Poll confirms Brits believe Jesus Phone salvation too costly
US-centric strategy failing in UK. Shock.
It's official: Brits believe Apple's iPhone is too expensive. Local pollster GfK NOP asked 500 people across the nation and found almost three-quarters of them say the handset's too highly priced to buy.
Some 88 per cent of the sample said they had heard of the Jesus Phone. Alas for Apple, a mere two per cent said they would be asking Santa for one this Chrimbo. A further five per cent of respondents said they like the look of the thing but are quite keen on a number of other phones too.
Only a slightly higher percentage - eight per cent - expressed a dislike for the much-hyped handset.
The fact only 12 per cent of the sample said they had never heard of the iPhone suggests that Apple and O2's marketing is creating awareness of the product. However, as The Register exclusively revealed today, that's not translating into sales and contract activations.
No one should be in the least bit surprised of course. With the iPhone being marketed as a handset, it looks overpriced. UK consumers are completely unused to paying a hundred quid for a phone, let alone the £269 Apple, O2 and Carphone Warehouse want.
Ironically, consumers will pay that amount for a fancy new iPod such as the rather good iPod Touch - reviewed here. Had Apple pitched the iPhone as an iPod that happens to make phone calls rather than the other way round, folk here might be keener to splash out.
"Apple needs more than cutting–edge design to penetrate this market and will have to work much harder in the UK than it did in the US to make iPhone a mass-market proposition," said GfK NOP spokesman Richard Jameson.
We'd suggest Apple adopts a UK-specific approach rather than simply parroting here what's worked in the US. Apple is perhaps one of the most notorious possessors of a 'US and them' worldview, and for once, it's becoming clear, this might just come to bite it.
COMMENTS
@Fiona
Not only is your (ab)use of English going to come under scrutiny...
"My problem is that with the iphone the UK is an afterthought. Not only does every big manufacturer rip us off by just sticking a £ sign in to replace the $ sign (at a current exchange rate of roughly $2 to £1), but Apple either didn't bother to research the UK market or just decided not to care."
Um.
The iPhone in the US costs $399. It costs £269 here. Now, some quick calculations indicate that the iPhone should be £200 + tax. So £235. Excluding any additional costs of shipping, UK operating costs... it's hardly a striking markup.
Also, much as I hate to admit it, O2's contracts are not the worst value out of the iPhone contracts. We're only tied into 18 month, instead of 2 year deals, and Germans pay more for less.
This isn't to say the contracts are great value. They aren't in comparison to other deals. But the UK market has been researched and handled surprisingly well IMO - I personally feel it could have been handled better if Apple just wanted to shift iPhones, but they don't. iPhone is a gateway into Apple's media distribution system. This is a long-term GAME (you just lost it, btw) and it has to be said that they show every sign of pulling it off.
Also: MS Exchange sync? On a consumer market phone? I have no need for such novelties. Even so, it can be faked using iMapIdle, and from experience it is buggy as hell on most devices even when they do support it. Part of the wonder of working out of the office is NOT having to deal with an email the instant it arrives ;)
Father Chrimbo
I suggest Mr Thomas complains to the Australian authorities over missuse of language.
The iPhone simply won't take off in Europe until the hardware spec is brought up to the level of the best on offer from Nokia, SE and Samsung. Euro phone users seem far more savvy where mobiles are concerned and constantly demand the latest wizz bangs. These days its 3/3.5G, GPS, 5mp cameras, Stereo BT,
If iPhone 2 just matches what others are offering now it will mass sell in Europe.
"Chrimbo"
"Chrimbo? What perverted, depraved refugee from a linguistic cesspit dreamed up this foul abuse of the English language?"
Yes, why can't people write correctly? I hate this Reg teen speak. Speak like an adult.
For tomorrows consumer
On seeing an iPhone advertised on the TV (UK) recently, my eight year old daughter said to me "in a few years those will be cheap enough for me to get one".
Get some facts
Argos is one of the biggest sellers of mobile phones in the UK. Of the 16 O2 phones they're selling the average price is £80.99. Given that PAYG makes up around half of all mobile phones the iPhone is about £200 too expensive for that market. People change their phones too quickly to be left with a £300 Apple brick-phone on an 18 month contract. The way phones depreciate and the rate at which they are replaced and become obselete means no one is going to spend £300 on a phone - quite apart from the fact the PAYG customers are completely screwed over for mobile data costs means about 50% of the market will never buy an iPhone. Apple will have to content itself with posers and yuppies.
