""IPhone's First Round Punch Lands Hardest on Treo and T-Mobile"

[terryjohnson16]

I wonder how much did it affect T-Mobile:
IPhone's First Round Punch Lands Hardest on Treo and T-Mobile (http://www.cellular-news.com/story/26704.php)

According to a new report from The NPD Group, early buyers demonstrate that the iPhone is managing to bridge the gap between content-focused feature phones and productivity-focused smartphones. NPD's iPhone Report is a top-line view of initial buyers of the iPhone, which provides insight into how Apple's entry into the market is affecting mobile phone product sales among consumers in the USA.

"The iPhone's Internet and media capabilities have resonated with consumers -- especially those who previously owned Treos and Sidekicks," said Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis at NPD. "Its advanced operating system makes it competitive with smartphones for many tasks, while its sleek design and lack of expandability is reminiscent of fashion phones."

Initial iPhone buyers were 10 times more likely than other new phone buyers to have previously owned a Treo and three times more likely to have owned a T-Mobile branded phone, such as the popular Sidekick model. Both the Treo and the Sidekick offer a physical keypad -- something the iPhone, with its touch screen-based interface, does not. In contrast, iPhone buyers were no more likely than the average buyer to have previously owned a Blackberry.

"The iPhone's lack of corporate email support appears to make it less appetizing to current Blackberry owners," Rubin said.

When it comes to carrier switching, Alltel and T-Mobile took the biggest hit from Apple and AT&T's iPhone marketing juggernaut. Consumers who switched carriers to buy an iPhone were three times more likely to switch from Alltel or T-Mobile than from other carriers. Sprint and Verizon also lost customers to AT&T and the iPhone, but not nearly to the same degree, due to their existing over-the-air (OTA) music offerings, rich video and data services and 3G networks already in place.

Surveys were received from more than 13,000 consumers who acquired mobile phones within the prior 30-day period -- among this group, more than 200 purchased a new iPhone. The data was weighted, balanced and projected to represent the total U.S. population.

Posted to the site on 15th October 2007

[j__1]

It'll be interesting to see what Google is doing.

If TMO USA and Alltel are truly taking a big hit to non-prosumers that are willing to make the jump to a 'smart' phone, future partner negotiations should be more friendly for non-telecom players. In fact, to a certain degree, many of the big carriers have to be feeling sorta desperate.

Apple, a former telco newbie, is not the only circling shark in the water. There's a TON of margin up for sale and a TON of revenue sitting on the table... And if the telecom players get out of the way, there is a ton of horizontal value to be unlocked for all. Golly gee... I love trade. ;)

[greenblood]

I'd say the goers should get punished, and it's done (paid $200 more)
now iPhone is unlockable, and able to be used with ALL GSM carriers
the impact against T-Mobile is minimal now
but I'd like to see the Q3 result, I guess churn rate is not that bad, but customers' growth may got hit
but Q4 will be a big bounce after 3G enabled in some markets
Nokia and HTC are likely to supply more devices for T3, moto will not do it till later next year, SE is questionable, Samsung may supply more models (T819?)

[darkjedi]

I'd say the goers should get punished, and it's done (paid $200 more)
now iPhone is unlockable, and able to be used with ALL GSM carriers
the impact against T-Mobile is minimal now
but I'd like to see the Q3 result, I guess churn rate is not that bad, but customers' growth may got hit
but Q4 will be a big bounce after 3G enabled in some markets
Nokia and HTC are likely to supply more devices for T3, moto will not do it till later next year, SE is questionable, Samsung may supply more models (T819?)

I still think the iphone will have an impact on the big players for the foreseeable future. The fact that it can be unlocked simply isn't known to enough people outside of the wireless blog world and while 10% is the best guess for people buying the phone for unlocking purposes, thats still over a million people who bought it without the need to unlock. The statistics still side with ATT having an excellent holiday season with the iphone paving the way.

