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iPod Touch Seen as Building Base of Future iPhone Users

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Mobile analytics firm Flurry yesterday released a report promoting an interesting take on Apple's iPod touch market, one that sees its strong performance among young consumers as building a base that will naturally migrate to the iPhone as they mature.
As all industry eyes look to the iPhone, the iPod Touch is quietly building a loyal base among the next generation of iPhone users, positioning Apple to corner the smartphone market not only today, but also tomorrow. In terms of Life Stage Marketing, the practice of appealing to different age-based segments, Apple is using the iPod Touch to build loyalty with pre-teens and teens, even before they have their own phones (think: McDonalds' Happy Meal marketing strategy). When today's young iPod Touch users age by five years, they will already have iTunes accounts, saved personal contacts to their iPod Touch devices, purchased hundreds of apps and songs, and mastered the iPhone OS user interface. This translates into loyalty and switching costs, allowing Apple to seamlessly "graduate" young users from the iPod Touch to the iPhone.
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As part of its metrics report, Flurry reveals an iPod touch market that is growing faster than the iPhone market in terms of "user sessions", with the iPod touch increasing its session share by four percentage points over that past five months while the iPhone's share has slipped by seven percentage points.


135623-NovPulse2009_iPodTouch_AllCategories.jpg


A major factor in the growth of the iPod touch has come from games, where the iPod touch has overtaken the iPhone (49% to 46%) in the number of user sessions. The usage pattern falls in line with Apple's emphasis on promoting the iPod touch as a gaming device, a market positioning that Apple took some time to come around to.


135623-NovPulse2009_iPodTouch_Games.jpg


While the iPod touch's tremendous performance, growing 100% year-over-year, has propped up lagging sales of Apple's traditional iPods, the iPhone has quickly grown to surpass the iPod division in revenue. Consequently, Apple's strategy of fostering the next generation of iPhone users via the iPod touch bodes well for the company's continued growth in the mobile market.

Article Link: iPod Touch Seen as Building Base of Future iPhone Users
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2009/12/07/ipod-touch-seen-as-building-base-of-future-iphone-users/
If Apple leaves AT&T in 2010, I'll buy an iPhone with the next revision.

If Apple doesn't, I'll buy the next iPod Touch.

I wonder if there are any other people out there like me whose sole reason for not already having an iPhone is how bad AT&T's service is.
 
gmcalpin said:
If Apple leaves AT&T in 2010, I'll buy an iPhone with the next revision.

If Apple doesn't, I'll buy the next iPod Touch.

I wonder if there are any other people out there like me whose sole reason for not already having an iPhone is how bad AT&T's service is.
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Why does every single thread about the iPhone have to come back to "iPhone on Verizon?" :rolleyes:
 
How many iPod Touch's have been sold by Apple? That's very clever I did not even think of it that way.
 
gmcalpin said:
If Apple leaves AT&T in 2010, I'll buy an iPhone with the next revision.

If Apple doesn't, I'll buy the next iPod Touch.

I wonder if there are any other people out there like me whose sole reason for not already having an iPhone is how bad AT&T's service is.
Click to expand...

I might be in the minority, but I live in Melbourne Florida and have had an iPhone for 4 months now and think the service is excellent.
 
Unspoken Demise said:
Why does every single thread about the iPhone have to come back to "iPhone on Verizon?" :rolleyes:
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I suppose it's an indication of just how much pent up demand there is. I expect there are quite a few people who could transition to AT&T without any problems, but are scared away because of all the negative publicity.
 
JPark said:
I suppose it's an indication of just how much pent up demand there is. I expect there are quite a few people who could transition to AT&T without any problems, but are scared away because of all the negative publicity.
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Right, but many of them dont realize that if and IF the iPhone goes to Verizon, they will suffer the same network problems that AT&T does. Thats not an opinion, mind you, thats a fact. And then Ill be subjected to a thousand "Gah, WHEN IS IPHONE GOING TO SPRINT?!?!?!?!!??!" threads.
 
Unspoken Demise said:
Why does every single thread about the iPhone have to come back to "iPhone on Verizon?" :rolleyes:
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People keep kidding themselves that it will some how be better. Some parts of the US it will and other parts of the US it will not be. I have used them all and they all have their issues and the dead zones.
 
