iPhone Prices Drop To $154 In Europe

Posted on June 4, 2008
Filed Under iPhone General

Some speculation got its spread on the US side that AT&T is going to subsidize the iPhone to boost sales. In early May Apple was believed to provide a $200 subsidy and easily double iPhone sales. Now subsidy-rumored speculations have crossed the Atlantic, where UBS analysts claim that the new iPhone may be priced for just 99 euros (or $154) across Europe in order to drive sales. In the UK the new iPhone will be available July 9 and priced at £100 (or $197).

Actually no records have been broken by European sales of the iPhone. By the end of last year France, Germany and Britain sold only 330,000 units, unlike what industry insiders had predicted – nearly 600,000 units. And the results of sales are frustrating, providing the fact that in these European countries Apple had exclusive dealers - O2 and Orange.

Meanwhile, Apple intends to reach ten million in sales by the end of this year. In recent weeks, a lot of distribution deals with the iPhone to be sold from Southeast Asia to South Americahave been announced.

If Apple allows the operators to subsidize the mobile devices, we’ll see how it holds up. For instance, Motorola’s decision to reduce the price of the Razr from $500 to $150 doubled market sales, and when Moto cut the Razr to $100, it doubled again. The iPhone is no Razr, but once once it happened with the Razr, it got rid of becoming just another commodity.

But big sales of iPhone are about to be real. There are over 40 countries with iPhone deals, where multiple carriers are about to offer the new iPhone. So it looks like Apple is going to quickly conquer the world with the iPhone. The potential market for the iPhone is calculated to get the number of 575 million. In case Apple keeps its existing 3 percent market penetration, it could sell 17.25 million items. And it is quite possible for Apple to shift 45 million iPhones by the end of 2009.