14 DAY TRIAL // Right since Apple has released it on the market, the iPhone has been a gadget desired by lots and lots of people. This immense desire to buy it has made it the best thought-out move made by Apple this entire year.
Now, to prove once again that it still has that "je ne sais quoi" that made it the famous customer bait it is, the iPhone has already started to increase O2's UK user base with clientele from a number of rival carriers.
As some of the newly attracted customers declare, the move to O2 is not justified only by the fact that they will be able to buy and use Apple's iPhone, but mainly due to the whole experience offered by this handset that comes equipped with a full fledged browser and the very appealing multi-touch control interface that made it famous in the first place.
According to macnn.com, the O2 CEO, Matthew Key, declared that 60% of the customers were newcomers. Most of them changed sides to O2 after the arrival of the announcement that the UK carrier would offer the iPhone to their clients after an exclusive deal with Apple. Also, Key said that a number of approximately 200.000 units are expected to be sold in the first month of 2008.
The big money isn't going to come to O2 exclusively from iPhone sales, but as the CEO has also stated, it will be collected via the payed data services provided by the company to more than 60% of the customers that will own an Apple handset.
Considering the fact that Apple will take its more than fair share of the profit coming O2's way, from delivering the iPhone to an important number of customers, the people behind this "end of the year customer fishing session" must be right.
If all Key's expectations on this matter come true, then the big 1 million broadband users until 2010 will not be that big after all. If one takes into consideration the fact that the iPhone has dramatically increased the broadband usage on most networks it has been launched on, we can very well take O2's estimation for granted.
Even if his wishes won't come true, there still is quite a big chance that O2 will augment its broadband user base and will become a very important player on the UK mobile broadband market, if not the most important one.