You still are hoping for a q4 rollout of 3g and I think right now, that rollout is a guessing game and I'd hate to see you guys get disappointed yet again when it fails to be unleashed. Instead, I'd focus on other T-mobile rumors and let the 3g be a surprise.

[j__1]

...Q4 will be a big bounce after 3G enabled in some marketsCan you tell me a little bit more about your thinking here? And besides us in the nerd herd, who do you think is waiting to buy 3G from TMO vs. its competitors?

[darkjedi]

Can you tell me a little bit more about your thinking here? And besides us in the nerd herd, who do you think is waiting to buy 3G from TMO vs. its competitors?

Thats probably very true, I think there are the "nerd herd" as you so eloquently put it and probably some in the business world who stay up to date with the latest and greatest but I don't think the average T-mobile consumer has any real concern for 3g. Either they don't know about it don't care, if they did they wouldn't be with T-mobile as a provider. Certainly if 3g was a priority to as many people as some might think, the competition would be flush with new customers and T-mobile would be bleeding worse than Sprint.

[homobile]

Yeah,I think the general population doesn't know what 3G is and def doesn't want to pay extra for it.Hopefully when T-Mo finally does release it,they can keep the prices low enough that it might actually attract people to something they don't want to pay the big bucks for.

[greenblood]

I am sure T-Mobile will make a HUGE push with 3G
if 3G has better reception than existing 2G, the customers will migrate to 3G naturally, esp currently 2G 1900 signal is not strong enough

[greenblood]

I still think the iphone will have an impact on the big players for the foreseeable future. The fact that it can be unlocked simply isn't known to enough people outside of the wireless blog world and while 10% is the best guess for people buying the phone for unlocking purposes, thats still over a million people who bought it without the need to unlock. The statistics still side with ATT having an excellent holiday season with the iphone paving the way.

You still are hoping for a q4 rollout of 3g and I think right now, that rollout is a guessing game and I'd hate to see you guys get disappointed yet again when it fails to be unleashed. Instead, I'd focus on other T-mobile rumors and let the 3g be a surprise.

just out of curiousity
it appears you're pretty anti-T-Mobile and pro iPhone after you went to at&t
it appears I am pretty pro T-Mobile, I am still neutral
iPhone hype dies down, and our co-worker got iPhone, I see it everyday, and I'm not really impressed, not by my prejudice, but it's lacking as a phone

[darkjedi]

just out of curiousity
it appears you're pretty anti-T-Mobile and pro iPhone after you went to at&t
it appears I am pretty pro T-Mobile, I am still neutral
iPhone hype dies down, and our co-worker got iPhone, I see it everyday, and I'm not really impressed, not by my prejudice, but it's lacking as a phone

As we have discussed for quite some time, again you are more concerned with what YOUR opinions are and not looking at the big picture. In your post above, you talked about customers moving to 3g for better reception. You're assuming that customers are aware that better reception is available on lower frequencies, the average consumer doesn't know that nor do they take the time to research it. Also, you are assuming that people will once again jump to purchase new handsets, remember the backlash with myfaves when people were forced to buy new equipment. Someone who is unhappy with their current reception isn't likely to buy into the notion that better reception is available and they will be more likely to change carriers when their contract is up, rather than take a chance at T-mobile again.

What I'm trying to say Matt is that I like look at things from a consumer point of view, you consider your opinion and then state is as fact and consider it the broad opinion and thats not the way to handle things.

Just because YOU don't like the iphone doesn't mean that sales will cease or that Apple will fail. The hype for that phone is still out there and ATT and Apple will still be able to ride the wave for the foreseeable future. It is a terrific product for what it does, yet its not trying to be a blackberry or a windows mobile phone. Apple is trying to create a new genre where you can be functional and simple are two qualities that the smart phone market has all but ignored. We should rejoice here, this has allowed manufacturers to consider new directions and show them that touchscreens are viable, that customers are willing to pay a little more for something they really want. America has long been the red-headed step child of Nokia, SE, LG etc because of our views as a country when it comes to pricing and technology. We're the last adopters but now for the first real time we have a product thats in demand, the last time this happened the razr debuted. That was what, almost 4 years ago. The iphone will make manufacturers think and look in new directions and I'm excited to see what they will think of next, not just to combat the iphone but to improve our daily lives.

