Offering an stunning device like this for $199 and $55 per month will likely result in an extended period of short supplies. Most people are accustomed to paying this for much lesser phones.
Apple is fighting with both hands tied behind their back by limiting availability to one carrier in the US, though.
Not winning in terms of trending. They've opened the door wide-open for Android, and it's making rapid inroads. The new iPhone is a great phone, but it's no longer leaps and bounds ahead the competition. With Froyo I'm not sure that it's even a clear-cut leader in software anymore. The cloud-level integration of Android is already putting some strain on Apples market lead.
I'm not sure it's fair to say that Apple is 'winning' at this point. All of the current trends look like a dog-fight is coming. I continue to believe that Google wins this (by a wide margin) in the end.
They're winning in terms of quality of the phones that they release, but they are already losing at the numbers. Nokia is #1, Android is #2 and while the iPhone is currently #3, it's likely that it will have to fight with RIM and Microsoft to maintain this spot.
And in a few years, Android's market share will probably dwarf Apple's, considering the current trend.
Apple just can't fight against dozens of manufacturers and carriers around the world.
Wrong numbers. Apple is interested in money, not market share. Compare financial results of Nokia and Apple and tell me you still think Nokia is doing well being #1.
It doesn't matter what Apple is interested in, I was just quoting existing numbers. Apple is #3 and likely to become #4 in the next couple of years. Whether they enjoy that position or not is irrelevant to this discussion.
We're discussing market share, not revenues.
Besides, I'm pretty sure Apple would love to lead both in market share and in revenues.
Haha, touché. I was talking about profits, of course. Nokia's revenues dwarf Apple's but they not making anywhere near as much money as Apple is.
Back to the original point, it's funny how any observation that Apple is now #3 and about to become #4 in market share is automatically met with "Bah, Apple doesn't care about that, they only care about money".
Ah ... I was wondering how much the contract was monthly, mostly so I could figure out how much it actually costs over two years. At $55, the total cost is $1520. Somehow, I don't think that quite as many people would pay that much for it if they had to up-front.
True; that was what I was thinking, in fact. What I was trying to get at is that it's easier for the human mind to deal with lower costs which continue over a long time than a high cost up front, even if the same thing with all the same features is being purchased.
Apple is fighting with both hands tied behind their back by limiting availability to one carrier in the US, though.