O2 UK moves 190,000 iPhones in first 8 weeks of sales
By Will Park on Monday, January 21st, 2008 at 1:10 PM PST In Announcements, Apple, Financial, O2, iPhone
All those European-iPhone naysayers are sure to love this little tidbit coming out of the UK.
The Financial Times is reporting that “people familiar with the situation” have indicated that O2 (NYSE: TEF) UK, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s British iPhone partner, has moved something like 190,000 iPhones out its doors in the first two months of iPhone-sales - which is pretty much on track with O2’s goal of selling 200,000 iPhones in the first 8 weeks of sales.
O2 declined to comment on actual sales numbers, but has said that it is “delighted with the response to the iPhone, which has seen unprecedented levels of customer satisfaction,” adding that the Apple iPhone is O2’s hottest-selling mobile phone “by a significant margin.”
The report comes amid speculation that iPhone sales have been sluggish in the UK. But, this new report seems to fall in line with Ben’s assertion that the iPhone has sparked an upturn in O2’s subscriber-count. We all know that the iPhone lacks in the features department, but that fact actually makes a stronger case for the iPhone’s impact on the global mobile phone market.
Well done, O2. Now, just make sure you snag the 3G iPhone contract, ‘kay?
[Via: MacDailyNews]
Im not sick of the iphone, but the continual hype/emdia attention/posts on the iphone! Nevertheless it does fall rarther short of the 400,000 some predicted!;)
Oh Will, haven’t you learned from the last time you posted something inadvisable?
Obviously not.
It’s not nay-saying, it’s just a simple understanding of the European mobile market and how it’s vastly different from that of the US. The fact of the matter is that sales are a bit less than expected and certainly less then the comical musings of some of the analysts.
As for the iPhone being O2’s fastest selling item all I can say is “so what?”. It’s not as if people had the option of subscribing to another network so this is a meaningless statement. A better comparison would be to the LG Viewty which sold about the same number of units in Europe over the same period. Of course, this is just one other phone - other smartphones moved similar numbers. In other words the iPhone fills a niche, nothing more.
Two things stand out here: Firstly, Americans shouldn’t apply their market conditions to the world and, secondly, reputable news is always better than the idle speculation of bloggers.
Is it speculation that the Financial Times reported “insider-sourced” sales numbers? Granted the numbers are not confirmed, but it’s not like I just pulled that number from the air and posted about it.
Is it speculation that O2 declared the iPhone the fastest selling handset?
“So what?”…No other handset has sold at that rate on O2’s network. The fact that the iPhone is locked to O2 is irrelevant. My apologies for mentioning that quote.
Now, if I had posted about the LG Viewty’s sales numbers, would you be calling it “idle speculation?” I doubt it.
I understand that the European market is different from the US market. How does that fact take away from my providing information regarding the iPhone’s sales performance?
Perhaps it’s not nay-saying, per se, but I keep seeing people getting all riled up when the iPhone gets mentioned in a positive light.
If anything, I admire how the iPhone has polarized so-called “enthusiasts”