Reselling an iPhone? Bad news
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David Flashner thought he had it wired: Buy two iPhones last Friday when they first went on sale, keep one, and sell the other at a profit so big it would pay for most of the first one.
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(InfoWorld) - Consumers aren't willing to pay what AppleÂ may ask for theÂ 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. 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. WhenÂ Apple introduced the iPhoneÂ 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.
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(InfoWorld) - One of the groups that claims it has developed an unlock hack for Apple's iPhone is now saying it will only offer the software to resellers, not to individuals, a popular technology blog reported Monday. According to an e-mail message sent to interested volume sellers -- and posted by Engadget Monday -- iPhoneSIMFree said it would not sell the unlock directly to iPhone owners. "iphonesimfree.com is a wholesale only company," read the e-mail. "Although we could, we do not and will not sell directly to end-users because we want to work together with our valuable resellers as a team and not interfere in their business." Late last month, iPhoneSIMFree said it had created software that would let iPhone owners make calls on mobile networks other than AT&T, the smart phone's official and exclusive carrier in the U.S. Unlocking the iPhone is contrary to Apple's intent; according to the company, iPhones must be activated only with AT&T, and buyers must subscribe to a two-year AT&T calling plan. Even so, Apple has made no public announcement about iPhoneSIMFree or any other of several unlocking schemes that have been publicized. iPhoneSIMFree's e-mail also outlined the unlock process and spelled out its pricing structure. The unlock requires that a file be installed on the iPhone and a connection made to the iPhoneSIMFree servers; the latter, said iPhoneSIMFree, links the specific iPhone to the unlock. Resellers will handle part of the process. Prices will range from $25 per unlock (in lots of 5,000 or more) to $36 (in lots of 50). The company, which has no mailing address, has kept its composition and the identity of its developers, under wraps. Its Web site, for example, uses an anonymity service to cloak the usual address, phone number, and contact person information searchable via WHOIS. iPhoneSIMFree also said it would not guarantee that the unlock would work in the future. "It does currently work on all firmware versions, up to and including, 1.02," said iPhoneSIMFree in the e-mail quoted by Engadget. "We will naturally try to provide our resellers an updated version of our software for each firmware update, it is in our interest, but we do NOT guarantee that we will be able to do so." Apple's iPhone updates have required users who installed hacks or work-arounds to restore their devices from scratch, which erased the modifications. The most recent update, 1.0.2, however, did not cripple most hacks as had the first firmware update. An Irish company that announced another unlock has been silent on the subject for a week. UniquePhones last mentioned its iPhone unlock on Aug. 28 when it posted video of an unlock in progress. Prior to that, UniquePhones had said it would start selling its unlock Aug. 25 but backed off after receiving a phone call it said came from a California law firm representing AT&T. Another unlock, a Czech product dubbed TurboSIM, is currently unavailable; its maker's Web ordering site had been inundated, and now sports messages such as "Sorry, temporarily closed" beside the unlock product. Computerworld is an InfoWorld affiliate
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Even for Apple, which has thrived on taking risks, the iPhone represents an audacious bet -- possibly its biggest ever. When the new smart phone hits store shelves June 29, the company will have a lot more on the line than the success or failure of one product.
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No true fans of the coveted  iPhone could be found standing in line outside Apple&#39;s flagship  store here a full day before the gadgets go on sale. There were  just exploiters, exploited and a few clowns.
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Analysts are mulling over&#160;Apple&#39;s iPhone sales numbers&#160;and are alarmed at a perceived discrepancy in the figures.Apple claims slightly over 3.7 million iPhones were sold in 2007 -- yet&#160;AT&amp;T this week revealed&#160;it ended the year with &quot;just at or sightly under two million iPhone customers&quot;.That two million has been boosted somewhat by an estimated 300,000-400,000 sales in Europe, analysts believe.The discrepancy is that the 3.7 million iPhones Apple says it has sold and the estimated 2.4 million sold by its network partners still leaves 1.3 million of the devices unaccounted for.That implies that around one in three iPhones are being purchased in order to&#160;unlock the device&#160;for use on other networks and/or for use with unapproved third party applications.While it&#39;s possible some iPhones were sold over the Christmas period but not activated immediately as new users (perhaps) worked to cancel their existing mobile contracts, the discrepancy still implies an active market for unlocked iPhones.Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook told analysts this week that the company believes the number of unlocked iPhones in the wild to be &quot;significant,&quot; but declined to furnish accurate figures.Toni Sacconaghi of Bernstein Research cites these figures in order to claim a substantial market in unlocked iPhones, and speculates this news may also mean a build-up in iPhone inventory.&quot;It indicates end-user demand for iPhone is lower than many investors may think based on Apple&#39;s sales figure -- and it points to slower iPhone sales in the current quarter, since much of this inventory is likely to be drawn down,&quot; the analyst explains.Macworld.co.uk is an InfoWorld affiliate.
