Stated goals I've seen are 10 million by the end of 2008. Still a long time from now but even then I'm wondering if they can make it. Sure, there are plenty of early adopters like myself that love our iPhones, but to hit the millions target they will need a lot more than us.
They are being fairly tight-lipped about future plans, but I'm starting to wonder what (and who) their target audience truly is, and will be down the road. Business users? iPod/entertainment users? Anyone who uses a phone? It seems to me they are going to need to focus their marketing and sales efforts, as well as application and software updates, to make a strong push into the market. Or perhaps they can find a way to take advantage of the unique interface to do things other devices simply can't. Otherwise they may have to settle for being nothing more than a niche product. I realize it's only been a month and early in the game, but still it would be nice to get an idea of what the game plan is. Word of mouth from we early adopters may be a critical element for ongoing success, so it seems to me Apple would be smart to make sure we continue to sing their praises and show our phones off at every opportunity.
The major roadblocks for the masses presently are of course the entry price and the single carrier (i.e. forcing people to cancel present service and take the penalty). I'm guessing they'll lower the price maybe $100 by next year. They can probably do some significant holiday sales with a lower price and counting on a lot of people's contracts having run out. $300 and no penalty is much easier to swallow than $499+$175, especially when compared to a high end iPod or nano. Even with that, 10 million could be tough to do.
The rumored "nano-iphone" might be the bridge to achieve the numbers. I could definitely see a $100 phone+iPod combo being a huge seller. But of course that wouldn't be the "real" complete iPhone.
They are being fairly tight-lipped about future plans, but I'm starting to wonder what (and who) their target audience truly is, and will be down the road. Business users? iPod/entertainment users? Anyone who uses a phone? It seems to me they are going to need to focus their marketing and sales efforts, as well as application and software updates, to make a strong push into the market. Or perhaps they can find a way to take advantage of the unique interface to do things other devices simply can't. Otherwise they may have to settle for being nothing more than a niche product. I realize it's only been a month and early in the game, but still it would be nice to get an idea of what the game plan is. Word of mouth from we early adopters may be a critical element for ongoing success, so it seems to me Apple would be smart to make sure we continue to sing their praises and show our phones off at every opportunity.
The major roadblocks for the masses presently are of course the entry price and the single carrier (i.e. forcing people to cancel present service and take the penalty). I'm guessing they'll lower the price maybe $100 by next year. They can probably do some significant holiday sales with a lower price and counting on a lot of people's contracts having run out. $300 and no penalty is much easier to swallow than $499+$175, especially when compared to a high end iPod or nano. Even with that, 10 million could be tough to do.
The rumored "nano-iphone" might be the bridge to achieve the numbers. I could definitely see a $100 phone+iPod combo being a huge seller. But of course that wouldn't be the "real" complete iPhone.