Unspoken Demise said:
Right, but many of them dont realize that if and IF the iPhone goes to Verizon, they will suffer the same network problems that AT&T does. Thats not an opinion, mind you, thats a fact. And then Ill be subjected to a thousand "Gah, WHEN IS IPHONE GOING TO SPRINT?!?!?!?!!??!" threads.
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Well once AT&T's exclusivity is up, I don't think Apple will sign another exclusivity with another carrier. Which means if there will be a CDMA capable iPhone, Sprint could very well get it at the same time, if not soon after the big red does. We might even see it on TMO. I'm sure Apple wants its baby to be as ubiquitous as Blackberries...available on pretty much every network.
 
Wow, that's impressive

I always forget that there are a lot of iPod Touch users out there that also use apps
 
bommai said:
I might be in the minority, but I live in Melbourne Florida and have had an iPhone for 4 months now and think the service is excellent.
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No, you are probably in the majority but it is only the vocal minority who we always hear about on the internet.

If the majority of customers were dissatisfied with their service, AT&T would be in serious trouble and would have to do something about it rather quickly.
 
Interesting stuff. I don't have either device, but I would believe that for most it is a progression from Touch to iPhone if the user is open to At&t. However, if the user is not open to changing networks then they remain a Touch user. I also imagine that once the switch is made that the Touch is not used much anymore. What do you guys think? Are there any avid iPhone and iPod Touch owners out there that consistently use both devices?
 
I bought a Mac because my first iPod (3G) was great.

I just hope these findings make them focus a little more on the iPod and don't give us incremental updates (how is it that we're on the 3G iPod Touch now when the update was so small and reminiscent of the 5 to 5.5G iPod leap?). I hope they equal out the features a bit. Give it a camera, GPS and all that.
 
Unspoken Demise said:
Right, but many of them dont realize that if and IF the iPhone goes to Verizon, they will suffer the same network problems that AT&T does. Thats not an opinion, mind you, thats a fact. And then Ill be subjected to a thousand "Gah, WHEN IS IPHONE GOING TO SPRINT?!?!?!?!!??!" threads.
Click to expand...

Then there are those of that went to the iPhone and were ok with AT&T up until the point we went inside buildings that we frequent and the service went from full bars to zero.
 
mscriv said:
Interesting stuff. I don't have either device, but I would believe that for most it is a progression from Touch to iPhone if the user is open to At&t. However, if the user is not open to changing networks then they remain a Touch user. I also imagine that once the switch is made that the Touch is not used much anymore. What do you guys think? Are there any avid iPhone and iPod Touch owners out there that consistently use both devices?
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You also have the parents who do not want their kids to have an iPhone, but are ok with them having an iPod touch.
 
iPod touch converted me into an iPhone user which in turn converted me into an Android user.

I'm hoping to get an iPod touch again for Christmas so I can keep using the apps I bought for my iPhone and any future stuff that may interest me <drops hints at wife>.

Didn't Steve jobs himself say that the iPod Touch was a step towards customers getting an iPhone in one of his keynotes?

(for those interested Android offered me a some things I wanted in a smartphone OS, multitasking being the primary thing)
 
Unspoken Demise said:
Right, but many of them dont realize that if and IF the iPhone goes to Verizon, they will suffer the same network problems that AT&T does. Thats not an opinion, mind you, thats a fact. And then Ill be subjected to a thousand "Gah, WHEN IS IPHONE GOING TO SPRINT?!?!?!?!!??!" threads.
Click to expand...

I question your "fact."

Anecdotal evidence: AT&T has never had a very good network, whereas the network seems to be Verizon's strength. I've been with AT&T (and Cingular) for 8 years now and lived in 4 different states. In three of those states my friends are consistently able to get signals where I can't. (Why am I still with AT&T? I don't really care all that much about having reception everywhere I go, and I don't like how Verizon cripples their phones.) Adding the iPhone just put a heavier load on an already struggling network.

If you're just referring to the load on the 3G network, it seems like adding additional carriers would spread the load a bit. iPhone users use a lot of data. Currently AT&T's network is handling all of that data. Adding Verizon would bring in a bunch of new users, but it would also offload some users from AT&T's network. Verizon's network would never have the full load of iPhone users like AT&T's has had, so it shouldn't be quite as big a problem.
 
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