In a bizarre coincidence, the German iPhone sold by T-Mobile has today been named one of “the most sought after items” for the holiday period, as well as a potential dud. Market research firm comScore uses online search frequencies to guesstimate consumer demand, with the iPhone coming in third in the German sector; however, sales of the handset have been revealed by Financial Times Deutschland at a shocking 700 per day in the country, compared to T-Mobile’s healthy estimates of 10,000 per day.
German sales altogether have been comparatively weak, with 10,000 iPhones sold on the first day of availability; considering high-interest items such as Apple’s cellphone generally experience an initial peak before settling to more steady demand, T-Mobile’s ongoing predictions seem unbelievably hopeful.
InformationWeek’s Eric Zeman places much of the blame on the absence of an EDGE data network in German territory, however. Although the country is well served with super-high speed UMTS/WCDMA 3G, iPhone users are forced to rely on GPRS in the absence of the 2.5G connection Apple saddled the handset with.
“I’ve used the iPhone on a GPRS network, and can confirm that it is awful to use at those speeds. GPRS, which is slower than EDGE, kills the iPhone’s usability entirely. The mobile Web, YouTube and email programs are practically useless” Eric Zeman, Information Week
While their spat with Vodafone has not helped profit (and in fact T-Mobile is rumored to be considering suing their rival for damages), it looks likely that this almost archaic connectivity has soured the iPhone for all but the most devout Apple-addicts. It also suggests the care that should be taken predicting sales interest from search frequencies, particularly around high-hype gadgets that generate large amounts of interest even in those who would not consider buying one themselves.
Not sure how iPhone sales are currently tracking in Germany. We’ll know soon enough. Regardless, the iPhone user experience in Germany is apparently better than Eric Zeman implies in his article.
The video (see link below) is in German but no words are necessary
iPhone = BMW 700 series on a US Highway
Nokia = Yugo on the Autobahn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzETYbGEqgo
That’s pretty dismal sales if this info is correct. It appears that Apple didn’t do much homework in Germany. I certainly hope some other country is making up for Germany’s weak sales. I’ll just look at current poor German sales as a warm-up for the iPhone 2.0. Apple is supposed to sell 10 million iPhones for 2008, so even if sales aren’t even in every country, there may be enough countries to take up the slack.
Can we have a bit of responsible reporting regarding the 2.5 G network the iPhone is “saddled with”. Any customer who is not in a coverage area for 3G or EDGE is going to be limited to GPRS. Better than nothing and more than fine for email or Maps unlike your pundit quote. Sure – it’s not going to be great for web browsing but this isn’t an iPhone issue, it’s a coverage issue.
http://cimota.com/blog/2007/12/11/iphone-versus-3g-phone-web-shootout/
There’s precious little difference between 3G and EDGE 2.5 G in any real sense.
I’m glad to hear people are getting satisfactory connections via EDGE and that Eric Zeman’s experience was an atypical one; I still maintain that choosing EDGE over one of the 3G standards currently widespread in Europe was a mistake on Apple’s part. As for it being a coverage not an iPhone issue, I’d disagree: the vast majority of handsets released in Europe are 3G, and the networks are working to build speed capability to match the cellphones potential. Apple choosing EDGE has gone completely against all that, and you end up with a situation such as in the UK where O2 (who already have a 3G service with decent coverage) roll out last-gen networks in order to support the iPhone.
btw, mj, your link doesn’t seem to be work for me, and I couldn’t find the post using your site’s search. Do you have another link for it I could look at?