If there’s one thing that gets people riled up more than details on how well the iPhone is selling, it’s news that the iPhone is out-selling the Nokia N95 in Europe. The iPhone clearly outsells these handsets in the US, but Europe has been regarded as a reluctant market for the iPhone, given it’s lack of critical hardware features.
We previously mentioned that the iPhone has shown disappointing sales figures in the UK, but it seems that even “laggard” iPhones sales on UK’s O2 network are still outselling rivals. In fact, all three European markets are reportedly seeing sales of the iPhone outpacing those of its closest, and highly subsidized, competitors – a group that includes the HTC Touch, LG Prada, Nokia N95, and Nokia’s E-Series handsets. Michael Abramsky, an analyst with RBC Capital, is reporting that iPhone sales in the UK, Germany and France have proven strong. He notes “solid European iPhone momentum,” adding that the “iPhone appears to be an early hit with European Smartphone consumers.” Despite selling only 10,000 iPhones on launch day, many of T-Mobile’s 700 German retail stores are reporting 15-20 iPhone sales per week. France’s Orange Wireless, by far the iPhone’s strongest EU market, has reported that approximately 63,000 customers have registered their interest in the iPhone, with reports of some Orange stores running out of iPhone-stock.
Most notably, and sure to draw the ire of Nokia fans (especially those with Nokia N95’s – the author excluded), the iPhone has been outselling the feature-packed Nokia N95 in Europe – which has sold 1 million handsets since its launch in March (not a sluggish seller, to be sure). Keep in mind that the iPhone is still only available in three European markets (at least officially) and has largely been sold on-contract and locked to a particular carrier.
All these factors led Mr. Abramsky to raise his previous forecast for Apple to sell 12.1 million iPhones in 2008 to a new target of 12.5 million iPhones – higher still than Apple’s own goal of 10 million iPhones.
And, this is all before the next-generation iPhone, with 3G in tow, has been officially announced (brain-farts from AT&T CEOs excepted). We have to believe that Apple had forecasted sales performance in this range, and has purposely kept details on the 3G iPhone under tight-wraps in an effort to curb cannibalization of current-generation iPhones.
[Via: Tech Trader Daily]