Michael
May 1st, 2007, 03:09 PM
Today, <a href="http://www.markitecture.com/innovation_insights/iphone.html">Markitecture a market research firm, claims</a> that despite a great interest in the iPhone, only 6% of cell phone owners are willing to make the switch to an iPhone.
According to their research, 83% of those "Very Familiar" with the iPhone had an excellent impression of the device, where as people who were only slightly familiar, 33% thought poorly of it.
<center><img src="http://www.iphonealley.com/images/storyimages/iphone_initial_impression.gif" alt="iPhone Impression Graph" /></center>
Despite this great impression of the iPhone, Markitecture's research indicates that only 6% of consumers are likely to purchase the phone within this next year. 89% of them say there's less than a 50/50 chance and 2/3 say there was no chance they'd buy the device. Now 6 out of every 100 consumers doesn't seem like much, but in the mobile phone market, that's huge. Stated in his keynote address at Macworld in January, Steve Jobs stated that to capture just 1% of the cell market would mean 10 million units sold.
Among all reasons for not getting the phone, the biggest was of course price. Definitely not surprising considering it's an Apple product. In fact, out of all the people that said "no" to the phone, a whopping 77% gave this as their reason. Other reasons indicated were not wanting to change carriers, needing more information on the product, current contracts in effect, believing Cingular to be unreliable and not enough features. Most notably among reasons against an iPhone purchase is the switch to a different carrier. In fact, people already on the Cingular/AT&T network are almost twice as likely to buy than those not.
So we've heard why people don't want Apple's new phone, but why do people want it? According to the survey, it's features. Other reasons stated are it's cool looks, Cingular being the carrier, wanting to be the first kid on the block with one, and it's good value. Most interesting to me, however, is the purchase intent relative to age.
<center><img src="http://www.iphonealley.com/images/storyimages/iphone_purchase_intent_age.gif" alt="Purchase intent by age" /></center>
It seems as though the demographic with the least amount of money is the one that wants it the most. It's awfully ironic considering the greatest reason for not getting one is the high price point. For me, I was disappointed with the price point. I would have liked to see a $300 baseline iPhone, but I had to remind myself "hey, it's Apple... and LOOK, it's shiny!" I didn't see anything about the shiny factor in this survey, but you can't tell me that's not the real reason on everyone's minds.
According to their research, 83% of those "Very Familiar" with the iPhone had an excellent impression of the device, where as people who were only slightly familiar, 33% thought poorly of it.
<center><img src="http://www.iphonealley.com/images/storyimages/iphone_initial_impression.gif" alt="iPhone Impression Graph" /></center>
Despite this great impression of the iPhone, Markitecture's research indicates that only 6% of consumers are likely to purchase the phone within this next year. 89% of them say there's less than a 50/50 chance and 2/3 say there was no chance they'd buy the device. Now 6 out of every 100 consumers doesn't seem like much, but in the mobile phone market, that's huge. Stated in his keynote address at Macworld in January, Steve Jobs stated that to capture just 1% of the cell market would mean 10 million units sold.
Among all reasons for not getting the phone, the biggest was of course price. Definitely not surprising considering it's an Apple product. In fact, out of all the people that said "no" to the phone, a whopping 77% gave this as their reason. Other reasons indicated were not wanting to change carriers, needing more information on the product, current contracts in effect, believing Cingular to be unreliable and not enough features. Most notably among reasons against an iPhone purchase is the switch to a different carrier. In fact, people already on the Cingular/AT&T network are almost twice as likely to buy than those not.
So we've heard why people don't want Apple's new phone, but why do people want it? According to the survey, it's features. Other reasons stated are it's cool looks, Cingular being the carrier, wanting to be the first kid on the block with one, and it's good value. Most interesting to me, however, is the purchase intent relative to age.
<center><img src="http://www.iphonealley.com/images/storyimages/iphone_purchase_intent_age.gif" alt="Purchase intent by age" /></center>
It seems as though the demographic with the least amount of money is the one that wants it the most. It's awfully ironic considering the greatest reason for not getting one is the high price point. For me, I was disappointed with the price point. I would have liked to see a $300 baseline iPhone, but I had to remind myself "hey, it's Apple... and LOOK, it's shiny!" I didn't see anything about the shiny factor in this survey, but you can't tell me that's not the real reason on everyone's minds.