vB Easy Archive - Just 1% of Britons want an iPhone

Pages: 1

Just 1% of Britons want an iPhone
(Click here to view the original thread with full colors/images)

Posted by: NEMHZ

According this survey

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/ma...cniphone124.xml

Posted by: davistld01

Those accross the pond are not so easily impressed by "coolness" or so fast to jump on the latest and greatest thing to come down the pike as we Americans are. Personally, I doubt the UK iPhone will be even a hint of the success that Apple has had here in the States.

Posted by: marktang

well in europe they are used to seeing high end phones. so iphone wouldnt be as popular as in the US i think

Posted by: Hamzter

I think the main problem is not the phone, but the contracts, in the UK there's different expectations from the contracts, but exactly the same contract structure is being used as in America. I don't know what your feelings are in America but here £35 for 200 txts and 200 mins is very poor, a £37.50 regular contract will get you 400 minutes, 1000 texts and 'unlimited' data, plus a free phone (including phones like the N95).

Also, texting is far more popular here than in the US from what I understand, the current contracts just don't appeal at all to the texters among us. I regularly send 400-500 texts a month, and alot of people I know send alot more, the current contracts only offer up to 500 texts which I'm sure puts alot of people off.

Posted by: Aridon

What percent of people in the US do you think have one? Its less than 1% more like .4 %.

Anyways 1% is still a huge number I'm not sure what the pop is over in the UK but I'd guess 50-60 Million so that puts 500k - 600k Iphones.

How is that bad? Sounds like more interest than here in the states per capita.

Posted by: KDarling

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aridon

How is that bad? Sounds like more interest than here in the states per capita.

Just before the original launch, 9% of the US, and 16% of the UK, expressed an interest in buying an iPhone:

http://www.itwire.com/content/view/12944/53/

But only 1/20th of those 9% in the US actually bought one.

So if it's now only 1% in the UK pre-launch...

Posted by: JerryNY

Well considering only 4% of the people surveyed knew Apple had a phone that 1% is phenomenal as it represents 25% of who knew of the phone. Just out of curiosity how can you find only 4% in a survey anywhere that know about the iPhone. Sure the iPhone has been the subject of more of a build-up in the US than anywhere else but to have a survey in the UK where 96% aren't aware that Apple is making a phone seems ridiculously low.

Posted by: JerryNY

Quote:

Originally Posted by KDarling

...and 16% of the UK, expressed an interest in buying an iPhone:

Something is wrong with the latest survey there if 16% expressed interest 6 months ago and only 4% now even know Apple has a phone. Have those 12% been on some drinking binge killing off brain cells the last 6 months

Posted by: RogerPodacter

well for starters, once the iphone was released they may have lost interest over there. hell, all the networks support video calling over there. will the iphone even support that? prob not. granted i dont know how popular video calling is over there, but at least it exists. so when people now know that besides the impressive UI of the iphone, there isnt much else to it, it prob arouses no interest no most of the brits.

Posted by: CyniKal.Mindset

brits like their simple phones...if you ever been to a UK country you still see people running around with basic nokias and ericssons...they get drunk too much to worry about smashing an iphone hahaha

Posted by: Hamzter

Quote:

Originally Posted by CyniKal.Mindset

brits like their simple phones...if you ever been to a UK country you still see people running around with basic nokias and ericssons...they get drunk too much to worry about smashing an iphone hahaha

lol, oi! just cos we haven't got your fancy iPhones yet

Posted by: campas21

Quote:

Originally Posted by NEMHZ

According this survey

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/ma...cniphone124.xml

two things

1. i didn't want one when it came out cause a) strict contracts b) inability to add stuff to it....once i was able to circumvent my interest soared.

2. i was at a wedding a few weeks back- there were about 20 british ppl that came to the wedding (friends of the groom)- all 20 (girls and guys) went out and bought the iphone.

Posted by: RufusRyker

Quote:

Originally Posted by campas21

two things

2. i was at a wedding a few weeks back- there were about 20 british ppl that came to the wedding (friends of the groom)- all 20 (girls and guys) went out and bought the iphone.

Now THAT story (about the wedding) deserves its own article in a major newspaper!

Seriously, I have major skepticism about this "online" study. First off, I read UK publications all the time, and there have been PLENTY of articles on the iPhone. The idea that only 4% of a surveyed "online" population have heard of the iPhone sounds absurdly low.

Second, on the internet, according to surveys, Ron Paul is shoo-in for the Republican nomination. I rest my case.

Posted by: KeanosMagicHat

The iPhone was pitched as a convergence device, phone, internet, email and music all in one.

This was the correct approach and a market that is still emerging.

I am an Englishman and I'm usually an early adopter with technology.

The UK marketplace is somewhat ahead of the US when it comes to cell phone technology expectations.

Until an iPhone is released with 3G, 16GB, Bluetooth file transfer and voice dialing (preferably similar to the excellent VoiceSignal on the Motorolas), I won't be buying one ..... and I don't think I'm alone in that regard.

Shame as I've had a play with one and they are excellent other than those key aspects I've mentioned.

Posted by: campas21

Quote:

Originally Posted by KeanosMagicHat

The iPhone was pitched as a convergence device, phone, internet, email and music all in one.

This was the correct approach and a market that is still emerging.

I am an Englishman and I'm usually an early adopter with technology.

The UK marketplace is somewhat ahead of the US when it comes to cell phone technology expectations.

Until an iPhone is released with 3G, 16GB, Bluetooth file transfer and voice dialing (preferably similar to the excellent VoiceSignal on the Motorolas), I won't be buying one ..... and I don't think I'm alone in that regard.

