Tag / Apple

by Chirag Shah

Apple AT&T relationship a good one?

This is follow up to this story http://valleywag.com/tech/apple/apple-profits-half-a-grand-per-iphone-314408.php
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a.Yir.VaIVZk&refer=us

Valleywag reported that Apple will make a lot of dollars on each iPhone users over 2 year span. I just think Steve could cash in even if he didn’t make an exclusive deal with AT&T.

Apple Gets $135/per 8 GB iPhone (probably more now, since costs have gone down)
Apple Gets $18/month per user, using iPhone.. $216/2yrs
= 135 + 216 = $351/iPhone
Apple has sold 5.4 million iPhones
AT&T in march reported to have 2.5 million iPhone customers

Steve is losing out on $216 on almost 2 million iPhones.

My rant:
I am sure Apple could have made a deal that would have worked with multiple carriers. They probably would have reached the 10 million goal if the supported CDMA networks.

For example Palm. Palm sells the Centro for AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon. Palm also sells an unlocked version of the phone for 200 dollars more then the carrier specific phones.

Apple knows, the industry knows – iPhone is the best phone out there. But as for many companies they have contracts with Verizon and Sprint. Imagine if the iPhone was able to those markets. The reasons are quiet apparent why Apple is 2nd to Rimm’s Blackberry. It will continue to stay this way until Apple offers the iPhone to other carriers.

The math

$216 x 2.5 million = $540 million –> not all upfront
$135 x 5.4 million = $729 million
Total = $1.269 billion

$135 x 10 million (estimated users, if phone was available to verizon and sprint) = $1.35 billion
also all upfront, there is no waiting on the money.

$100 million isn’t exactly chump change..

Bias:
I am a Sprint user. Why? Cause its cheap and I am a happy Palm Centro user. If the iPhone was available to Sprint, I would have it.

by Chirag Shah

Apple WWDC 2008 coming this Monday

What should be expected from Steve Job’s Keynote on Monday? Steve has been known to introduce 2-3 new products at most keynotes. Technology over the last 6 months has become cheap, real cheap. This is what I expect to see.
– The much anticipated 3g iPhone – will it have more features then just 3g, maybe at 32 gb version.
– Price drop on the iPod Touch
– Hardware Update to the Macbook Air
– Mac Mini update?

There is much more you can think of but really I dont see any improvements to macbook/pro, they just refreshes in March.

Post your comments on what you think Job’s will present.