Michael Dolan Dot Com

Tuesday, July 8th, 2008

iPhone 3G demand: HIGH

I’m honestly a bit surprised at how much demand there seems to be for the 3G iPhone. I can’t tell if it’s just nonsense that people are already lining up at the Apple flagship store in NYC or if there really will be such high demand in the US. Everyone I know that I’d consider an “early adopter” (except myself) already has an iPhone. If it were not for my Verizon contract, you could put me in that group. Is there really that much demand to upgrade to 3G? I consider lining up at a store days before the launch a publicity stunt more than an indicator of demand.

Now abroad I can understand. This will be the first time many markets get to use the iPhone at home so I can imagine the strong demand. O2 in the UK seems to be experience an iPhone customer craze. Below is a quote regarding the preorder launch… 13,000 iPhones per second…

“Demand was at 13,000 orders per second,” said Shurrock. “Frankly, we have to admit we just weren’t prepared for this unprecedented level of demand. No website is.”

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/07/08/apple_iphone_o2_email/

I will get an iPhone 3G – it’s impossible to avoid now that my contract expires in 30 days. I just wonder how long I’ll have to wait for stock to show up. I wonder how many new customers AT&T will land from its exclusive arrangement with Apple. Once the momemtum picks up with the lower price point, this could be the iPod 2.0 craze – all to AT&T’s benefit.