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O2 chief dampens iPhone hype - More realistic weekend sales figures
- Thread starter edesignuk
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This was taken by the register from a daily telegraph article which has been proven to be wrong.
The iphone is the best selling O2 phone to date. i believe that it all they were trying to achieve.
Tens of thousands... 20,000 then?!
Well, strictly speaking it could be anywhere between 20,000 and 99,000.
They're quoting the o2 CEO. Can you show me where this quote has proven to be an out right lie?
6pm on a cold wintery Friday evening is not a time to buy a phone...... walking down the street in London over the last couple of days seeing the iPhone advertising at O2 and CPW you see this one having a slow burn but being a big seller over the christmas period its literally everywhere
Yes, future sales maybe good, especially over the holiday season. But that's got nothing to do with the first weekend sales.
Apple Store on Regent street was a mob scene on Friday (there must have been several thousand customers waiting to get in at 6pm) and they were doing brisk iPhone business all weekend.
I think that few chose to go to CPW initially, and most of us (in my experience) wanted to get our phones at The Apple Store. They may only have 12 retail stores, but my guess is that they will have sold the most phone by far in the first weekend. I actually think that 11,000 sold by CPW is pretty good.
I think that few chose to go to CPW initially, and most of us (in my experience) wanted to get our phones at The Apple Store. They may only have 12 retail stores, but my guess is that they will have sold the most phone by far in the first weekend. I actually think that 11,000 sold by CPW is pretty good.
Equally, the first weekend sales have nothing to do with how successful the iPhone will ultimately be - that hasn't stopped loads of people (on here and the media) declaring it a "flop" based on what they see as disappointing initial sales, however.
O2 shops in moorgate and cheapside have had people queuing to buy the iphone over the last two days.
O2 says that it is their fastest selling phone ever.
Given that it costs £267 (i..e not subsidised) and 18 month contracts are sold on the back, I am failing to understand why anyone could call this a disappointment, especially as the economy is stuttering at the moment and all the mobile operators are offering free phones and big incentives (orange: £150 cash back for trade in) as the mobile contract market has slowed tremendously.
There are a bunch of journalists who have to deliver an article on a strict timetable. for every single IT release I have ever seen (xbox 360, toyota prius, etc.) have always seen a flood of articles calling it a failure just after release. then a week later there are a flood of articles calling it a success, etc, etc.
I was expecting very lackluster sales on the back of the N95 being free now on 12 month £35 pound contracts. The fact that apple has broken through this is clear amazing to me.
The fact that apple sold to me is also amazing. I am a heavier buyer of HTC products, but the iPhone beat out my touch. sure, the iphone doesn't compete with the Kaiser on technicalities, but as a usable device for the non-geek - now thats something different
O2 says that it is their fastest selling phone ever.
Given that it costs £267 (i..e not subsidised) and 18 month contracts are sold on the back, I am failing to understand why anyone could call this a disappointment, especially as the economy is stuttering at the moment and all the mobile operators are offering free phones and big incentives (orange: £150 cash back for trade in) as the mobile contract market has slowed tremendously.
There are a bunch of journalists who have to deliver an article on a strict timetable. for every single IT release I have ever seen (xbox 360, toyota prius, etc.) have always seen a flood of articles calling it a failure just after release. then a week later there are a flood of articles calling it a success, etc, etc.
I was expecting very lackluster sales on the back of the N95 being free now on 12 month £35 pound contracts. The fact that apple has broken through this is clear amazing to me.
The fact that apple sold to me is also amazing. I am a heavier buyer of HTC products, but the iPhone beat out my touch. sure, the iphone doesn't compete with the Kaiser on technicalities, but as a usable device for the non-geek - now thats something different
Not really. If apple have one thing they're really, really good at it's creating buzz for new products. They created a lot of pent up demand - all this 'iphone release in 5 days 7 minutes 32 seconds' stuff is designed to create it... it all got released at once creating an initial sales spike (and lots of pictures of queues outside apple stores).
