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I couldn’t resist a little April Foolery, however, the news is not entirely false. Apple is set to be releasing a new version of the iPhone in the second quarter of this year. What will iPhoners get with the 2.0? Faster wireless Internet connectivity is going to be the name of the game. Jobs and company are aiming to boost the lackluster speeds in the new model.
I am also betting that they are going to be doing a little bit more with this new release. If you think about it logically, market saturation for the iPhone 1.0 is high. Releasing the same phone with faster connectivity would not make very many owners want to upgrade. The original iPhone has been out for a while; long enough for some people to contemplate an upgrade. If they tweak the appearance a little that might be enough to get a few people to purchase their second iPhone. I am banking on a slight makeover and a few new applications to go with the upgraded speed.
This speculation is, of course, just my opinion, but what do you think?
Source: Reuters, Gadgeteer (image)
Tags: Apple, cell-phone, iphone, Op-Ed
3 responses
Mar 29, 2008 at 9:56 am
Don’t know about market saturation being high. Apple is not even close in saturating the market. Enterprise has barely adopted iPhone. With Exchange support, enterprise adoption will start off slow in the beginning and pick up steam if Apple drops the price or offer some form of corporate discount. Many of the early adopters are Apple and iPod fanboys but there are many others who are waiting for the faster speeds since the annoucement in January 2007 that the first iPhones use Edge. Apple doesn’t really need to redesign the phone, as long as they add 3G, this group of users will buy it. There are also people with old phones (not necessarily iPhones) who are looking at option of upgrading to iPhones when their contract is up with their current carrier. Statistics show that smartphone users are on the rise and the market is still in its fledgling stages. So the new iPhone will also attract these consumers. Another group it will spark sales is foreign countries. iPhones may not sell like hotcakes in some foreign countries but it may perform really well in Japan, a market that really loves Apple products. South Korea, Canada, and China have yet to gone live with iPhones. So there are still many potential markets out there. The new iPhones are not about attracting existing iPhone users but they are about attracting users who are thinking about getting an iPhone for their new phone but have been restricted by a hurdle or two such as - exchange support, 3G, existing carrier contracts, and international availability.
Now regarding the question whether existing iPhone users would upgrade to new iPhones: all phones are still less than a year old. Most unlocked phones can sell easily over 400~450 bucks on eBay. So I don’t see upgrading to a new iPhone as paying an early adopter premium of $400. People can still sell it online and get most of their money back. So they are not really paying that much extra for a new iPhone. If that happens, I really don’t see Apple having a problem of make existing users switch to newer iPhones without a redesign as long as they add 3G and a better camera on there. The only roadblock I can see is how much a 3G AT&T contract would cost per month. I imagine AT&T would charge more per month for 3G usage. Edge users will continue paying $20 for data. I predict a $30 monthly charge for 3G.
Mar 29, 2008 at 11:28 am
Agreed…it will take more than 3G for me to buy a new phone. The Edge network really isn’t that bad (over 200 kbps), and many of the sites I visit (Digg, Facebook, Amazon) have created iPhone optimized sites.
To Chuck, I doubt that you’ll be able to get anywhere near $400 on eBay for your Edge iPhone once the 3G ones come out.
Apr 21, 2008 at 7:09 am
Apple iPhone 3G to be released| JUNE 2008
*** CHECK ***
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTg_tN4pscQ
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