Analyst: iPhone is Harry Potter "squib" of cellphones

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  • Reply 21 of 106
    technotechno Posts: 737member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by domerdel View Post


    it's just a rare situation for apple, where we're used to them being ahead of us, but unfortunately, we as consumers, are ahead of the iPhone.



    The iPhone, in my opinion is great, but it missed some really really simple implementations of what a cell phone can do (IM chat, 3rd party apps, video and picture messaging, etc).



    NAND flash memory (or whatever they're using in the iPhone) is just too early to adopt in cell phones... I know when you add all the compononents it's priced fair to be $499-599.. but the general target market of the audience is more alone the lines of $299.



    It is a goal of mine to lean more towards Apple products, replace my old gadgets with new Apple toys.. unfortunately, my cell phone will have to wait til 2010. Verizon is a great network, but they sell crapcastic phones... thus re-naming them to Craprizon or JankRizon



    You are not seeing the big picture. This is the first release that is designed to capture the die hards who will sit in line over night. The next release will be for the general market. It will have a few less features and be more of a phone/ipod and less of a smart phone.
  • Reply 22 of 106
    Capital Group senior VP Ashok Kumar is a squib of an analyst.
  • Reply 23 of 106
    fraklincfraklinc Posts: 244member
    as i iphone owner i can tell you iphone is not perfect, and i have seen a couple of things i dont like about it

    but, for it to be a iphone 1.0 i can say its a really nice phone, and theres no way in hell am goin back to my old treo 750
  • Reply 24 of 106
    bacillusbacillus Posts: 313member
    This is Apples game to lose. They have delivered a fairly crippled device at a premium price point. If we do not see more features by version 1.2, such as Bluetooth support on par with other high end phones, audio recording, copy and paste, more customization, etc… then it very well might go down as a failure.





    So far most are willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, and attribute the lack of features due to the OS being a version 1.0 (less code = less things to go wrong). However, if they don't step up their game, they will get their ass handed to them in the long run.
  • Reply 25 of 106
    The guy uses a horrible example in the Razr V3, but he does have a point. With a two-year contract from just about anybody, you can get a pretty nice phone - a good Sony Erricson music phone or a Blackberry Pearl - for almost nothing and then a 4 gig memory card for $50. I'm a Mac fan, so you don't need to point out how much more advanced the iPhone is, but that adds up to a pretty hefty premium for something with similar functionality. With that kind of premium, I can't realistically imagine buying one until the price comes down into the $300 ballpark
  • Reply 26 of 106
    reboylinreboylin Posts: 11member
    I noticed all the bashers never compare total cost: phone + contract. Over the two year contract comparable smart phones cost the same while delivering less. Initial price comparisons are lame when the service provider subsidizes the competitor's price while charging higher priced services to the customer.
  • Reply 27 of 106
    hobbeshobbes Posts: 1,252member
    One word: wow.
  • Reply 28 of 106
    nicky gnicky g Posts: 20member
    See, people are making the same mistake with iPhone as they did with iPod. They compare a list of features on a piece of paper, and say "but product x has more features and is the same price or cheaper, so iWhatever will not be a success!"



    But they are wrong, aren't they? Because iPhone is PLEASANT and FUN to USE! I love my iPhone, way more than any consumer electronics device I've owned before. It is a JOY to use, it works like a phone SHOULD. It does other nifty things too, and does them pretty darned well. It is WELL-DESIGNED, and this IN AND OF ITSELF is a feature that people will pay a premium for.



    But it's OK -- I will sit back and laugh as my AAPL continues to go up, Apple takes over more and more of the portable media player/communicator market, and consumers have more opportunities to use well-designed products that don't insult their intelligence or sense of taste/design. People KNOW what well-designed products are, and maybe the geeks of the world will support something based on its spec-sheet, but the rest of us will use what we think is designed the best.



    And geez, to base any prediction of Apple's future success in this market on Rev 1 of the product -- give me a break. Let's review of those old iPod threads/analysis, shall we? NOBODY thought it would succeed. And guess what -- they sold WAY FEWER iPods at first than they are selling iPhones.



    I think Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola, and Samsung et al. have a lot to be worried about. How could a company with NO cellphone design experience BLOW THEM AWAY design-wise in their VERY FIRST TRY? It's unheard of, but this is what Apple excels at.
  • Reply 29 of 106
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Bacillus View Post


    This is Apples game to lose. They have delivered a fairly crippled device at a premium price point. If we do not see more features by version 1.2, such as Bluetooth support on par with other high end phones, audio recording, copy and paste, more customization, etc? then it very well might go down as a failure.





    So far most are willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, and attribute the lack of features due to the OS being a version 1.0 (less code = less things to go wrong). However, if they don't step up their game, they will get their ass handed to them in the long run.



    Oh come on! Not too crippled and you are not taking into account that what you find lacking/don't like is not the way it will remain. I am constantly stunned by people's comments about Apple's "here and now" and their clear implication that that is how it will always be. Incredibly short-sighted vision.

    Apple, being Apple, eventually goes beyond the stars that others barely reach. Does it take time and a few revisions? YES! So what?

