Posted on Friday, December 07 2007 @ 10:15 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
The iPhone sold like hot cakes in the U.S. right after launch but we can't say the same about Europe. Top Tech News
reports sales of the iPhone in European countries are pretty sluggish:
After five days of sales, French wireless Relevant Products/Services carrier Orange has sold 30,000 iPhones, the company announced Wednesday. Louis-Pierre Wenes, Orange's executive director for France operations, said the number was "a very good score," and added that half of the iPhone sales are accompanied by a new Orange subscription.
Orange's parent, France Telecom, had set a goal of selling 100,000 iPhones by the end of the year. Considering sales volume is typically higher immediately after a product launch, Orange will be hard-pressed to hit those goals in the three weeks remaining in December.
In Germany, T-Mobile said it sold 10,000 iPhones on the first day. And in the UK, O2 said the iPhone was its fastest selling unit ever, but refused to provide numbers.
Even accounting for the difference is size between the U.S. and France, "30,000 units seems sluggish," Greg Sterling, principal analyst with Sterling Market Intelligence, said in a telephone interview. "The iPhone is having a tougher time in Europe."
In its first weekend, AT&T and Apple sold 270,000 iPhones in the U.S., which is five times the size of France. Thus, even accounting for the population difference, the French launch was half as strong as it was in the U.S.
The reason might be that wireless in Europe is more advanced than in America, Sterling said. The iPhone offered "a quantum leap in quality in the U.S. that doesn't exist in Europe," he noted.
