Brisk iPhone sales despite early snag

Retailers reported brisk trade at the launch of the Apple iPhone 3G this morning, with early adopters not being put off by the perceived high price and an administrative snag in the contracts.

Sales staff at Cape Town-based Apple retailers Project 3 and Digicape reported strong interest since opening their doors at 8am today. They have experienced a steady stream of customers coming in to buy the phone. Vodacom outlets contacted at a number of shopping centres also reported good sales and turnover.

“I don't know how many people have come through our doors, but it has been really busy,” a salesperson for one of the Vodacom stores says.

Although none of the stores reported queues of early adopters waiting outside before opening time, they all said they opened shop early, mostly at around 8am, and customers were soon arriving to query and buy the phone.

Digicape director Robin Olivier says an administration hiccup in changing contracts did create a snag initially, but that has now been resolved.

Pricing release

“Vodacom only released to us the contracts and pricing at about 10pm last night. What happened this morning is that people with Vodacom Talk500 contracts are not going through an upgrade process to the Talk500 iPhone package; rather it is classified as an upgrade and this caused some confusion,” he says.

Olivier says a Vodacom representative arrived at his store during the morning and the issue has since been resolved.

A salesperson at one of the other stores says the high price has not deterred early adopters.

“For the people buying the phones now, pricing is not an issue,” he says.

The price

For R6 389, one can purchase an Apple iPhone 3G with 8Gb of storage or get the 16Gb version for R7 569. The various contracts offered by Vodacom also affect the cash buy-in of potential customers.

“It is great that Vodacom has allowed the phone to be bought on a cash-only basis, as this has allowed people to stay with the other networks,” a salesperson at Project 3 says.

Vodacom managing executive for sales Chris Ross says SA, unlike many other countries, does not allow networks to lock a phone to their network, so people can buy the phone and use it on another operator's network.

Potter's phone

Ross says 30 000 units have been brought into the country and this should meet the demand from the potential 30 000 customers who pre-ordered their phones.

Vodacom group executive for corporate affairs Dot Field says this is the biggest product launch for a phone the network operator has done.

As part of the launch festivities, Vodacom hosted a Harry Potter-themed party at its Vodaworld campus last night that was attended by over 1 000 people.

Arthur Goldstuck, head of research company World Wide Worx, says the response to the iPhone is as he expected.

“What we are seeing is the fulfillment of immediate expectations of consumers for the product. The question is, how long will it last for, as there are other products that are as equal to, if not better than, the iPhone,” he says.

Headline

Comment

Name

Email

I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

Please enter the CAPTCHA characters below

 Comments (16)