So who’s the Apple user?
I’m sitting on the train, using my Apple laptop.
Just opposite is a guy using a Dell. Who also has an iPhone.
Question: which of us puts more money in Apple’s pocket? My MacBook is a one-off purchase - there’s no ongoing payment to Apple through it.
By contrast, the iPhone involves a (rolling?) contract that lasts - correct me, I’m offline when I write this - 18 months, during which one puts a lot of money into Apple’s coffers. (And O2’s, of course.)
And it’s definitely an iPhone, not an iPod Touch: he’s typing away, which you’re not really going to do on a Touch, are you?
So which of us is the “Apple user”? Which is the one who’s enriching Apple more? The one whose computer broadcasts its identity through the glowing logo on the lid, or the one who has a phone discreetly tucked away, except when he changes tracks on its music player?
- These posts might be related (the database thinks..):
- Palm is in trouble - the sort of trouble Apple was in around 1996 (1 June 2005; score: 35.27%)
- Sorted: how my 10.3.7 Finder isn't corrupt at all (9 March 2005; score: 34.88%)
- '1,000 songs is enough' (5 May 2005; score: 31.77%)
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May 19th, 2008 at 11:47 am
As far as I know, neither Apple nor any of its carrier partners has disclosed how much revenue Apple gets from monthly charges.
You’re right about the minimum contract being 18 months, but let’s say iPhone guy goes 30 months before upgrading to a new model, you do the same with your Macbook, and neither of you buys extra software from Apple. To get more revenue from iPhone guy in that time than the £700 plus you paid for your laptop, Apple would have to be getting about £11 a month from O2, which seems unlikely.
(As for typing on an iPod touch, he *could* be writing emails offline.)
May 19th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
To get more revenue from iPhone guy in that time than the £700 plus you paid for your laptop, Apple would have to be getting about £11 a month from O2, which seems unlikely.
If the question is net revenue, though, the iPhone user is almost certainly enriching Apple more. Apple has pretty good margins on all of their hardware (a little better on laptops than on iPhones, most likely), but the money coming in from O2 is essentially gravy.
May 19th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
As for typing - he may be doing emails or updating his ical or address book on his iPod Touch. I am waiting for the 2nd Gen iPod Touch to replace my Palm. I think Apple makes loads more off the iPhone contract than your laptop. As Scott says, it is essentially gravy.
May 19th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Don’t forget that it’s relatively easy to unlock the iPhone, reducing Apple’s income to the initial profit made when the device was sold: it could be that your fellow passenger isn’t contracted to O2 as a result. Indeed, rumours suggest that tying to a single carrier hasn’t worked as well as Apple had hoped outside of the US (a significant percentage of iPhones worldwide are unlocked) and it’ll be selling the next generation of iPhones without such restrictions as a result. We’ll find out on the 6th June, when Steve Jobs is expected to announce the 3G iPhone.
Of course, the obvious answer is that you’re *both* Apple users, just different classes :) Both are important to Apple, though the consumer electronics devices (i.e. not Macs) are in the ascendancy. As well as making money from contracts, they’ll also be taking approx. 30% (minus payment fees) of each app sold through the mobile apps store, the market for which will be huge, so they’ll be pushing the iPhone & Touch pretty hard over the next few months.
May 19th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
It’s true that you cannot tell by a distance if someone has their iPhone unlocked… You might be able to tell if it’s an iPhone versus an iPod Touch by these distinct differences - iPhone: headphone jack is on the top left, and lock button is on the top right (not to mention the speakers on the bottom, the camera on the back, and the silver trim) even with a case you should be able to see if there is a cut-out for the camera, and a space for the headphone jack on the top. The iPod Touch - headphone jack on the bottom, grey trim, no camera on the back.
Also - you can easily change the track without taking it out of your pocket or touching the iPhone at all - if you’re using the headset (earbuds) that came with it, you just “double-click” the mic on the cord and it advances a track.
And I agree with Stef Pause - you’re both Apple users.
May 19th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
@Miche: You’re right about the minimum contract being 18 months, but let’s say iPhone guy goes 30 months before upgrading to a new model, you do the same with your Macbook,
Not a chance of my upgrading the MacBook in that time, absent some dramatic reason. My previous PowerBook lasted three years. I might have made a fair bit of money for *independent* software vendors in that time - perhaps even £11 per month on average.
@Craig - you’re welcome to join me on the train and tell me what the guy’s using. Hell, I might even ask him if it’s an iPhone, if it’s unlocked, and we can sort it all out.
May 19th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
@Scott: Fair point, but - absent more info from Apple or O2 - we don’t know whether it’s a ladleful of gravy or a scant spoonful. I’d be surprised to learn that Apple got more than a pound or two per customer per month, but I have no way of knowing.
@Charles: Yep, customers who buy expensive smartphones are likely to buy replacements more frequently than customers buying low(er)-end Macs. (My iBook is four years old, and I’m unlikely to replace it before year’s end.) But if the money you spent on your Macbook purchase was the only revenue Apple will get from that transaction you’re probably an unusual customer: many Mac users will upgrade the OS at least once in the lifetime of the machine; many will buy newer versions of iLife; some will try out iWork and buy that; some even fork out for dotmac.