OF COURSE I am pro-Tmobile still, I am pro ATT, I am pro all carriers. I want every carrier to succeed so we have options. I want each carrier to be turning a profit right now so they will consider new and exciting ways to increase those profits and move more customers over to their side. The success of the big 4 benefits everyone eg: we have read about Sprint coming out with their call 3 for free service. Well that came out because of the success T-mobile has had with myfaves. That's the big picture my friend.

[Ellen]

Thats probably very true, I think there are the "nerd herd" as you so eloquently put it and probably some in the business world who stay up to date with the latest and greatest but I don't think the average T-mobile consumer has any real concern for 3g. Either they don't know about it don't care, if they did they wouldn't be with T-mobile as a provider. Certainly if 3g was a priority to as many people as some might think, the competition would be flush with new customers and T-mobile would be bleeding worse than Sprint.

Why do you think T-Mobile would bleed worse than Sprint? :confused:
I know a lot of AT&T customers including myself that have nothing but problems with their 3G service. AT&T's use of the 1900MHz mode VS 850MHz that could have made the transition to their new 3G network much easier. I'm all for technology progressing to the next level here, but I'm not going to stand up and cheer on 3G like it's the best thing going right now. IMO, 3G only makes a difference in relation to data speeds, and for a person who doesn't use data services on their handsets, trying to deal with the constant switching of 3G to an EDGE connection is going to do nothing more than frustrate them into finding another provider.....We can only hope that T-Mobiles use of the 1700MHz spectrum won't cause the same problems.

[darkjedi]

Why do you think T-Mobile would bleed worse than Sprint? :confused:
I know a lot of AT&T customers including myself that have nothing but problems with their 3G service. AT&T's use of the 1900MHz mode VS 850MHz that could have made the transition to their new 3G network much easier. I'm all for technology progressing to the next level here, but I'm not going to stand up and cheer on 3G like it's the best thing going right now. IMO, 3G only makes a difference in relation to data speeds, and for a person who doesn't use data services on their handsets, trying to deal with the constant switching of 3G to an EDGE connection is going to do nothing more than frustrate them into finding another provider.....We can only hope that T-Mobiles use of the 1700MHz spectrum won't cause the same problems.

I'm considering it as a possibility if 3g really had the importance and the long waiting list greenblood would like to think they do. If that WAS the case and I emphasize that because it isn't; but if it was something that had the focus of so many customers, people would be moving away from T-mobile in droves because they are the only major carrier not to have a 3g service. My argument is that the importance of 3g right now is limited to a small number of people over at ATT and while Sprint and Verizon have a larger base its merely because most of their handsets already have that service included. I'm sure if we did a survey and asked how many customers cared about vcast, the numbers would be skewed toward "no."

I'm saying they would bleed worse than Sprint because customers would be running for the hills based on that members assumption on how many of T-mobile's 26 million customers are waiting for 3g religiously. If people wanted high speed services bad enough, they'd go elsewhere. Its consumerism and its competition.

[greenblood]

Why do you think T-Mobile would bleed worse than Sprint? :confused:
I know a lot of AT&T customers including myself that have nothing but problems with their 3G service. AT&T's use of the 1900MHz mode VS 850MHz that could have made the transition to their new 3G network much easier. I'm all for technology progressing to the next level here, but I'm not going to stand up and cheer on 3G like it's the best thing going right now. IMO, 3G only makes a difference in relation to data speeds, and for a person who doesn't use data services on their handsets, trying to deal with the constant switching of 3G to an EDGE connection is going to do nothing more than frustrate them into finding another provider.....We can only hope that T-Mobiles use of the 1700MHz spectrum won't cause the same problems.

I'm not only want better internet experience, but currently having system busy error due to network overloaded
3G can lighten up the burden
on top of that, I won't miss incoming calls with 3G when internet is active