We all know that the Verizon iPhone will be a big hit but how many units will it sell? Well, at least one analyst is saying that this will be huge: 19 million feature phone users may switch over to the Apple smartphone on Big Red.
Analyst William Power of R.W. Baird & Co. got this whopping figure after conducting a survey of 1,000 people who were interested in the Verizon iPhone. The survey said about 30 percent would definitely buy it or probably buy it and that extrapolates to about 19 million users. This doesn’t take into account contract lengths though and it doesn’t indicate over what period of time this will entail.
When you consider that Apple was able to sell 16 million iPhones last quarter, it’s not too crazy to think that the Verizon iPhone can reach the 19 million mark in a year and a half or so but it’s still a staggering number.
The Verizon iPhone will be available for existing pre-order customers Feb. 3 but it will be fully available a week later for all comers. Apple said this launch will be “huge” and there are some concerns about whether will be able to keep up with supply. The company admitted that the 16 million units last quarter weren’t even enough to keep up with demand.
The Verizon iPhone will also have an interesting impact on Android. Big Red has made a big deal of pushing Android for the last year or so and this has helped Google’s mobile platform pull ahead of other operating systems in the United States but it may be slowed by iOS on the two major U.S. carriers.
It may not all be negative for Android though, as AT&T will be looking to push instead of the not-exclusive iPhone and Android-powered devices like the Motorola Atrix 4G may benefit from extra marketing dollars.
[Via TUAW]