The press are *full* of the iphone. It's the most hyped up device I can remember in a long time... almost as if smartphones haven't been invented before this. That's got to help their sales.
It's the third week or so onwards that the sales figures matter. And christmas of course.
Watch to see what happens here: http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/products/tracker.asp?men=11&p=102
point taken. but a £267 device when others are free is expensive. and while there will be some people taken up by the hype, I believe iphone buyers are largely intelligent and considering (unlike me of course ;-)
I can remember other hyped products that didn't sell. anyone remember mini-disc .......
MiniDisc sold very well in the UK, although it never became the huge hit that Sony wanted. I've still got a stack of about 100 disks in a cupboard somewhere..
You'd be surprised how easily people are taken in by the 'buy now pay later' philosophy, and £267 is just within the impulse purchasing range. People are stupid when it comes to money (I am as well.. I just earn enough to get away with it).
You'd be surprised how easily people are taken in by the 'buy now pay later' philosophy, and £267 is just within the impulse purchasing range. People are stupid when it comes to money (I am as well.. I just earn enough to get away with it).
Oh call me a sucker,
for new tech, but I had about 10 MiniDisc players over the years… but I was living in Hong Kong then, and it was a far greater success in Asia than perhaps Europe or the US…I loved them and some of the designs were really nice… they were a hell of a step up from those "flying-saucer-type" portable CD-players. Even now when I see someone lugging a huge CD-player around at the gym I want to go up and give them a good shake to wake them up.
Of course I also bought the first Generation iPod… and now iPhone. hummmm.
And I forgot my parents' Sony Betamax…
Oh call me a sucker,
I loved them and some of the designs were really nice… they were a hell of a step up from those "flying-saucer-type" portable CD-players. Even now when I see someone lugging a huge CD-player around at the gym I want to go up and give them a good shake to wake them up.
Of course I also bought the first Generation iPod… and now iPhone. hummmm.
And I forgot my parents' Sony Betamax…
LOL, you are still arguing that mini-disc was great.
this proves that you bought it for technical merits and it was not an impulse buy.
however the market didn't like
luckily the 'up-market' phone market seems to like the iphone.
it is true though that a fool and his money are easily parted. certainly in my case. Thank goodness for cex.co.uk
tony m8 it sounds like you haven't bought one and have decided its not a good buy.
np, thats your thing, no one is forceing you, but i am a seasoned pda hack and I bought the iphone on merits. i particularly liked the contract with unlimited data BTW, cloud, and at £35 a month it isn't bad at all (considering USA folk have to pay for calls they receive as well).
Then adding a creative zen (£100) and a PDA with a screen over 320x240 (which you can't get anywhere on contract) and I'm still in-the-money.
Oh I certainly bought the first MD player for the system's "technical merits" But all the replacements were so cheap they all were impulse buys.
I've got both a phone and a touch in fact. The touch is the hacking guinea pig as it's nearly impossible to break, and once stuff it worked out on that I go for the phone... both tend to get reflashed more often than is probably healthy though.
I'm just honest about its shortcomings. It's a version 1 device and needs to get better. Some things it does really well, like picking up wireless hotspots automatically and its browser is quite reasonable (within limits), but others it does horribly.
I've owned a lot of phones over the years and they've all had good and bad. The iphone is no different. Some days I carry the iphone, some days one of the other phones depending on what I'm doing (eg. iphone is useless if I'm using the satnav as I need bluetooth data. Sometimes I'll take a really cheap phone as I'm in a dodgy area, etc.).
btw. I do think a lot of the shortcomings are due to deadlines.. things like multi-recipient sms is so obvious (especially since they allow it on the email client) that I can't believe they really forgot about it.. more like they had to release *something* so they started chopping features to meet the release date. Give them a couple of months to catch up and with any luck they'll have 99% of it covered.