

The Phone Company - astrec
http://daringfireball.net/2008/10/the_phone_company

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thalur
Interesting if true, but it reminds me a bit of the xbox360 vs ps3 vs wii
"which sold most" fan fights of the past where each side quoted only the most
favourable numbers for their favourite. I guess the real challenge will be
when Android results come out (presumably not until the next quarter?).

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Maktab
Yet this isn't really the same, because it's not necessarily about who
outsells whom. That's just added icing on the cake in terms of this article.
The real significance though is how the iPhone has so swiftly become both a
major success and a revenue stream on the same scale as the Mac and iPod
divisions for Apple. In less than eight years the company has transformed
itself from a company reliant on a single niche product to one with three
mostly independent but self-reinforcing and financially lucrative sales
pillars. That transition is nothing less than remarkable.

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wizlb
John Gruber has way too much time on his hands.

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ionfish
In fairness, writing articles like this is his job.

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gstar
True. That he can make a living from it baffles me, though. Fair play to him
for managing it.

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greyhat
I don't know, being an external PR rep for a large corporation to run your
blog and keep your stock prices up seems extremely sketchy to me...

Even this inane article about how apple is sooo cool because they now sell
phones includes a passing reference to why they felt the need to charge people
for an iPod touch update.

He may have his long boring article full of numbers, but in the real world
people change phones all the time, and lots of normal people are just as
impressed with other manufacturers touch-screen phones, or don't want a touch
screen at all.

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maximilian
His point is that the iPhone is making apple boatloads of money and that their
phone platform could potentially eclipse their PC and iPod sales. The point,
(and worry perhaps) is that apple could reasonably start focusing on phones
more than on PCs and make boatloads of money. They clearly make a better
[smart/media]phone than anything out there and this has shown in sales.

They don't "feel" the need to charge people for Touch updates, they have to
legally, or at least thats the way Gruber presents it and I'm pretty sure that
is the case. Why else would they count iPhone sales on a subscription base?
I'm sure its a pain in the ass for the accounting dept.

Do these "Normal" people live in "real" america. Other touch screen phones are
totally lame and anybody who has used an iPhone can attest to that.

(I don't own an iPhone. $90/month is out of my budget)

