Apple (AAPL) confident it would hit its 2008 iPhone targets
Posted by: in Marketing and AdvertisingFiled under: Rumors, Products and services, Consumer experience, Apple Inc (AAPL), Marketing and advertising, iPhone
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has been on the rise today, as renewed enthusiasm over future iPhone sales has brought buyers into the stock, pushing shares up $7.67 to $130.63, or 6.2% .
The company has stated that its goal for overall iPhone sales by the end of 2008 was 10 million units, and according to Apple’s COO, Tim Cook, the company remains confident in hitting that hefty goal.
Since the highly anticipated release of the iPhone last year, there have been a couple of points that Apple has taken a bit of heat over, the first being that outside programmers were not granted to write programs for the iPhone, and the second being the company’s decision to grant individual carriers rights to sell their phones in their respective countries.
Both of these shortcomings might soon change according to Cook. Speaking to to a Goldman Sachs investor group in Las Vegas, Cook hinted that starting on March 6 the company would give programmers the tools that they need to start creating outside programs for iPhones. This could open untold numbers of new applications for iPhone users, and will definitely spark even more interest in the $400 smartphone.
The second area that has brought criticism to the company is the individual carrier restriction that it chose to adopt. This restriction might be coming to an end sooner than later, as Cook acknowledged that the company was “not married to the single, exclusive-carrier model.”
Many iPhone users have already managed to get around the single carrier restriction, and it has been estimated by Bernstein Research that as many as 25% of all the iPhones in use out there are “unlocked” so that they can utilize non-approved networks. The problem for Apple is that for these users the company does not get its cut of carrier fees.
I don’t have an iPhone (although I’ve played with many of them) but I’ve to state that they really do impress me. Everyone that I have met who has an iPhone, has fallen immediately in love with the unit. I’ve to think then, that by allowing a wider selection of carriers along with a wider selection of programs, Apple will easily be able to hit its 2008 goal, and probably easily surpass it.
How about our BloggingStocks readers out there? How many of you own an iPhone, and what are your thoughts on the product? Will more of you buy one if / when the company starts allowing outside programmers to write programs for the phones? And if so, what applications would you really like to see being offered for the phones?
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