Growing iPhone Marketshare — Software Segmentation Or Lower Prices?

imageRather than tinker with the hardware of the iPhone, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) is looking at targeting users with different software, according to an analyst quoted by The Register. Yair Reiner, an analyst at Oppenheimer, recently met with several unnamed Apple executives who, he claimed, said: “[The] iPhone is still in its early days and could gain share by: providing more functionality, lowering prices, growing geographically, or segmenting the market with different models.” Reiner told Register Hardware today that, when he pressed the firm for further details, the staffers said: “Segmentation would focus on software.” It’s hard to see how Apple could do this effectively since it has so much of its software already included, and it would be interesting to see what it would do if it goes down this path.

Rumors are also circulating about another method to increase marketshare; lowering the price. AT&T (NYSE: T) is considering a limited data plan for $10 less than the current price, and the cost of producing an iPhone has fallen about 30 percent since they launched reports BusinessWeek. This was mooted at the beginning of the month, but by limiting the data on the cheaper plan AT&T may be trying to have it both ways — get the boost in sign-ups with the cheaper plan and then hope people upgrade to the higher data plan. Mind you, some have suggested that AT&T can’t afford for its iPhones to be too successful in getting people to use more data. Another option suggested in BW is a prepaid iPhone.

Photo Credit: Flickr/edans

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