Apple Stockpiles 3 Million iPhones, Arms for War
Repent, sinner! The end is near. Apocalypse is upon us! Well not quite, but all the half-joking speculation about customers camping out to buy an iPhone on June 29 may prove to be reality after all.
According to various sources Apple is sitting on a stockpile of just 3 million units ready for shipment.
Still, Apple will need to execute flawlessly. In units built and shipped, the iPhone launch will dwarf anything Apple has attempted. It plans to have 3 million iPhones ready for sale on June 29, two sources say. (Apple won't comment.) And with its touch-screen keyboard, powerful battery-sapping processors, and a panoply of new applications, the iPhone is far more complex than the iPod. Glitches could lead to costly recalls and returns if buyers find the phone buggy or confusing.
Source: BusinessWeek
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Reality on IPhone:
I worked for several years as a director in new product marketing at a major carrier. Here is prediction on the IPhone Launch
Week prior; Buzz Buzz Buzz
Day of launch: You would think the messiah has returned, but hey what’s this? – other PDA/Phone vendors drop their prices – how dare they
First two weeks: Everyone is happy – warehouse is empty, reports of $1000 prices on ebay
Week three: The first shoe falls – a killing over a iPhone, a child porn video downloaded, or a major bug or the network fails and Cingular/ATT a/ Apple start finger pointing - oh and woman start complining about the makeup smear on the screen
Week four: What happened to sales ? Holy c^%#& why are people that live paycheck to paycheck not shelling out $500 for a phone?
Week 5: Show 2 falls, major channel incentives start to push price down and Cingular/ATT execs are freaking out over the panicked actions of indirect retail channel – COGS start to Climb
Week6: Steve Jobs get his first negative call from the purchasing SVP and/or the SVP of indirect sales over at Cingular/ATT – can you please lower the price Steve?
Week7: Media smells blood – story start to leak – the bloom is off the rose
Week8: Suddenly 2MM units start to look - hard to move
Week 9: Gee who wants a $500 phone anyway
Week 10: Cingular/Att /Apple strat trying to divert attention by announcing a forthcoming application (exclusively available for the iPhone)
Week 11: What the hell are we going to do with all these iPhones sitting in a wharehouse?
Week 12: ATT/Cingular – whatever – execs start to look for someplace to hide – resume in hand
Week 13: Somebody releases iPhone returns data, price on Ebay is 50% street price
Week 14: iPhone launches a music related program – who cares ?
Week15: Why iPhone users not buying mobile data ? – they got no money cause the phone cost so much
Week16: Gee Ya know – its not that good a voice phone anyway !
Interesting viewpoint. It's difficult to say to predict how successful iPhone will be once the hype balloon deflates, but I suspect it's here to stay.