Apple Limits Sale of iPhones: Two Per Person and No Cash
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Apple no longer accepts cash for iPhone purchases and now limits sales of the cellphone to two per person in a move to stop people from reselling them.
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Â·  Dozens camp out to be first in line for iPhoneÂ·  Stakes could not be higher for computer giant
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In a move aimed squarely at reining in the growing "unlocking" market, Apple last week placed new restrictions on the sales of its popular iPhone.
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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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Apple's recent decision to forbid the use of Apple Store gift cards for iPhone sales may expose the company to class action lawsuits or state-led investigations. Is this anti-iPhone locking action one step too far for the company?
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Soon there will be two iPhones on the market. Each will do different things, but at least the companies behind them won't be squabbling over who can use the name and how.
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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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Apple Inc. sold its millionth iPhone on Sunday, just 74 days after the combination cell phone-iPod went on sale and less than a week after its price was cut by a third.
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(InfoWorld) - Apple CEO Steve Jobs Thursday afternoon responded to a flood of complaints from existing iPhone owners over Wednesday's $200 price cut by promising the company would issue a $100 credit to anyone who bought an iPhone before the change. "I have received hundreds of emails from iPhone customers who are upset about Apple dropping the price of iPhone by $200 two months after it went on sale," Jobs said in a statement posted to the Apple Web site. In the open letter addressed to "all iPhone customers," Jobs defended the price cut, saying "now is the right time to do it. iPhone is a breakthrough product, and we have the chance to 'go for it' this holiday season." He also echoed -- albeit in more circumspect language -- comments made Wednesday in an interview with reporters from USA Today in which he told disgruntled owners "that's what happens in technology." "There is always someone who bought a product before a particular cutoff date and misses the new price or the new operating system or the new whatever," Jobs said Thursday. "This is life in the technology lane." But he tacitly acknowledged that Apple had stumbled. "We need to do a better job taking care of our early iPhone customers as we aggressively go after new ones with a lower price," Jobs said in the letter. "Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these." All current iPhone owners with the exception of those eligible for other rebates -- people who purchased an iPhone in the last 14 days, for example, can return it for a refund, minus a 10 percent restocking fee -- will be issued a $100 credit good either at Apple's own retail stores or its online shop, said Jobs. Details were not available, but he promised they would be posted to the Apple site next week. "We want to do the right thing for our valued iPhone customers," he concluded. "We apologize for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of Apple." Apple's change of heart was in reaction to the overwhelmingly negative comments that iPhone owners posted to the company's own message forums -- and forums at other Web sites --Â  starting just minutes after the price change announcement Wednesday.
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Apple decided this week to require a credit card or debit card to buy an iPhone, and there's now a two-iPhone limit at its retail stores.
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Apple compensates people who have already bought an iPhone - after the firm cut $200 (Â£100) off the price.
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AT&T said over the weekend that it had nearly sold out of its entire stock of iPhones, while Apple Stores were reportedly not far behind. An analyst with Piper Jaffray said that 500,000 phones had been sold nationwide over the weekend.
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People who bought IPhones hoping to resell them for a profit find few takers.
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Apple Inc. has sold its millionth iPhone less than three months after the deviceâs debut, allaying investor concerns that demand had slowed.
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Apple Inc  will offer a  $100 store credit to people who bought the iPhone before the  company slashed the price by $200, Chief Executive Steve Jobs  said in a statement on Thursday.
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The number of iPhones manufactured by Apple may not be enough to meet customer demand when the smart phone goes on sale tomorrow, CEO Steve Jobs said.
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Apple Inc. began selling its iPhone Friday, ending six months of waiting by consumers and rival smartphone vendors.