• by David , May 31, 2007

An interesting piece on why Apple's iPhone is likely to take a Red Delicious-sized bite of the market than a McIntosh-sized share.

From Fastcompany.com:

Apple experts, such as MacWorld's Chris Breen, and Editorial Director Jason Snell, argue that the company is unlikely to dominate the cell phone market the way it does the music player market. First and foremost, the iPod entered a far less competitive and well populated market than the one the iPhone will have to crack. Additionally, Apple has limited itself by committing to Cingular, which has a customer base of about 60 million. It is notable that 55 percent of those polled in the ChangeWave survey expressed satisfaction with their existing cell phones -- indicating no intention of switching networks.

Some excellent points are made here from my young vantage point. As "cool" as the iPhone sounds, I'm not about to switch carriers for it.

Standing in a Verizon Wireless store a few weeks ago I observed as customers of all ages ran around from display model to display model, talking about what the phone does and how it looks.

Not once do I recall hearing anyone ask, "Well, how's the reception?" or "Does this one drop a lot of calls?"

There's a fine line between pleasure and usefulness, and the carriers are certainly learning to walk that line.