“It’s a hard business to stay on top of your game quarter after quarter,” Zander said. “You have to have an almost maniacal focus.”

And here is what Zander had to say about the iPhone, “let’s see the product for goodness’ sake… It’s like waiting for a baby.”

“You won’t like what I’m about to say, but you spend too much time in the U.S. Touchscreens have been in use in Asia for years. [The iPhone] is the Apple UI, a Mac-patched phone in your pocket.” Despite the criticism he added with a sigh: “I’m sure it’s a great phone.”

Other quotes from the webcast:

• “I still think the RAZR as we know it today can make more money.”
• “When you talk Apple, don’t think that Nokia, Samsung and Motorola won’t have cool phones to respond.”
• “It’s not about market share anymore, though that’s fun… You can’t win by selling more units.”

[Vincent’s thought] There is no love from me when it comes to Motorola. So that’s why it brings me so much joy seeing Moto’s top dog squirm like a little girl.

Related: motorazr.com vs. Motorola: the verdict is in! [Via Vincent Nguyen]

—Thanks for the tip Tara!

She backed up this claim by citing a recent survey that they conducted last month of 2,500 US consumers. Most people looking to buy the iPhone come from two groups, those that own or plan to purchase a high-end device, and those that already have an Apple product.

The survey showed that the consumers that have, or plan to purchase the high-end devices are 12 times more likely to purchase and iPhone. Those that already own an Apple product were 13 times more likely to purchase one than those that don’t, or don’t own a high-end device.

Also, they found a direct correlation between consumers that had a high awareness of the iPhone, and those that desired to purchase one. So likely in the coming months as Apple does more marketing for the iPhone, more people will become aware, and want to purchase one.

Apple has done enough subtle marketing, I think that soon they’ll step it up and start releasing more solid details. Once they do, the general public will become more educated, and as the study shows, more interested.

Morgan Stanley sees demand for Apple’s iPhone underestimated [via appleinsider]

I have always believed that the success of the iPhone will be determined by the quality of it. Cook expressed similar feelings by stating “If we offer something that has tremendous value, that is sort of this thing people didn’t have in their consciousness — it was not imaginable — then I think there’s a whole bunch of people that will pay $499, $599.”

People still seem to wonder if there will be enough people willing to pay that price for a phone. In response Cook went on to compare the launch to that of the iPod and asked “how many $399 music players were being sold at that time?”

He makes very compelling arguments, but only time will tell if they can sell 10 million units in 2008. They’ve got at least one customer here, though I’ll be getting mine in June when they launch.

Apple Says IPhone to Sell Since Free Phones Worthless [via bloomberg]

Tim Cook (left) & Steve Jobs (right)

This Q&A session is available for streaming via QuickTime from Apple’s website. However, AppleInsider transcribed the portion of Mr. Cook’s speech relating to the iPhone for your reading pleasure. For this we thank AppleInsider.

Q: Almost from the second Steve stepped off the stage at Macworld there are people in the press and other people basically coming up with reasons why Apple can’t succeed in the phone market. Can you talk a little bit about why you think Apple will be a success?

A: Well, I think the iPhone is a revolutionary product. And Steve mentioned this at Macworld. And I think this is a very, very good point. Revolutionary products only come along so often. You know, Apple had the Macintosh in 1984 that reinvented the personal computer industry. The iPod in 2001 which reinvented the whole music industry. And we think the iPhone is that class product for the cell phone industry.

Step back and look at the [iPhone] and think about what it is. It’s a very small, thin, lightweight device. It’s a revolutionary cell phone. It has visual voicemail, which if you’re not familiar with that, essentially looks like e-mail. So you can select precisely the voicemail that you want to hear, not the order they happen to come in. It’s the best iPod Apple has ever done. And it’s this really cool internet device that has desktop class email, browsing, maps and searching, all in one product. And so I think people are going to be amazed and delighted over it. So we’ll have to see. Obviously there are people who would prefer us not to be successful in this. But I think this is a revolutionary product. And we’ll see what customers think because that is the most important thing.

Q: Your stated goal for calendar 2008 is to ship 10 million units, which is about 1 percent of the overall market. But given the functionality and price-point of the product, it eliminates most of the low end of the market. How do you look at the available market for the first-generation of iPhone and what kind of market share do you think you could take in that market?

A: The traditional way that all of us were taught in business school to look at a market was, you look at the products you are selling. You look at the price bands that are curving the market. You think about the price band that your product is in. You assume that you can get a percentage of it. And that is kinda how you get to the addressable market.

The rest of the transcript can be found at Apple COO chats about iPhone, 3G, and the Cingular partnership [Apple Insider]

Cook reiterated Jobs words from Macworld Expo that Apple expects to sell 10 million iPhones in 2008. Attendees at the Goldman Sachs 2007 Technology Investment Symposium Conference raised concerns about whether the iPhone would cut into the iPod territory, Cook said that iPod “is being sold for a wide variety of uses. We’ll see what happens.”

He also bragged that Apple has sold 90 million iPods since October 2001.

Apple COO: iPhone on track for June launch [Business Journal]