iPhone Will Never Beat Nokia 1100
31 05 2007 
Will the iPhone beat Motorola’s RAZR line in sales? Motorola has sold over 50 million units of its RAZR line, which is often believed as the most popular cell phone model of all time. Industry observers even call RAZR the “iPod of cellphones.” RAZR, however, even at the peak of its popularity (way back in 2004) has only enjoyed 6% market penetration. If you think about it, Apple’s target 10% market share if met would immediately put iPhone at the top spot of the list of most popular mobile phones of all time.
If you believe that you’d be dead wrong. The RAZR’s 50 million collective sales is only a quarter of what the true world’s most popular cellphone model has racked up. Nokia, for the record, has sold over 200 million of its 1100 monochromatic GSM phones since it debuted in 2003, just four years ago. If the iPhone going to be as influential to the cellphone industry as one tech guru has predicted, then the Nokia 1100, and not the RAZR, is its true benchmark. With over 2 billion mobile phones in consumer hands in 2005 ( and probably significantly higher in 2007), Apple will have to put exactly 200 million or more iPhones in user hands to reach 10% market share.
Well, nobody said iPhone will have it easy.
Paul replied on May 31st, 2007 at 10:27 am
Apple’s target is 1%, not 10%.
Serge replied on May 31st, 2007 at 2:33 pm
That’s the goal just for the 1st year, which is pretty ambitious since that’s about 10mil units at a fairly high price-point.
Brian replied on May 31st, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Apple’s target is 10 million sales, or about 10% of the high-end market, which makes 200 million doable in 20 years.
Carlos replied on Apr 28th, 2008 at 3:30 am
Apple’s Core Issues
If apple want to achieve that target then they will have to do two things in my opinion. Bring the price down which is too high compared to many other simular models. This is something they do with many of their products. The other is something that happens in my country (UK) and I wonder how many other places have the same policy. In the UK if you want an iPhone you only have the choice of one network to be on which is O2. This is a strange business practice for a company that wants 10% market share. In France you are not allowed to tie a phone model to a particular network.