
Italy, America, and the iPhone - brk
http://mattrichman.net/post/137631916338/italy-america-and-the-iphone
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coldtea
The "distribution" thing is a red herring.

Most Italians just get their phones from their carriers anyway (like Vodafone,
etc), same as with Americans, and they have equal reach that Walmart or
AT&T/Verizon/T-Mobile etc would have in the US.

It's all about the price (which, besides Italy being a poorer country, there's
also a substantially larger asking price for an iPhone compared to the US --
like a 20-30% price hike).

Plus Apple support and presence has never been as big in Europe as in the US
anyway. They may be chasing the Chinese and Japanese markets, but they have a
ho hum network (for both sales and support) outside of maybe London and Paris.

The status symbol priorities also play a role, it's true. But more would buy
the iPhone is those two things (price, support) were in order.

