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Math on iPhones Just Doesn't Add Up?
Tech Dirt is reporting that recently announced numbers by Apple and AT&T suggest that there is a large gap (1.7 million) between the number of iPhones being sold and those being activated. Taking into account factors like the iPhone launching outside the US and a 20% estimate of people buying the iPhone just for the purposes of unlocking, there are still 700,000 iPhones unaccounted for. "[...] suggesting that they're sitting on store shelves, piling up as unsold inventory. That number suggests at least some gap between perceived demand and actual demand -- while also raising questions about how much effort it will take to eat through that inventory."
So is it really more likely there are 700,000 mysteriously missing iPhones, or perhaps the number of people buying them to unlock is higher than they think?
Does the number of ATT activations also include the pre-paid plans, or just the contracts?
I think the likely reason for the large difference is that AT&T is simply giving you a total number of users who activated a phone on the Specific iphone plans and it does not include users who are blending the data only plan addition with a regular voice plan.
Many people will need more minutes than the regular iphone specific plans can deliver or wanted to keep their existing plan and simply add the iphone features to it.
Or AT&T simply doesn't like paying Apple and they are looking for ways to under report the activations of iphones until after the customers window to cancel without penalties expire or something like that.
I went poking around AT&T's investor relations site, and it seems to me (though I didn't spend a whole lot of time there) that the 2 million number is the number of new AT&T customers who switched to AT&T wireless because of the iPhone. This does not count customers (such as myself) who kept my existing service but switched devices (in my case, from a Motorola RAZR to an iPhone).
If this is the case, it would explain a large amount of that gap.
I think part of the problem here is that the major media would like to report that the iPhone is a dismal failure somehow--and channel stuffing (a'la Microsoft's channel stuffing of the Zune) is one way to paint this picture. However, given the number of units I've seen on the shelves at the various stores I've gone to, I cannot imagine that 30% of Apple's iPhone stock was stuffed into the channel: that would mean that every Apple and AT&T store would have a mountain of iPhones sitting in the corner, and I'm not seeing it.
"When the president does it, that means it's not illegal." - Richard M. Nixon
um Ihave never replaced the battery in any phone I have ever owned. they are on 24hours a day. I charge them while they are on. by the time the battery goes weak in my phones 2-3 years have passed and I am thinking about a new one anyways. If you talk so much during he day that your phone can't keep a charge for one day you should try doing less talking.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
Yeah, well, it's kinda like the difference between a key for a Ferrari vs the key for a Ford.
Style, man. STYLE
You may hate Apple for doing the box that way, but to ME, it shows a company going all out to make something the best they can possibly make it the moment the end user comes into contact with the product.
Fine wine doesn't come in a plastic jug, does it? So, for Apple, a fine electronic device such as the iPhone should come in a nice box, too. Macs are expensive yet aren't the fastest computers out there, despite the hype. But you couldn't get a mac user to switch to a PC just because it was cheaper or faster. Why? I think it's the experience. Any Mac-o-philes care to chime in?
No, I don't have an iphone, I don't own a mac, and I'm not a mac fanboy, either.
Flappinbooger isn't my real name
Well, the guy I replied to with the Key analogy was discussing the box, I was sort of equating the key to a car to the box the iphone comes in. To compare the main component (the car, or the iphone) might break the analogy.
... Hey, it works! Bon!
... it's Italian and you feel really good about it.
Regardless, I've worked with Italian equipment, and Italians. They are good engineers and take great pride in workmanship. They also are very much into aesthetics and style. Very much. But, the Italian culture is way way different than that of the USA. To make a hasty generality, American engineers always always always focus on function above form. The Italians are so relaxed and laid back, they put things off or get things just good enough and let it go. As long as it just works, and as long as it looks good, it's fine. That's why they only crack down on the mafia when they become embarrassing. Out of sight, out of mind.
Here's an example. The PLC on a piece of equipment in Europe probably is going to be Siemens. In the USA, the PLC will be Allen Bradley, more likely than not. Well, if we would sell a piece of Italian equipment in the US, we would sell it with AB. They didn't want to completely rewrite the fairly extensive PLC program, so they employed a translation program that converted it from Siemens to AB. Polish it up a bit, and it works. But anyone with a clue who looks at it finds it to be spaghettied up and a clumsy mess. Whether it was spaghettied up and clumsy before, I don't know for sure, but
Now, don't get me wrong, the machines were very refined, worked very smoothly, had a lot of ingenious and elegant features, and look quite stylish. And had some not-insignificant shortcomings that you overlook because
Now I've figured it out - Steve Jobs is Italian!
Hey, get ahold of and watch the first episode of season 10 of Top Gear. When Clarkson is driving the Lambo and can't get the gas cap open - That sums it up.
Flappinbooger isn't my real name