Apple today announced a delay in the shipment of Leopard, which means a delay in my purchase of a new laptop. The SEC filing, of course, started with a positive comment about the fact the the iPhone is shipping on schedule.

Apple’s Hello commercial for the iPhone is a nice example of a beautifully executed marketing piece for a company wtih a well established and recognized brand.

It’s also a beautiful example of a marketing campaign for a product that doesn’t need it.

The iPhone is probably the most competitive market Apple will ever enter. The Macintosh has a loyal and dedicated following, and has gained market share largely as a result of Microsoft’s flaws rather than technical superiority. Back in the day though it wasn’t a competitive market, it was a market that Apple built and IBM legitimized.

The iTunes Music Store is the predominant distributor of digital musc. This is a symbiotic relationship. The Music Store does put Apple at the mercy of content distribution deals with the music companies, but the 80% market share of the iPod makes cooperation almost a sure thing.

Speaking of the iPod, noboby’s yet succesfully competed with it. Nobody’s even come close. The MP3 market was miniscule before iPod. +It changed the world._ Newton did too, but it was too far before its time. I loved my Newton though, and so did Bob Krembil.

The iPhone faces competition from Nokia and Motorola, both with well established brand loyalty. More significantly, both have well established relationships with cellular service providers. The North American market in particular is dominated by phones that are discounted by providers: very very few people in North American buy phones anywhere else. My latest phone is a an unlocked UK edition Sony Ericsson K750i…this makes me a bona fide oddity.

Of course, that shouldn’t surprise anybody.

iPhone facess a tough uphill slog, and has a significant flaw in the fact that it has a non-removable battery: I can’t carry a second one, and when my battery dies I’m a bit stuck…

Of course the churn rate on phones is high: people keep them for less time than the battery will last (about two years) and iPhone has significant buzz and goodwill generated by the iPod.

Still, i think version one will disappoint.

But I can’t wait until version 2.0. That’s when I’ll buy.

By the way, one of the neatest things about that iPhone commercial? Hello? Does anybody remember those Hello Moto commercials from Motorola?

I didn’t think so.

I bet than when iPhone hits the street Apple owns the word Hello.

Posted by skooter at 10:06 PM This entry is filed under Marketing.
This entry is tagged: Apple, iPhone