Before we honor that millionth customer, make sure he didn’t buy the hack, too
After navigating over some rough territory last week (see “Apple gift horse gets grueling dental exam“), Apple’s iPhone began this week by cruising past two major mileposts. Just 74 days after its introduction, Apple announced, the one millionth iPhone was sold Sunday. “One million iPhones in 74 days,” crowed CEO Steve Jobs in a news release. “It took almost two years to achieve this milestone with iPod. We can’t wait to get this revolutionary product into the hands of even more customers this holiday season.”
Jobs was referring to the boost he hopes to see from last week’s big price cut, but the other milepost could also put the iPhone into a lot more hands. Just 74 days after the iPhone’s introduction, the first commercial hack to untether it from AT&T’s system went on sale. The folks at iphoneSimFree are taking orders for their software-only, 5-minute unlocking hack, which, according to reliable reviewers, allows the iPhone to be used with other compatible carriers while retaining virtually all of its features (see “Software key turns iPhone into myPhone“). The hack is priced at $99 (though you may want to hold off for a little bit; seems deliveries have not actually commenced yet). Personally, I just want to see the expressions on the faces of the iphoneSimFree hackers when other hackers hack their hack and distribute it for free.
Meantime, in other Apple telephony news, BusinessWeek has sources who tell it that Apple could be interested in joining the next wireless spectrum auction — the same one Google has been eyeing (see “Relax, Sergey, I’m sure the chefs can make something of half a loaf“). The idea of cutting loose any dependence on the phone companies would have understandable appeal in Cupertino, but cool heads are likely to keep Apple from getting too far away from its core strengths.
Let’s put that in perspective. Apple sold one million phones in 74 days. In Q4/06, other vendors sold 295 million cell phones (www.cellular-news.com/story/21622.php). Apple isn’t even close to half of 1% yet. It’s just marketing hype.
Lets put those numbers in perspective, Andreas. That’s one country vs. The Whole of the World. That’s perspective.
Stick to manipulating AdWords, Andreas.
Are you seriously going to try to compare 74 days of Apple sales in the U.S. against 91 days of sales in the entire world and call Apple a failure because they’re still under their one-year sales goal?
The global cell market is 2.7b. China has 550m cell phones (twice the USA). India adds 6m cell phones monthly and is expected to pass 500m subscribers by 2010. The USA will never have 500m subscribers (total US pop. is 300m).
Markle and Hunh appear to suggest Apple should be satisfied to stay only in the USA. Can Apple be successful in the small (30m phones in Q3/06) US market? US consumers pay avg $93 for a cell phone; 36% get their phone for free. A new cell phone must come close to those numbers to sell in meaningful numbers, otherwise it stays in a niche market.
Andreas,
What’s the worldwide market for 3G, high-end cell phones providing the kind of service the iphone offers. That, I assume would include the blackberry phones?
Sure, narrow down the definition until you get the number you want. What’s the global market for cell phones by companies that start with the letter A? Wow! The iPhone has 100% marketshare! Steve Jobs did it again! What a guy!
C’mon Andreas… you’re simply not being reasonable. I’m from Australia, and I’ve bought an iPhone through eBay - so at least one of those 1 million iPhones does not reside in the USA. Let’s be realistic, there are plenty of people out there who want to buy an iPhone, and now that the new FREE software unlock has arrived (which I installed SUCCESSFULLY last night) - sales are only going to continue going UP. Of course, if Apple does release a 16GB 3G iPhone in Europe later this year, sales will only go higher still!
What would be really interesting to know is how many iPhone accounts AT&T have signed up. You can be certain it is not 1 million accounts!
Anyway, at least you’re right about one thing - when it comes to cell phone makers whose name starts with A, there is only one, and they have a 100% market share of that particular market. Aren’t you a clever boy, Andreas?