Shame as I've had a play with one and they are excellent other than those key aspects I've mentioned.

meh. majority of the guys had nokia n95's....technologically better, but no where near as slick UI...

Posted by: amkls704

To the person that posted about the 9% of people in the US and 16% in the UK that expressed interest in buying an iPhone before release, and now less than 1% of Britons want it...I have an explanation for that...

They all got on HoFo, and read all the chronic complainers threads, and they all got into their heads. hahahahaha

Posted by: BrandonFSU

I dunno...maybe the survey is right. I remember when I first heard about it here in America. As the launch neared all the details about it came out and it looked worse and worse. I thought thats interesting but 600 dollars for 8gb? no 3g? a 2 megapixel camera? no flash? no video recording? no integrated gps? Why would I give up my n75 n95 or my other phones for that? I already had an Ipod too. Then.........I went to the store. And I actually sat and played with one for 10 minutes and I was like damn I want this. As the other poster said, those other phones can do more but the UI is slick as hell on the Iphone. What I'm getting at there's a big difference of seeing it on television hearing the statistics, the various experts discussing it, and then actually going to the store and playing with it yourself. But we'll see shortly how it turns out.

Posted by: gillbk

Why does this surprise anyone?

You all fell for the "hype" of the simple commercial music and trendy looking actors. The iPhone is all about form over function. Funny though how I almost bought an iPhone until I woke from my commercial trance and started to think for myself. This is about the time I decided to go with the Blackberry Curve 8310. Do the research, Mr. Jobs has done a lovely job of locking your phone to what his company has approved for use. It's been interesting if not amusing to google "iPhone" and see all the complaints about the fact that the phone is locked down or the battery is not replaceable (really?

) or if you try to do an unauthorized update you'll (possibly) brick your phone with the next authorized update and how about that price reduction? Priceless

Posted by: flyingdutchman

I think the problem with the survey is not the 1%, but the 4%. How did 16% of Brits want the iPhone, and now only 4% even know about it? Clearly there is a big problem with one of the surveys. It does not matter though, the sales numbers are all that matters.

Posted by: RogerPodacter

for some reason i was never blown away by the UI when i played with the iphone in person. and i was totally on board leading up the its release. i actually like using by old style click>click>menu style phone over touch.

Posted by: JerryNY

Quote:

Originally Posted by KeanosMagicHat

The UK marketplace is somewhat ahead of the US when it comes to cell phone technology expectations.

And yet you are the one of about every 25 UK residents surveyed that even know about the iPhone. You figure with all this advanced knowledge of cell phone compared to the US they might have heard of it

I can't seem to find where I read it but apparently the % of cell plans in Europe that have data plans is astonishingly low, probably has to do with expensive prices for the plans but part of Apple's strategy is to work on getting reasonably priced plans for average users and the sales will follow.

Posted by: campas21

Quote:

Originally Posted by gillbk

Why does this surprise anyone?

) or if you try to do an unauthorized update you'll (possibly) brick your phone with the next authorized update and how about that price reduction? Priceless

it's not hype. the fact that emails/websites are essentially the same as if i were sitting at my desktop, along with the ipod function and the ability to hack it= teh ****. i've been through many fones- bberrys/treos/blakjack/etcetc...and like i said, i'm sticking with the iphone. even my british friends who are using n95's, or my friends here who just got the tilt, still say they think they want the iphone

Posted by: RogerPodacter

it might also be that in the UK the iphone produced such little hype with the low amount of features that it didnt arouse any interest so people generally didnt hear about it or even care enough.

Posted by: KDarling

I just grabbed the first survey I found. Mea culpa if it was a weird one

As for exposure...

In the US, teenager style and opinion is driven by blogs and pseudo-reporting sites (that just copy each other)... and phones are a huge style statement here. Not to mention that even mainline US news stations and sites did a lot of hyping over the months prior to sales launch.

What are those like in the UK? (Phone style, teen blogs, news coverage)

Posted by: scotsboyuk

Quote:

Originally Posted by JerryNY

Most Britons are interested in having a mobile phone (the penetration rate being above 100%), but that doesn't mean to say that the majority keep up to date on industry news. Most Britons probably don't associate Apple with mobile phones, at least not yet. There is also a wealth of choice in terms of handsets so there are multiple products competing for attention, especially now that 'fashion phones' seem to be in vogue.

Quote:

I can't speak for the rest of Europe, but data prices in the UK are quite reasonable. All the national networks offer 'unlimited' (subject to fair use) data packages for around £7.50/month and there is usually a maximum charge of around £1-£1.50/day if one doesn't have a data package. Non-sms data usage is still a minority part of networks' revenue in the UK (and probably America too).

There are two problems with your assumption. The first is that the iPhone only has EDGE. O2's EDGE network is relatively small I hear so it's debatable how useful this will be to the majority of Britons. 3G handsets are quite common here and I imagine it might be difficult to reconcile the iPhone's multimedia capabilities with its lack of 3G. Wi-Fi is good of course, but then Wi-Fi coverage isn't ubiquitous or uniform.

The other problem is that the contracts that come with the iPhone are good for data usage despite the iPhone's shortcomings in connectivity options, but not so good in terms of voice calls and texts. £35/month for 200 minutes and 200 texts is really quite poor, especially when the handset costs £270. It's the price that is going to be the sticking point for many people in my opinion. A £35/month contract usually gets you 400-600 minutes/month and around the same number of texts (although Orange do 'unlimited' texts) as well as a free phone i.e. the N95. Many people may baulk at paying such a high price for the iPhone in comparison.

On a personal note, I work in a mobile phone shop and so far we have had a handful of people ask about the iPhone (and one person who has one). Interest in it doesn't appear to be that great although to be fair, the advertising campaign is yet to get into full swing.