Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster, whose 50-hour survey of Apple (AAPL) stores produced the most definitive estimate of iPhone sales to date, has combined his data with yesterday’s report that Apple sold its 1 millionth iPhone on Sunday to calculate the effect of last week’s 33% price cut.
By Munster’s reckoning, Apple and AT&T (T) were selling an average of 9,000 iPhones a day before the price reduction, which would have put their quarterly sales at 594,000 as of Sept. 5. The two companies had already sold 270,000 phones in the previous quarter. To reach 1 million by Sept. 9, they would have had to sell 136,000 more phones, or 27,000 a day — a 300200% increase.
The new rate, Munster writes in a report to clients issued yesterday, “clearly represents an initial surge that is not sustainable.” He estimates that sales will stabilize at a 50% increase.
By the end of the quarter, he believes, Apple will have sold a total 1.28 million iPhones.
Written by Philip Elmer-DeWitt on September 11th, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on AAPL and T and iPhone.
At first, Apple’s (AAPL) new iPod touch seemed like the perfect solution to the iPhone/AT&T (T) dilemma. The day after Steve Jobs unveiled it (for shipment later this month) the rush of pre-orders pushed it to the top of Amazon’s best-seller list, where it was briefly the No. 1 selling electronics item.
A lot of people, it seems, like the idea of a pocket-size multi-touch Wi-Fi-enabled Web browser and music/video-player that doesn’t come with all that iPhone baggage — in particular, AT&T’s wireless network and two-year contract. With the touch, you could keep your current cellphone — and whatever wireless network works best for you — and use the new device for your entertainment, your news, your mail…
Uh oh. Your mail. There’s the rub. A mail client is not one of the applications Apple chose to put on the iPod touch.
Why not? There’s no technical barrier. There’s a very nice mail app on the iPhone that could be easily ported over to the new guy. After all, the two share the same user interface and operating system, and there’s plenty of room for it in the touch’s 8 and 16 GB Flash memories.
And there’s no question it would be popular. In a survey on 9to5Mac, right, mail was the No. 1 application readers wanted to see added to the device, ahead of iChat and Google Maps.
We put the question to Apple, and got this response from spokesperson Natalie Kerris:
“no juicy explanation, we just feel it’s the right feature set for that product.”
Which is to say the obvious: there is no mail program on the touch because Apple doesn’t want the device to cannibalize sales of the iPhone. They want to keep the iPhone, a communications product, separate in the consumer’s mind from the iPod touch, a music and entertainment device.
You might think this creates a perfect opportunity for outside developers to write a mail client, but that’s tricky. It’s hard enough to write applications for the iPhone and the touch without a proper software developers kit. But programmers also run the risk that Apple could at any time release their own mail client — either as a free software update or as a pay-for-download stand-alone application — putting the programmers out of business overnight.
That’s the kind of game Microsoft used to play in the PC software application market. And that’s the kind of trouble a company gets into when it manipulates feature sets to suit its needs rather than its customers’.
Written by Philip Elmer-DeWitt on September 8th, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on AAPL and T and iPods.
The first independently verified product that allows Apple (AAPL) iPhones to run on networks other than AT&T’s (T) is scheduled to go on sale today — but not to existing iPhone customers.
The pricing and terms of sale were made public in an e-mail from iPhoneSimFree.com that was sent to registered bulk buyers on Sunday and published that evening by Engadget. Sales start at $1,800 for 50 licenses; 5,000 can be had for $125,000. A redacted version of the e-mail is pasted below the fold.
The plan is for the software is to be distributed only by iPhone resellers — companies that buy the cell phones from Apple, modify them before they have been activated with AT&T, and then sell them to customers who want to use the iPhone on GSM networks overseas or on another GSM network in the U.S. (e.g. T-Mobile). Prices for the modified cell phones have not been set.
People who are already using iPhones on AT&T’s network could, in theory, pay to have their phones unlocked, but they would still be obligated to AT&T for the rest their 2-year contract.
This distribution strategy was devised with advice of lawyers and seems designed to avoid — or at least off-load — the legal problems associated with unlocking a cellphone for money.
An exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
allows individuals to unlock their own phones, but does not
necessarily protect companies that sell the same service to
others.
iPhoneSimFree has arranged things so that it won’t be unlocking any iPhones directly; that transaction is carried out by the reseller, who would presumably take on any legal risk. Resellers will also have to deal with customers should future iPhone software updates from Apple interfere with the modified phones.
iPhoneSimFree.com is the registered website of a core group of six anonymous software developers who broke the codes that locked the iPhone to AT&T’s network. In demonstrations to Engadget and CNN, iPhones modified with iPhoneSimFree’s software seemed to have all their functions intact except for Visual Voicemail and Apple’s streamlined version of YouTube.
iPhoneSimFree’s e-mail is pasted below, courtesy of Engadget.
