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Not many casual iphone owners will upgrade--opinion

C

cjandnw

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 11, 2007
324
0
South Jersey
I know 4 people with iphones. None of them even knew there is pretty strong evidence a 3G version (Iphone 2 or whatever you wish to call it) is fast upon us. Further, none of them plan to upgrade. Two didn't even know what "3G" meant.

Anyone else have the same experiences?
I ask because I don't think there will be lines and hype as with the initial launch. This could change based on what happens when Steve announces the next gen phone and touts its capabilities of course.

Any thoughts?
 
I hardly use edge at the moment so unless there is something else to justify the upgrade then i probably will wait until my contract runs out and they offer me a free upgrade or something!
 
I am in a wait and see mode. The one I have works perfect and am afraid to loose what I have.

It will take a minimum of 3 major upgrades for me to change. 16g ok, 32 better; 3G Ok but not a requirement; Better Camera w/focus control or picture edit; a matte black finish and the silver bezel GONE and I will probably upgrade. If only one or two changes, will stay.
 
same here, my wife doesn't even know what 3G is, actually she doesnt even know what edge is! :)
 
I may upgrade once they've been out a while, but I really don't think existing US owners is their target market. This paves the way for widespread release in Europe and Asia, where 3G is much more prevalent and therefore much more necessary for a cell phone.
 
I wouldn't upgrade just for 3G, but it depends on what the other features are (a proper camera with a flash would be a bigger selling point).

Phazer
 
I won't upgrade because:

A. buying an iPhone here is too expensive
B. The price plans here are too expensive
C. The network i'm on (cheapest) doesn't do 3G :( (yet)
 
I will not wait in line again, however I will upgrade even if Firmware 2.0 and 3G are the only new features.

I just hope I can get at least $200 on Ebay for my current Day 1 8Gig.
 
cjandnw said:
I know 4 people with iphones. None of them even knew there is pretty strong evidence a 3G version (Iphone 2 or whatever you wish to call it) is fast upon us. Further, none of them plan to upgrade. Two didn't even know what "3G" meant.

Anyone else have the same experiences?
I ask because I don't think there will be lines and hype as with the initial launch. This could change based on what happens when Steve announces the next gen phone and touts its capabilities of course.

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...


n= 4 is not a large sample size
Jobs gets a *lot* of free publicity. There was a big furore over the iPhone when it came out - expect mainstream press to clamour over it - it's tech, it's new, it's Apple. They can do then and now pieces, what's new pieces, what they've changed. There's the whole preview and review market, and there's the low-brow soothsaying of predicting what it will bring in. Better articles will cover the SDK, and the possiblities of the SDK and the phone itself.


There will be lines, there will be hype. If you think there won't be, you're wrong. E.g. if there is limited availability on the first few days? Big rush to get them. Techcrunch, techmeme, gear, wired, engadget, gizmodo etc etc will be all over it. And that's excluding say in the UK The Times, guardian, independent for sure giving a headsup on it. The iPhone made front page news last time.
 
I will probably upgrade right away. Maybe wait at the most a few weeks. My wife will keep hers. She loves it, but I don't think she cares about 3G or the tech side of it. Plus she's more frugal than I am.

I'll probably pass my old phone down to a family member.
 
n=5 because i won't upgrade. why would i. the iphone is doing what i bought it for. would be a waste of money to upgrade. whatever additional functionality i need the sdk will bring. and internet is fast enough for my needs.

the only reason to upgrade would be a very good buy back deal from apple/att that makes the upgrade less than $50. and that won't happen.
 
I'll be kind of forced to upgrade since I'm moving to the UK in the fall and my US iPhone won't work with O2 over there. Perfect excuse to pick up a new one!
 
I think the OP is may be thinking primarily about the area that they lives in. There are new markets being opened up June onwards - say 1 in 3 aregoing to be international stores (the Earnings call has the exact figures). With such a high demand for iPhones unlocked through the grey markets, official stores opening up in China, India, Australia, Belgium, Italy etc will all have big initial surges of sales.

There will be a number of high-level users who'll sell their old iPhone and level up to a 3G model. There will be people who haven't got one yet who were tempted but didn't buy one. This is especially true in Europe - lack 3G was somewhat of a big deal for many. The new iPhone is going to be launched off the back of the Apps Store, some amazing games, really useful applications for both business (e.g. salesforce.com) and pleasure.

The last couple of trips i've been to an O2 Store, i've always seen browsers of the iPhone not buying, citing specifically that they're either waiting for the new iPhone or that a feature they consider a necessity isn't on the phone. Before the price cuts O2 reps had a hard task to try and get people buying a phone and contract.

Another thing not being discussed yet in this thread - as mentioned in the earnings call - There is the possibility that the current iPhone type won't be sold as of the end of June - there maybe no co-existance of the EDGE only handset and 3G handsets. Which would mean any new sale would be a 3G sale. For more, there's a few other whole threads on such issues in the iPhone forum ;)
 
It should do well in the UK and Europe. As long as it doesn't get bigger and the battery life is okay, given the amount that one uses these devices for Internet, a 3G iPhone will catch on here by word of mouth as it should be a pretty radical device. The current iPhone is so much better than anything else available. The drag is that it is slow moving data, and with this phone, you want to move a lot of data.
 
I've thought and thought about upgrading my iDay phone to 3g when it came out, and I've decided I'm going to. A classmate of mine who has envied my iPhone from day one just got an iPhone the other day. I can't wait to see their reaction when I bust out an upgraded version when they just paid for the previous generation.

Call me spiteful
 
Done a poll to find out from people on macrumors. This is skewed necessarily due to this, but if enough people do it from here it might show some more meaningful data.
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/5360191/

In the first minute it had about 7 responses to the poll, so hopefully if it's given time to run it might be useful.
 
most people i know don't know who steve jobs is... why would they care? it's just a computer/phone/ipod to them. they aren't in bed with the creator.
 
I'll most likelly pick it up and keep my current iPhone for backup.
If its really hectic and every place is out of stock I'll wait a few weeks till I get it. Im not one of those geeks that camp out the night before :D
 
I don't plan on upgrading. I just got my iPhone in January as a birthday present (from wife and kids) and can't afford to go out and drop another $400+ on a phone.
 
Some will, some won't.

Die hard Apple users will, and techy people waiting for 3G form the start will. People outside of the US, form whom 3G is standard, will buy it. And new people will buy it.
 
I know more than 9 people with an iPhone and none of them know what's coming, they don't even know what the SDK is. If you are going to buy a great product wouldn't you research more about it for updates and such? I guess I just like Apple/technology in general.

I showed a friend the article on engadget a few minutes ago and what caught his eye was the recessed earphone jack, he said "good now I can put in diff earphones".
 
I'm upgradin, not for the features but mainly for the memory i only have a 4 gig iPhone and i don't got enough room for all my songs so i im sellin mine on ebay in June
 
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