    Even if only some of YOUR "must haves"-- or, even NONE of them--come true, this phone is, and will be a hit. Sorry mate that you see things in this black-and-white, "must be what 'I' want mode- but this phone does NOT have to meet your requirements to be a success. Why? Because it is already despite the sad lamentations of an erstwhile analyst who has no idea of what 'vision' is and who would not see the words, stunning, superior, clever, intuitive, needed, in any product Apple makes. From his uneducated position, he would, by necessity protect himself by saying the right things-- the iPod is great, OS X is good etc-- but would not understand a word he said in the context of having a clear understanding of Apple's modus operandi.
  • Reply 30 of 106
    pomopomo Posts: 51member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ericjames View Post


    The guy uses a horrible example in the Razr V3, but he does have a point. With a two-year contract from just about anybody, you can get a pretty nice phone - a good Sony Erricson music phone or a Blackberry Pearl - for almost nothing and then a 4 gig memory card for $50. I'm a Mac fan, so you don't need to point out how much more advanced the iPhone is, but that adds up to a pretty hefty premium for something with similar functionality. With that kind of premium, I can't realistically imagine buying one until the price comes down into the $300 ballpark



    That's the thing, you don't get a pretty nice phone. Quite frankly, phones in the US are quite mediocre. Once I bought the iPhone, dude, my wife dumped her yunkie cell phone in a heartbeat to buy one. Seriously, it might seem somewhat expensive, but its sooooo worth it.
  • Reply 31 of 106
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by fraklinc View Post


    Its like some of these guys hate it so much they have nightmares of it,

    Dam, if you hate it that much dont even talk about it, do anyone remember the 5gb iPod

    it was price at around $499 and the 20gb around $599 and they sold

    millions of then, so I really dont see apple having a problem with the iPhone,

    unless att wires the entire us with 3G with a year which I find imposible to do

    so soon



  • Reply 32 of 106
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by steviet02 View Post


    Not really... The iPhone itself is $500-600, but the recurring costs @ a clip of $60+ a month is altogether different from an iPod. I think alot of you are forgetting that smart phones make up a very small portion of phone sales in the US, and as such most people see these price tags as a waste of money. Try getting a family of 4 who make average money to buy these, good luck with that... But I bet 2 or more in that family have an iPod or iPod nano. It's not just the price of the device, while it helps, the recurring costs are high for normal cell users.



    $60 a month a dirt cheap for a data package on a phone, I was very impressed with the monthly service fee on this, it isn't much more than my current phone, which just gives me basic service.



    Analysts need to remember also that when the first iPod came out it almost completely disappeared, Apple now sells more iPods in a 2 week period than the first iPod sold its first year.



    And yes 240,000 iPhones in 30 hours is pretty dang impressive, especially when selling a device that requires service activation, people don't normally jump on that this way.
  • Reply 33 of 106
    polar315polar315 Posts: 76member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by appletweak View Post


    Apparently references to 'iPhone analysis' is not enough to generate sufficient traffic for 'analysts' anymore, so throw in a few timely, misplaced remarks about Harry Potter and zippo to the top of search engine rankings! Success!



    BTW, it would sure be nice to have links to reports like these in the article, so I could spew my vitriol at the correct target, you know, if I were in to such things.



    Working those search engines. If only he could have somehow added the phrase "for free porn click here".
  • Reply 34 of 106
    anantksundaramanantksundaram Posts: 20,402member
    This guy is a senior VP?



    This kind of sophomoric, stream-of-conciousness analysis surely does not inspire a great deal of confidence in the "Capital Group."



  • Reply 35 of 106
    crees!crees! Posts: 501member
    Quote:

    the lackluster results for the iPhone are said to be traceable to mistakes made in the iPhone's features and pricing.



    "Most successful launch in AT&T's history" == lackluster Was he expecting also the announcement that aliens do exist?
  • Reply 36 of 106
    nvidia2008nvidia2008 Posts: 9,262member
    (Angry ranting rescinded)
  • Reply 37 of 106
    kooeekooee Posts: 1member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by reboylin View Post


    I noticed all the bashers never compare total cost: phone + contract. Over the two year contract comparable smart phones cost the same while delivering less. Initial price comparisons are lame when the service provider subsidizes the competitor's price while charging higher priced services to the customer.



    Agree, it's a shame more emphasis is not placed on 'life cycle costing' with not only the iPhone but for all computer users regardless of 'platform'.
  • Reply 38 of 106
    nvidia2008nvidia2008 Posts: 9,262member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by britwithgoodteeth View Post






    Nice.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by polar315 View Post


    Working those search engines. If only he could have somehow added the phrase "for free porn click here".



    Very naaaicce.
  • Reply 39 of 106
    nvidia2008nvidia2008 Posts: 9,262member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by crees! View Post


    "Most successful launch in AT&T's history" == lackluster Was he expecting also the announcement that aliens do exist?



    In which case the naysayers would say, *meh, they only can travel like 25,000 times the speed of light, I was expecting covering 1/5th of the universe in like 5 minutes*
  • Reply 40 of 106
    citycity Posts: 522member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    "The old iPod magic doesn't translate here -- the iPhone is going to be much more difficult," Kumar noted.



    The old Toyota magic doesn't translate here...the Lexus is going to be much more difficult.
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