From: Orders iPhoneSimFree.com
Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2007 8:42 PM
To: [redacted]
Subject: iPhone unlocking - WE ARE NOW ACCEPTING ORDERS
Thank you for contacting us. We are now ready to take orders.
Iphonesimfree is the only pure software solution available for iphone
unlocking. Easy to market, easy to use as indicated by several
respected independent reviews such as:
CNN:
<http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/09/01/apple.iphone/index.html>
Engadget:
<http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/24/iphone-unlocked-atandt-loses-iphone-exclusivity-august-24-2007/>
HOW DOES IT WORK?
The reseller or his/her customer must install on the iphone our
software, available by mail or through direct download from our site.
This is a standard .app file and once installed on the iphone it will
show up as a springboard icon on the main screen.
The reseller
must log into our back office and enter the required data specific to
that iphone (his license credit will be substracted).
Once
done, the reseller or the customer must run the .app, which will
communicate via the iphone wifi to our server. If the iphone has been
registered, the software will proceed to unlock the iphone.
It is that easy! In the unlikely case of any problem happening, we have a 24/7 hotline to assist our resellers.
WHAT IS THE PRICING STRUCTURE?
The minimum number of licenses you can order is 50 pieces. Minimum quantity and pricing are not negotiable.
50 licenses: $36/each
100 licenses: $34/each
250 licenses: $32/each
500 licenses: $30/each
1000 licenses: $28/each
2500 licenses: $27/each
5000 licenses: $25/each
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: WHAT GUARANTEES DO WE HAVE AGAINST FUTURE UPDATES?
We CANNOT guarantee that this software will work after any future
updates for the iphone. It does currently work on all firmware
versions, up to and including, 1.02. 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.
WE ARE A TEAM:
Iphonesimfree.com is a
wholesale only company. 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.
HOW DO I PLACE AN ORDER:
We are now taking orders. The delivery date is Tuesday, 4th of
September. If you want to purchase a bulk of licenses please reply to
this email with:
- Number of licenses you want to purchase
- Company name and address (or Name if you are not a company)
- Name of the contact
- Telephone number (at least one)
You will shortly receive a proforma invoice with all the details on how
to complete your order. Payment is by bank transfer only.
THANK YOU, WE LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR ORDER.
Best regards,
Iphonesimfree.com sales team.
Written by Philip Elmer-DeWitt on September 3rd, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on AAPL and T and iPhone.
Here’s an interesting solution to legal and technical problems involved in freeing Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone from its much maligned coupling with the AT&T (T) wireless network.
An anonymous donor, claiming to represent a group of open source advocates, today offered $100,000 for the right to release the code necessary to unlock an iPhone freely on the Web. The offer is posted here: FreeIPhoneforMoney.
At least two groups, UniquePhones and IPhoneSIMfree, claim to have developed a software-only solution that would fit the bill. But if they try to sell it, they risk running afoul of AT&T legal department (see iPhone Unlock Hits Legal Hang-Up). An exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act allows individuals to unlock their own phones, but would not necessarily protect commercial efforts to sell the same service to others.
FreeIphoneforMoney’s $100,000 offer would reward the efforts of the software developers while presumably skirting the legal problems. According to their post, “AT&T will not be able to do anything if it’s freely released ” like a 10-step software-and-solder procedure that New Jersey teenager George Hotz published on his website.
The offer sets a Wednesday 12 AM deadline (no timezone specified) and promises developers full credit for the code and control over the domain on which it is released. It adds:
PS. This is more thank (sic) you guys would have made, if you sold license to each person for $25.
E-mail sent Tuesday morning asking for further details and clarification has not yet been answered.
Written by Philip Elmer-DeWitt on August 28th, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on AAPL and T and iPhone.
For George Hotz, the 17-year-old New Jersey student who was the first to unlock an Apple (AAPL) iPhone, the answer is somewhere between $35,000 and $40,000.
That’s roughly the market value of the Nissan 350Z and three unmodified 8 GB iPhones he says he received in exchange for one of the two iPhones he modified — with the help of a soldering gun and some complicated software hacks — to make them work on networks other that AT&T’s (T).
Hotz had originally put the iPhone — signed on the back — up for sale on eBay, but ran into what his blog describes as “tons of problems” that the auction site apparently could not resolve. He ended offering the phone to the highest bidder through private sale via e-mail, a transaction that was completed Saturday afternoon, one day before he left home for college.
Hotz says he will donate the iPhones to three of the people who helped him crack the device’s codes. He will presumably keep the “sweet” Nissan 350Z. “This has been a great end to a great summer,” he wrote in his blog’s final message. (link)
The buyer was reported to be Terry Daidone, founder of CertiCell, a Louisville, Ken.-based company that according it its website “provides a comprehensive portfolio of products and services
that facilitate the acquisition, repair and redeployment of aftermarket mobile phones.”
Two other software-only methods of unlocking iPhones have since emerged, but the first attempt to offer a solution for sale has run into legal snags. See here.
Written by Philip Elmer-DeWitt on August 27th, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on AAPL and T and iPhone.
