Study: consumers not willing to pay $500 for iPhone
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Feb 25, 2007 at 10:09am
Consumers aren’t willing to pay what Apple may ask for the iPhone, but if the price drops they’ll switch their mobile service to AT&T in order to get it, according to results of a survey released Thursday (and as reported by InfoWorld.
Online market research firm Compete Inc. surveyed 379 people in the U.S., most of whom had heard of the iPhone and have shopped for an iPod, to find out how interested they are in the device to produce the uncommissioned report, the article adds. Among the 26 percent of respondents who said they’re likely to buy an iPhone, only one percent said they’d pay US$500 for it. When Apple introduced the iPhone in January, it said it would be available in the US in June, Europe in late 2007, and Asia in 2008, in a 4GB model for US$499 and an 8GB model for $599.
Forty-two percent of those who said they’re likely to buy the phone said they’d pay $200 to $299. The iPhone will be available only to subscribers of Cingular Wireless. In a “blow to the operator’s competitors,” 60 percent of those in the survey who said they were likely to buy the phone said they’d switch their mobile operator in order to get it, reports InfoWorld.
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e:leaf Says:
It’s likely that not only will I be getting 1, but 2 iPhones upon launch (1 for me, 1 for the wife). I already have Cingular, so a switch isn’t necessary. It’s also likely that people haven’t yet realized that it will also serve as an iPod. So if one buys a fairly high-end cell phone, and an iPod, the price differential will be rather small I would think.
Posted on February 23, 2007
Deocliciano Okssipin Vieira Says:
I do not know, in the USA maybe.
But where I live, Porugal people like to have expencive phones.
Posted on February 25, 2007
Jarod Says:
Those that don’t want to pay the price can simply go somewhere else. Quality was never destined for everyone. Most don’t even understand it.
Posted on February 25, 2007
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
Rudge Says:
Interesting article. Thank you for posting this, Dennis Sellers.
That sounds about where Apple wants to be. Even in Steve Jobs’ keynote speech, last January, 1% of the huge mobile market would be fantastic for Apple. We all know somebody who spares no expense to have the latest and greatest devices, and that’s what the iPhone is right now.
Later on, everyone will have one (like the Motorola RAZR). Remember how expensive that was when it first came out? How little RAM it used and terrible battery life? Same thing.
As for the people willing to switch to Cingular/AT&T;just to get an iPhone, that is really a surprising statistic! There are a lot of people who absolutely hate Cingular’s service and are willing to wait for the iPhone to move to Verizon and others.
I’m also glad that Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone months before its release so that people could make arrangements around their contracts with their existing network plans. That was a smart move all around.
Posted on February 23, 2007