editor said:
The MP3 market is entirely different to that of the phone. The MP3 market was still relatively new when the iPod was launched..
Granted the MP3 market was relatively new - but the markets do have one thing in common - mobility. That's the key driver for both, and the mobile phone is inevitably part of the future of the MP3 (now digital media) market.
So what Apple has done is attempt to meet future - not current - expectations. And set a new bar for what people expect from such a device. Right now they are gathering feedback, and at least some of the features currently described as 'missing' will appear by the time it ships. And in any case, they are preparing a V2 model, probably for Europe, or so it seems.
You see, by meeting future expectations, that's how Apple answers the prevailing market drivers - by setting up new ones.
editor said:
The mass market expect new phones to be free with their contracts, with the networks subsiding the entire cost. People usually change phones for free after a year.
OK, so that's the mass market; but the mass market is to appeal to the dictatorship of the average. Apple isn't expecting to recreate iPod success in this market - total dominance - but is aiming to take a slice - and that slice isn't the mass market. 10 million sales is a considerable slice of cash to Apple's bottom line, more than enough to justify future innnovations in the category (if you ask me, they have numerous development options available using existing technologies - this time next year? There will be even more.
Meanwhile, existing makers must create their own software solutions to match iPhone's features; *sure, there are features iPhone isn't offering - yet*. They do this in-house, or they use Microsoft software. It took Redmond years to convince mobile telcos to work with Windows - the telcos had wached Microsoft's actions in computing, and didn't want their market to be in thrall to a proven monopolist, which Microsoft is. So that relationship isn't that strong.
editor said:
All this is completely different to Apple entering a mature mobile market with a relatively expensive upmarket handset limited to one network.
That's not to say that the iPhone won't be a success, but comparing its launch to the iPod is somewhat erroneous IMO.
So you mean erroneous in terms of future sales? The target sales are higher than those originally aimed for with the iPod - so, in a sense, the iPhone is a bigger deal.
As per the one network thing - that's in the US, Apple can, if it wishes, employ a different go to market strategy in each country. In the UK market it makes sense to deal with multiple partners. The US price, incidentlly, reflects a market in which the subsidies on handsets have been slimmer than those that exist in Europe. But the US is also a market which is only recently emerging as significant - US was slow to the mobile party, so there's plenty of potential upside in the US market for handset vendors, and CE spend in that country is higher than in others (partially cos groceries and petrol are cheaper there).
In the UK, Apple will probably cock it up, though, coming to market with a phone carrying little subsidy that's linked to just one network, so the impact here, once the oohs and aahs have gone by, the impact may be less significant than in the US, but certainly there's a lot of people here looking at the device who will buy one the minute it ships.
Nokia, Palm and RIM do have to answer back by then, so whatever brand you prefer, the good news is that the future is one in which manufacturers are forced to do a better job, offering better products.
