I guess I wouldn't be surprised either way. On the one hand, the reduced price, added features, and dramatically expanded carrier footprint should definitely accelerate sales, but on the other hand, the massive hype for the original, the evolutionary nature of the upgrade, and let's face it, the improvement in the competition makes me wonder if lighting will strike twice as hard this time.
Guess we'll see! I'm at least somewhat tempted to get one this time around :).
Same store sales comparisons would be very interesting. I suspect that even without any changes, the same store sales in the US would have gone up. Initial demand would be difficult to equate, but comparing Thanksgiving and Christmas sales would be a good indicator. Measuring upgrade versus new sales will be something else to watch for. More difficult will be the unlocked phones and where they landed.
Fundamentally, there are two forces at play, the growth in smartphones and the choice of iPhone. Do you have a smartphone already? The important question isn't whether you're tempted to get an iPhone, but if there is another smartphone that you'd consider over the iPhone.
BTW, one more force at play is some folks coming off their contracts. There are those that just finished their 12 month sentence and awaited 3G news. There are still a few more who signed on to 24 month contracts and will be released in the next 6-12 months. After that, it leaves only the folks that made the mistake of signing to a contract after the announcement/release of the iPhone. Either they knowingly waited for 3G or just haven't heard of the iPhone yet or hadn't been sold on it at first, but now that their friends all have it, have been converted.
One thing that's been awfully quiet for me has been comments about voice quality. A quick scan of google results:
google.com
"In voice-quality tests, the iPhone’s performance has been undistinguished at best. Quality when listening to a call was fair."
"IPhone Hands On: Voice Quality You Can Count On"
"Our iPhone's voice quality was good and volume was average."
Overall looks somewhat unremarkable, so it's not standing out as either bad or great, and somewhere between good enough and good. |
