stuck with only the wallpaper showing. It was only after I forced another reboot it finally decided it would work properly.

Don't assume everyone who criticizes Apple doesn't know what they are talking about.

[Charel]

Originally Posted by jodyfanning

Now that is funny . I was just using my Intel iMac and the Dock froze. Then it wouldn't connect to our Linux server. Finder just got stuck trying. Then I decided screw that, I'll just update to 10.5.4 and the latest iTunes/Quicktime. Then when it rebooted afterwards it got stuck with only the wallpaper showing. It was only after I forced another reboot it finally decided it would work properly.

Don't assume everyone who criticizes Apple doesn't know what they are talking about.

Oh dear, you'd better switch to Vista.

[jodyfanning]

Originally Posted by Charel

Oh dear, you'd better switch to Vista.

No point, my XP box is rock solid. And also, the bluetooth Mighty Mouse connected to that iMac just stopped accepting clicks as well.

Oh, by the way, my brother (who is also not Finnish) is in Basel right now, and has been for several days. He said the phone shops were all empty.

[mrochester]

It might only have been one Carphone Warehouse shop out of many thousands, but the sales woman I spoke to had only one iPhone left out of about 16. I asked her how the lauch had been in comparison to iPhone v1 and she said that it had been massively more successful than first time round, and that the reason for this was the price.

It's impossible to say whether the strong first day sales of the iPhone 3G are down to the new technology it incorporates, or the price. My gut feeling tells me it was the price. Afterall, the Nokia 6300, which completely lacks 3G, wifi and GPS, was the best seller of 2007 in the UK. It didn't have the high tech specs, but it did have a cheap price.