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How badly do you want an iPhone? Would you pay US$1,500 to buy one? How about $300 for someone to wait on line for you?
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By Jim Hopkins  SAN FRANCISCO -- Can't wait until the end of the month to buy an iPhone?    Someone in Atlanta is advertising Apple's must-have cellphone for $800 on classifieds site Craigslist. The ad  includes a photo purporting to show the gadget.
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People looking to walk into an Apple retailer and buy an&#160;iPhone&#160;with cash will be out of luck. The company is now accepting only credit or debit card payments for the devices so they can track who purchases the phone, according to an employee at the Apple Store in New York&#39;s SoHo neighborhood.The new policy is Apple&#39;s attempt to prevent people from purchasing and then unlocking and reselling iPhones, a situation that has been a problem for the company. Apple won&#39;t let anyone without a credit card or debit card in their name purchase iPhones, according to an unidentified Apple Store employee in a phone interview.&quot;We need to track the purchases of the iPhone [because] we have people buying the phones, unlocking the phones and selling them,&quot; she said.A report by the Associated Press last week said Apple was limiting the purchases to two devices and allowing users to purchase them only with credit or debit cards. According to store employees, the two-device limit has always been in place, but the noncash policy is new.Apple&#39;s public relations team did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the new policy. However, it&#39;s no secret the company is trying to stem the tide of unlocked and resold phones, now totaling about 250,000. Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook mentioned that number last week in a quarterly results conference call as the difference between the number of handsets sold -- approximately 1.4 million -- and those actually connecting via AT&amp;T Wireless, the iPhone&#39;s exclusive U.S. carrier.If one analyst&#39;s estimate is correct, those unlocked phones are costing Apple millions of dollars. Piper Jaffrey analyst Gene Munster said that he believes Apple receives US$18 per iPhone per month from AT&amp;T Wireless, based on iPhone-related revenue Apple reported in its latest quarterly earnings , totaling more than $4.5 million in lost revenue.REFERENCES:AT&amp;T paying Apple $18 per iPhone per month?, Macworld.co.uk, Oct. 25, 2007Apple: 250,000 iPhones unlocked from AT&amp;T, Network World (US), Oct. 25, 2007
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The controversy around Apple's iPhone price cuts seems suspiciously calculated.
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Blog: North of the border, Best Buy's Web site is promoting the iPhone. But it's not selling them, of course, and doesn't have any plans to do so, at least yet.
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AN FRANCISCO  - Some of the first iPhone buyers were divided about the news that Apple is slashing its price by $200, barely two months after the cellphone was launched.
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An open letter to iPhone owners should boost sales in a big way.
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According to Saul Hansell at the NY Times, Apple intends to break phones that have been unlocked.  But Francine Hardaway and Patrick Scoble both updated this afternoon, and bad things happened. Hardaway's phone was "fried," she needed a new phone, and Scoble lost all his data. Hardaway: "Trust me, I didn't hack it." Jeff Clavier: "This effing piece of s..t is bricked." Robert Scoble, Patrick's dad, updated successfully, and got the new features. Spaley's iPhone is "a useless piece of crap." Looks like Josh Bancroft's iPhone was hosed too. I would hold off on the update until we find out what's going wrong.  Sugar Attack: "It wasn't until I saw a friend tweet about the new iPhone firmware upgrade that I realized I could now access the iTunes WiFi store."
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Plus: iPhone price cut, Google Phone rumors, and more.
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Blog: AT&T's deal to sell the iPhone drew criticism from Democrats, and a defense from Republicans. The arrangement might led to an open access requirement for a 700 MHz spectrum auction next year.
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Blog: AT&T's iPhone activation numbers disappointed many--especially Apple investors--but it's not a perfect measure of iPhone demand.