More mixed messages over the iPhone
Rating: It’s useless in Germany but I’d
like to sell it to the Dutch. Eh?
By Tony Dennis
The established cellular industry’s
ambiguous attitude to Apple’s infamous iPhone has just been
exemplified by remarks made by a Dutch mobile operator, KPN’s Ad
Scheepbouwer. He described the device as "pretty useless",
then went on to say that he wasn’t averse to selling it in the
Netherlands where Apple has yet to select a unique partner.
Scheepbouwer was, of course, referring
to the iPhone’s impact in the German market where T-Mobile has
apparently sold a mere 70, 000 units.
That compares to around
700,000 new subscribers which KPN’s E-Plus German network signed up in the
last quarter. It also compares to the 20,000 or so iPhones per day
which Apple claims to be selling globally.
So the iPhone isn’t the big churn
inducer which many observers predicted. And how has Apple reacted?
Well, just days after its UK partner, O2, attempted to spur more
interest by juggling with its iPhone tariffs, Apple has put the price
up £60.
The justification is that the latest model sports an
extra 8GB of onboard storage. That’s hardly a bargain since you could
probably buy 8GB worth of memory cards for the same money.
All this doesn’t really matter because
it isn’t iPhone unit sales which is disrupting the cellular industry
– it’s the fact that it makes internet access so easy.
So while
most exhibitors at next week’s MWC, Barcelona won’t admit it, the
main motivation behind their product launches will be staving off the
iPhone threat.
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