Apple's COO Timothy Cook poured a little more salt in the wounds of handset makers tired of hearing about the iPhone: Cook told attendees at a recent Las Vegas conference: "A lot of people pay zero for their cell phone. Guess why? That's what it's worth." Dem's fightin' words. Cook went on: "If we offer something that has tremendous value, that is sort of this thing people didn't have in their consciousness--it was not imaginable--then I think there's a whole bunch of people that will pay $499, $599." Cook is, of course, referencing the company's iPod product there.
Morgan Stanley analyst Kathrynn Huberty believes that Wall Street is underestimating the impact iPhone sales will have on the marketplace. The analyst also pointed to results from a recent report: 19 percent of survey respondents either currently own or plan to purchase a high-end device in the next year, and that number compares to 23 percent of respondents who said they are either extremely or somewhat interested in purchasing an iPhone in the 12 months following its release.
For more on the iPhone:
- see this WirelessWeek article on Cook's remarks
- check out this report from ipodnn on Huberty's analysis