Bus 235 - Introduction to Marketing - Apple Iphone

Apple Iphone

Lindy S. Caudill

Bus235: Introduction to Marketing (ABO1128A)

Instructor: Vicki Long

August 7, 2011

The Iphone seems to be one of the best inventions known to man according to most of the people who use the Iphone.

The Iphone was introduced by the Apple Corporation January 9, 2007 and has the most up to date features any wireless device could have. You can surf the web while talking or texting. It first started with the Iphone then the Iphone 3g then the 3gs, and now they have the Iphone 4 which is supposed to do more than all of them put together. The Iphone 4 features video calling with face time, high resolution display, high definition video recording, and 5 megapixel camera. You can multitask using the Iphone 4, such as running third party applications. People were camping outside of Apple and AT&T just to get this magical device once the stores opened.

The Iphone is the top selling smartphone in the world, The first Iphone was released on June 29, 2007. An Iphone can function as a video camera, a camera phone, can send text and receive visual voicemail, a portable media player, and surf the internet with email and we b browsing and wifi and 3g connectivity. The Iphone has a multi touch screen with a virtual keyboard. When released in 2007 Apple and AT&T were the only carriers of the Iphone until February 10, 2011 when Verizon also became a carrier.

Then on July 11, 2008 Apple revealed the Iphone 3g and on June 8, 2009 they told of plans to release the Iphone 3gs and people were ecstatic and could not wait to get the latest Iphone and then again were camping out in front of the stores to be the first to get the new devices. Apple sold 6.1 million original Iphones over five quarters and by the end of 2010 73.5 million were sold.

Even though the Iphone became an Icon and everyone wanted to buy one they had their pitfalls, such as not being able to connect to the internet, dropped calls, slow service or even no service at times. The not having service or the dropped calls were explained by AT&T as to many people had the Iphone and there were not enough towers to keep up and started to build new towers and that was supposed to solve the problem and it seems to have started to work, the more towers the less problems users seem to have. There are still some drawbacks to owning an Iphone. It lacks third party application support, only web based ones. The Iphone comes with no games and there is no such applications to be installed for them, the camera is not very good and you can't change the settings and there is just a key to capture an image and nothing to adapt to certain lighting, no flash which could mean poor quality pictures. The Iphone does not allow file transfer from PC through the USB cable unless you have Apple extensions like iTunes or iPhoto.

There are other flaws in the IPhone such as the fact that the copy-paste for text is missing. These examples are just some of the flaws and people are coming up with more everyday, but people continue to buy the phone dispite the flaws.

Consumers chose the Iphone so they have a phone and a computer all in one. The Iphone is easier to use and they don't have to be sitting at a desk in order to use the computer and they can use it on the go. The smartphone also eliminates the need for laptop computers that they would otherwise carry around. The smartphone fits in your pocket or purse and is not as heavy as the laptop.

The price of the Iphone varies depending on which Iphone you purchase. AT&T pricing (without upgrade) is $399 for the 16gb and $499 for 32gb. Verizon is looking to drop their prices to $150 for 16gb and $250 for the 32gb. They also have to have a data plan and those are also costly. Verizon has unlimited data $30 per month with $20 2gb of tethering. AT&T has 200mb data for $15 per month 2gb for $25 per month and $20 per month for