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iPhone: What Are Its Selling Points, Limitations, and Market Potential?
2007-01-22
On January 9th, Apple announced the launch of its iPhone, certainly one of the most stylish devices to hit the market -- and with a fairly powerful set of features. What is Apple's motivation for the iPhone? Beyond the pure economic reality that the cellular handset market represents the largest consumer electronics market globally, Apple's new device can be viewed as a very astute vehicle for preserving the company's brand image and one of its most profitable business areas. The dedicated MP3 player market is very competitive; numerous large vendors, keen to take a slice of that lucrative pie, are challenging Apple. Moreover, the music-enabled cellular handset has the potential to seriously erode the MP3 player market. Although the majority of mid tier handsets today have support for MP3, the dedicated music phones such as the Nokia N91 and Sony Ericsson W950i along with high end multi-purpose devices such as the Nokia N95 are expected to account for around 183 million handsets sales in 2011.
| Authors: | Jake Saunders | Vice President of ABI Research Asia-Pacific Stuart Carlaw | Vice President and Research Director, Mobile Wireless |
2007-01-22
On January 9th, Apple announced the launch of its iPhone, certainly one of the most stylish devices to hit the market -- and with a fairly powerful set of features. What is Apple's motivation for the iPhone? Beyond the pure economic reality that the cellular handset market represents the largest consumer electronics market globally, Apple's new device can be viewed as a very astute vehicle for preserving the company's brand image and one of its most profitable business areas. The dedicated MP3 player market is very competitive; numerous large vendors, keen to take a slice of that lucrative pie, are challenging Apple. Moreover, the music-enabled cellular handset has the potential to seriously erode the MP3 player market. Although the majority of mid tier handsets today have support for MP3, the dedicated music phones such as the Nokia N91 and Sony Ericsson W950i along with high end multi-purpose devices such as the Nokia N95 are expected to account for around 183 million handsets sales in 2011.