The future of the iPhone

The 2007 Mac-World held in San Francisco is a conference that tech enthusiasts will find it hard to forget. After what he said to be a developing process lasting almost three years, a brilliant Steve Jobs introduced for the first time a revolutionary device said to be 'at least 5 years ahead of any other competitor' to a visibly excited crowd. But what is the actual success potential of this device?

iPhone features are quite remarkable and managed to bring great innovation to the telephone, music player and Internet market in one single piece of technology, with an advanced touch-based interface, a large hd display, and an elegant, yet 'slim' design, so innovative that, during the presentation, the same Jobs said its whole technology is subject of over 200 patents.

Initially, iPhone price seemed prohibitive to many analysts, being set at $599 for the 8GB model and $499 for the 4GB version. However, this didn't stop Apple from creating what can only be described as an 'iPhone-mania' among consumers which led to long lines in the opening days and exceptional sale figures, the item selling a whopping 750,000 units during in the US the first week, in June.

Competitors such as Nokia, Samsung and Sony-Ericsson quickly realized the incredible success of this new device and its market potential, despite its high price, and therefore started manufacturing what can only be called as 'iPhone clones', supplying what the original model didn't have (its main defect being the lack of an internet connection faster than GPRS-EDGE, due to battery life concerns) with a discrete success.

Later on, in the context of a design refreshening of all the iPod line, Jobs announced a drastic $200 price drop for the holiday season and discontinuing the 4GB model, which was said to be 'clearly not in the direction our customers took', making just 5% of the iPhone sales to that point. Such a drastic price drop was controversial at first, and was later explained to be part of the Apple strategy of selling 10,000,000 units - which is equivalent to roughly 1% of the mobile phone market - over the first year.

Can this figure be achieved? As of Jan 08, iPhone sales are almost at pace with Jobs high expectations, having sold close to 4,700,000 units, even despite the fact the device still has crucial missing features like the previously mentioned slow Internet connection, not-so-great storage capabilities, the impossibility to choose your own phone service vendor, and the fact it's still not available in all countries of Europe and Asia.

This is a clear indication of the phone potentials, even despite its still high price. Apple users, on the other hand, are long used to paying a little bit more than what they're use to in exchange for an innovative, reliable and somewhat fashionable product, and iPhone can be said to be absolutely in line with Apple product philosophy in this very sense.

Once even the most pressing requirements - faster internet connection and freedom to choose your favorite service provider before everything else - are satisfied, the way for iPhone success will inevitably get easier and easier for Apple, competitors being still far behind in the smart-phone market.