Piper: European iPhone selling light, 3G device soon
updated 11:35 am EDT, Wed April 16, 2008
Piper on Europe and iPhone
Changes in the European iPhone market may have a dual significance, argue analysts with Piper Jaffray. Following a 75 percent price cut in Germany earlier this month, the UK has also slashed the price of the 8GB iPhone by 37 percent, to reach £169 ($335). Piper argues once again that this is a sign European carriers are attempting to clear out stock in advance of a 3G iPhone, anticipated for June; it may also however be emblematic of sales below expectations, a factor typically attributed to the iPhone's unusually high price in Europe, and a widespread acceptance of 3G that Apple cannot currently deliver on.
Aiding speculation that a 3G device is set for June is that according to Piper, stock of 2.5G iPhones has remained low in America for two weeks, in both its 8 and 16GB variants. On April 15th the company polled 22 Apple Stores, and found that 82 percent had a limited supply of the 8GB phone, while just 50 percent had any 16GB models for sale. Piper reasons that Apple is deliberately "trickling" a limited stockpile into the market, so that like Europe, it is not caught with a host of unmarketable products following the switch to 3G.
Piper believes that the 3G iPhone will have a redesigned exterior, and a base price between $349 and $399.
So what else is new...
04/16, 04:01pm reply
Once the initial sales were over, that was it for the 2.5G version of the iPhone. For the 3G model, sales should explode, unless those Europeans just don't like to spend money on handsets.
Constable Odo
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2007
Exactly
04/16, 04:43pm reply
I hope the price cuts is a sign that Apple is adjusting to the realities in Europe; few people are prepared to pay that much for a phone which is tied up to one service provider only. If we buy phones for the full price, they are free of any ties whatsoever...
Will53
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Joined: Jan 2006
Re: exactly
04/16, 07:05pm reply
Except, again, you're not buying the phone at full price, you're buying a subsidized phone (how long will it be before people get that through their heads????).
And it could just be that no one's buying it because its too expensive, its too restrictive, or they just don't plain want it. (Oh, right, it can't be that last item, because everyone wants an iPhone. They all must be waiting for 3G, even though we all know it is useless, since, well, Apple didn't include it).
testudo
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Joined: Aug 2001
not full price?
04/17, 07:43am reply
If I buy a phone with no contract and no sim card, exactly who is subsidising the price?
In my local 02 store there are a variety of prices for a given phone based on pay-as-you-go, contract (and price/emgth of contract), and finally one that says phone only.
muso_rah
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2008
not full price?
04/17, 07:44am reply
If I buy a phone with no contract and no sim card, exactly who is subsidising the price?
In my local 02 store there are a variety of prices for a given phone based on pay-as-you-go, contract (and price/length of contract), and finally one that says phone only.
muso_rah
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2008