Tough going for iPhone in Europe

I would have expected this. What great and needed service for their displaced and limited disposable income do Europeans get from an iPhone, "a more expensive way to make a phone call". Its not needs based. Its a push product, an expensive gadget to push connection carges - get ARPUs up by using more data. what needed services do you get on Data, what essential deatures to making a phone call we don't have on cheaper familiar mobile phones.

Apart from maybe Google Maps if you're mobile, you can get cheaper and better on your broadband at home.

The iPhone is much too expensive and really only affordable in a country with too much money. What compelling need does it fill in the mobile application context that ordinary phones don't for all that cash.

Not many users other than enterprise users who don't pay their own bills need data on the move that badly apart from the odd picture they don't save for sending on a fixed line or Bluetooth later for free. Data is MUCH too expensive to use for people on European wages.

Hope this marketing 101 helps Apple and Telcos.

Brian Catt
For more analysis call 01932 772731

I have a couple of comments,

- Americans have never understood the value of unlocked mobile devices. A simple question(comparison) to ask people and businesses would be; "Would you like to buy a laptop with built-in WiFi/WLAN but you can only get to internet through us?"

The obvious answer is no, the same stupid approach like Apple in the PC business has been used in USA by Dell, Sony and others where you have to specifically buy a specific laptop version to be able to use wireless internet access (3G-CDMA from Verizon, 3G-CDMA from Sprint and 3GHSPA/Edge from AT&T). So now you have spent the money on a nice new laptop and then you have to buy an external USB/PCcard if you neeed to use another mobile service provider.

- Secondly, there is always of course a trade off between price for a new device such as iPhone and openess, if the service providers have to subsidize they have to tie you to a contract but the iPhone device should always be unlocked. As a consumer I am not willing to spend a lot of money on an expensive device and be told that, fine as long as you use us as a service provider. For a cheap device, I can accept whatever restrictions but for a smart phone price no way. The device is mine. Buying a subsidized device can be compared to buying full price using a credit card, the bank trusts you through the credit card issuer, that you will pay what you owe eventually.

- Thirdly, to truly appreciate using an iPhone, you need as a consumer cheap broadband wireless data service. I don't care what Apple and Telcos do in the boardroom, I want real value as perceived by me. Apple managed to get OK data rates in USA by a special deal with AT&T (which also explains their exclusiveness in the USA market).

- Finally from a technical point of view, the iPhone is great, lack of 3G is a serious flaw though (in particular in USA with really slow... networks), the lack of the possibility to easily replace the battery is another design mistake, I understand Apple's reasoning but stil a mistake. From an UI point of view, my only complaint is if you are a heavy messaging user, getting up to speed with the iPhone keyboard is tough.

regards,
Thomas Lidforss
http://www.lidforss.com

I think the Edge connection could well be a factor. I use a service called Iphoneiquity to get past this and it works a treat. It compresses any website and formats it for the Iphone with a unique url that can be saved. I can then visit that site again if I am on Edge. Its lightening fast and makes the whole Edge experience much more bearable.

By the way the URL for IPhoneiquity is www.thesmespace.com/smeutils/iphoneiquity

Dear Brian, Apple really needs your expertise: it's a company with no marketing OR design savvy. Your analysis of the European wage-structure is also astoundingly illuminating.
Dear Thomas, the WiFi discourse is brilliant in its platitudinous analogizing. I am astounded by your incisive logic.
Yes, I really support the two of you to spend your money more wisely and not on an amazing little gem like the iPhone.
Cheers and much love,
Azazello

So... is anyone actually surprised by this?

Anyone?

Anyone?

Bueller?

Anyone?

Make that 3.8 and sold by both Apple AND AT&T.
Azazello

PS what is maddening about the sales-figures is that nobody really knows, but everybody opines (and, oh, those analysts! 'predicted at least eight of the three recessions of recent memory)

With all its US-style restrictions and lock-ins, the iPhone is simply too anti-consumer for most Europeans.