Bruno Beloff's Profile

This is something of a European perspective; I'd be very glad from some feedback ... The value of the iPhone to Apple is the new computing platform. The iPod Touch is a clearer example of of this platform as it emerges - think of the iPhone as an iPod Touch with better wireless connectivity. Forget the phone. As a consumer - given the market I'm in - I'm happy to pay $2,000 for a portable computer. But I won't pay $1,000 for something called a "phone", even if it does all the same things for me in a better package. The iPhone and iPod touch are really radical and challenging to the market - and to Apple. They're trojan horses, dressed up as MP3 players and phones. Inside lurks a whole new category of device: not a substitute for the desktop, but a new way of doing personal computing. I think that few people outside Apple really understand the implications of this. And it's going to take a few years before this category is established. In the mean time, carrier subsidy and locking of phones will remain a major inhibitor. But the possibility that such a large proportion of iPhones have been unlocked (presumably, to a large part, in counties where iPhone contracts are not available) is good news for Apple in the long term. There is a demand. Who cares about lost revenue at this stage? Apple will make it to 10m units, but that's not the point. Emerging technologies such as WiMax are complementary to the new platform. And Apple has a lot of product development to do. The rest is marketing. If Apple can explain to the world that this sort of pocket computing is the way forward for the masses then - by the time the rest of the industry understands the new game - Apple will already have won.