Or thats the conlusion reached in a survey of 379 Americans.


WHAT THE FUCK. There is no way this is an accurate representation of American consumerism, and there is no possible way to get an accurate random sample of 300mil people from 379 people! Is this a fucking joke?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/infoworld/20070223/tc_infoworld/86300

Quote :

"San Francisco (IDGNS) - 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. ADVERTISEMENT 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 iPhone is a combined music player and cell phone that Apple plans to start selling in the U.S. in June. Among the 26 percent of respondents who said they're likely to buy an iPhone, only 1 percent said they'd pay $500 for it. When Apple introduced the iPhone in January, it said it would cost $500 on the low end. 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, now part of AT&T. 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. While the iPhone has been discussed as a competitor to other handsets like Research In Motion's BlackBerry, the two serve very different markets, said Andy Neff, an analyst at Bear Stearns who participated in a conference call to discuss the results of the study. "Even though there's talk about this as an alternative to RIM, it's not a corporate product," he said. Instead, the iPhone is an indication of a broad shift toward smartphones and the emergence of niches within the category, he said. The analysts were split on what price they think the device will ultimately retail for. Operators recently haven't been discounting phones in the similar price range as the iPhone, said Phil Cusick, an analyst at Bear Stearns. However, Apple has been known to announce a product with one price and ultimately sell it for less. Apple TV, for example, was expected to cost $399 but sells for $299, he said. The phone may start out around $500 because early adopters will pay that, said Neff. But pricing will likely drop by $100 to $200 to target the mass market, he said. "

[Edited on February 24, 2007 at 12:23 AM. Reason : .]

2/24/2007 12:23:09 AM

Ah yes, and now you see why these articles are TRULY irrelevent.

87% of all statistics are made up anyway.

(But I won't buy an iPhone until it's in the 200-299 dollar range either...)

2/24/2007 1:01:54 AM

ibtb

2/24/2007 1:04:42 AM

I won't buy the iphone till it is free with a 2 year contract or something like that.

2/24/2007 1:09:48 AM

I wouldn't pay that much for one... would you?

2/24/2007 1:10:22 AM

bucket

2/24/2007 1:30:16 AM

My company would. They pay enough for blackberrys.


PS, they had similar studies when the ipod came out. The study has methodology problems and it cannot account for the fact that consumers don't know what they want. No one knew they wanted an expensive hard drive-based mp3 player until Apple unleashed it onto the world.

2/24/2007 1:30:17 AM

standard polls are usually done with 800-1000 people. how is 379 really much different?

and no, i wont pay 500 for an iphone either.

2/24/2007 3:43:56 AM

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2/24/2007 6:59:24 AM

i might swing 350 but 500...no fuckin way...

2/24/2007 9:33:51 AM

Yeah, that survey is worthless. 379 people from a marketing research firm? Shit I could get 379 ppl surveys from myself in one afternoon.

The real thing is that the iphone is really covering a niche market so you can't just ask normal electronic consumers who aren't ahead of the buying technology curve. This is the same shit about the smart PDA phones when they first launched. People tend to forget that they were 400-600 when they launched too. It was believed that it wouldn't take off, but yet, in the corporate world, people and businesses were buying them up because of their capabilities. I think it was recently that smart pda's surpassed normal pda in sales (in the past year).

I also wouldn't justify spending 500 for that since I would never use all of the features on it. Maybe 200-300, but just remember, the product is still new so they are trying to turn a profit on the 1st adopters.

2/24/2007 1:07:06 PM

Quote :

"My company would. They pay enough for blackberrys. PS, they had similar studies when the ipod came out. The study has methodology problems and it cannot account for the fact that consumers don't know what they want. No one knew they wanted an expensive hard drive-based mp3 player until Apple unleashed it onto the world."

It's not a blackberry.

And the iPod's sales didn't really skyrocket until Gen2/3. The first gen iPods sold, but not exactly like their later models.

The iPhone has a LOT of problems, and it's REALLY expensive (the iPod wasn't 500 bucks) and requires an insanely expensive phone plan to back it up (the iPod doesnt require a 50-90 dollar a month commitment for two more years).

It'll sell, but it's not going to be the second coming that everyone seems to think

2/24/2007 1:29:30 PM

Quote :

"there is no possible way to get an accurate random sample of 300mil people from 379 people!"

Assuming you meant to say that 379 people isn't enough to represent 300 million... sure it is. If the sample is done well, 300 is enough and population size doesn't matter. I certainly have my doubts if it was done well though. "Online market research"? "most of whom had heard of the iPhone and have shopped for an iPod"? Doesn't sound like it represents most people. Not to mention the nonsampling error. (Ppl don't know what they want, etc.)

2/24/2007 1:53:11 PM

No way in hell I'd drop half a G on a phone, even if it massaged my balls while it's in my pocket.

2/24/2007 1:53:43 PM

^i agree, why pay $500 on something you could lose so easily. forget that.

2/24/2007 1:56:55 PM

I agree that the survey is sketch, but the results are about what I'd expect. 1% of 300 million is 3 million. I'd actually be surprised if it sells 3 million units in the US at $500.

2/24/2007 2:16:59 PM

It wouldnt be that bad if you didn't already own an iPod. Like myself, I don't have one. So the iPhone is not that bad at $500 for me to get an iPod and a phone.

2/24/2007 3:30:45 PM

Quote :

"the iPod wasn't 500 bucks"

The original iPod was $399 and was immediately followed by a 10 gb version for $499. So while the iPod was not priced exactly like the iPhone, it's not exactly a big departure from the original costs.

2/24/2007 4:31:57 PM

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2/24/2007 5:02:01 PM