- Fortune, Friday, June 25, 2010 10:57 AM
Calling the iPhone 4 debut "Apple's biggest product launch ever,"
Fortune is commending the tech giant for
successfully building a recurring revenue stream from a growing base of loyal users. And it's not the only one. "Mission accomplished," writes Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster in a report to clients
issued early Friday.
"Apple has in three years built brand loyalty in the phone market that compels users to upgrade to the latest version and wait in line for one to six hours to pick up
their iPhone." Indeed, 77% of the iPhone 4 buyers that Munster's team spoke to were upgrading from a previous version. That's up from 56% in 2009, and 38% in 2008. What's more, "While we think Apple
will sell between 1.0 million to 1.5 million iPhones in the first three days (including preorders)," writes Munster, "the actual number is largely irrelevant ... Apple is tapping into the global
consumer spending sweet spot, mobile, and as a result iPhone numbers are going higher in the coming years."
Read the whole story at Fortune »
The fact that 77% are upgrading scares me. Where are new to file iPhone users?