The iPhone launches tomorrow (Friday 29th at 6 pm) and there are excited shoppers lining up in front of the Manhattan Apple store today i.e. as of Thursday morning. Amazing!
The phone is not cheap and you need to sign up for a 2 year contract with AT&T which means a commitment of $2000. The iPhone fans are unfazed and are more than happy to come up with the money so long as they get the phone. Apple plans to sell 10 million phones in the first year and according to this report the supply chain is streamlined this time.
Meanwhile industry at every part of the value chain is scrambling. Consider the telecom service provider industry where AT&T (including the merged Cingular) has clearly got its biggest marketing coup as the exclusive telecom provider to the iPhone .You need to sign up only with AT&T to use the iPhone. I would imagine that subscribers with other great carriers like Verizon are leaving in droves- just for the iPhone. On Demand CRM provider Etelos is differentiating itself by providing service through the iPhone. Wonder what the now "dull" PDA folks will do- they have got to do something -fast !