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Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Just Because People Stand in Line Doesn't Mean the Product is Great

In the comments of yesterday's smash hit post about gPhones and iPhones was this nugget.
A relatively-inexpensive gPhone is going to take market-share away from the notoriously-pricey iPhone? When people were lining-up ahead of time - at the original price - for the iPhone?
People lining up for a product only indicates scarcity, not overall popularity.

In the Soviet Union, people lined up outside of stores, too.

At work, a blogger friend of mine posted about standing in line for the new OS (Leopard?). He talked about getting his t-shirt to go with it. Had the OS been sold at every computer store in the counntry like Windows is, he wouldn't have had to stand in line.

There. I think that's enough rattling iRobot cages for one day.

Next up: The mother of all posts. How iPhones make it possible for Ron Paul to send porn to Iraq! If that doesn't skewer every Internet nutjob's sacred cow, nothing will.
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5 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:46 AM

    Apple's gross income would suggest that there is scarcity because they are selling a lot of product. Their margins suggest it is high quality. What I wonder about the Gphone is how well it gets along without iTunes; which I think hampers all mp3 competitors. Also Apple has really put together a nice interface for the phone; I guess we will see if members of the Gphone group can match it.

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  2. Justin9:13 AM

    Mac fanboys: The reason I bought a Zune instead of an iPod, and the reason I may not buy an iPod touch whenever my PDA dies on me.

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  3. Wollf Howlsatmoon10:38 AM

    Ummm...I figured out how to make my DVD player stop flashing 12:00, 12:00, 12:00......

    Piece of black tape across the display.

    Any time, People, no need to thank me. I'm here for you.

    I guess I'd best refrain from joining this conversation. My electronics quotient runs in the negative 15's. Errgh.

    Wollf

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  4. Foxfier10:40 AM

    The fact that Apple feels the need to count *only* the cost of materials when figuring the profit of the iPhone means that they're trying to hide something.

    Imagine if restaurants did the same-- "Oh! I made four dollars of profit from this hamburger meal, because it's 50 cents of food and costs four fifty!"

    ....except you need to count advertising, the folks who prepared it, the building, the cost to clean the dishes and remove the garbage.....

    http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2007/07/iphone_profit_f.html

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  5. K T Cat3:02 AM

    anon, yep, AAPL makes a lot of money. The Great Satan, MSFT makes far and for the most part, they make no hardware.

    Apple customers are standing in long lines for a product that is interchangeable with others' versions and is not even close to having a dominant market share. Imagine doing that for, say, laundry detergent.

    foxfier, great point.

    justin, I go with lowest price. Always. That means I will never buy and Apple product. Somehow I survive.

    Wollf, you come on back and offer your comments anyway. I don't know what I'm talking about half the time and it doesn't stop me.

    ReplyDelete