The long wait to find out which countries will get the iPhone next ended dramatically over the past week with a flurry of announcements that should have the device on sale in 26 more nations by year’s end.

Not that you can’t buy an iPhone almost anywhere in the world already. But those unlocked iPhones are unauthorized -- purchased primarily in the United States for resale in places with demand but no supply.

In its past several earnings conference calls, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer has described this worldwide “grey market” not as a problem for Apple but as an opportunity, a demonstration of extraordinary demand for the product.

While Apple makes a profit from iPhones that end up in the grey market, it would make more by selling them to customers in those countries via a cellular partner along with a service contract.

Perhaps that’s why we’re seeing such a large number of countries on Apple’s iPhone schedule – the longer it takes Apple to set up its international iPhone distribution network, the more money it loses from the lucrative revenue-sharing deals it makes with the carriers.Depending upon how the iPhone is priced, grey markets may continue to thrive in many places. But a legitimate iPhone should take back the bulk of sales in most countries.

So just who is getting the iPhone this year? Canada made the list when Rogers Communications announced its deal with Apple last week.

On Tuesday U.K. -based Vodafone – the world’s largest mobile carrier – said it would be selling the iPhone in 10 countries by the end of 2008.

And yesterday America Movil SAB, Latin America’s largest wireless carrier with 37 percent of the market, announced plans to “bring the iPhone to its Latin American operations,” which includes 15 countries and Puerto Rico.

Expect the list to keep growing, as reports of several unconfirmed deals also surfaced this week. Yesterday the Swiss newspaper Le Matin said that mobile carrier Swisscom had forged a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Switzerland this summer.

And France Telecom CFO Gervais Pellissier hinted during a conference call that his company, owner of the Orange network, is in talks with Apple to sell the iPhone in countries besides France. Two prime suspects are Spain and Poland, but Pellissier said the discussions extend to more than just two countries.
On top of all that Apple also announced that in Italy, Vodafone will not have exclusive rights to the iPhone, breaking its policy of one country, one carrier. Vodafone will share the privilege with Telcom Italia TIM. Some suspect the Australia deal also may not be exclusive, but that is not yet confirmed.

But the Italy situation alone marks a major shift in strategy for Apple. Here we have proof that -- at least with the iPhone -- Apple is willing to break with its traditional stubbornness and pursue whatever business model works best in a given situation.

What we don’t know is how much (if any) shared revenue Apple will get in a country with multiple carriers. Until now, Apple had used the exclusivity as a bargaining chip to obtain a percentage of revenue from the service contracts.

We also don’t know if this new willingness to experiment means Apple itself will start selling unlocked versions of the iPhone, at least in countries where Apple considers it practical.

What we do know is that Apple’s global iPhone strategy has kicked in to high gear. The countries lined up so far constitute a huge chunk of the worldwide market, which should accelerate sales substantially.

And then factor in the impact of the 3G iPhone everyone expects Apple to announce next month. Whoa.

Posted by David Zeiler at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
                    

If you’re shopping for a computer with a good balance of features, performance and price, check out a Mac. And if solid tech support is a major concern, your choice is even clearer – Apple’s support tops all competitors.

So says Consumer Reports in its annual computer-buying extravaganza (June issue). The latest data continues the trend, as it has the past few years, of overall praise for Apple’s line of Mac laptops and desktops an in particular for its customer support.

On tech support issues, Apple stands out. Its reader score for laptops is 83 out of 100 (meaning it solved the problem 83 percent of the time), well ahead of Lenovo’s 66 and Dell’s 60.

Apple beats its rivals by an even greater degree in the desktop category. Its score of 81 percent led the field by an embarrassingly large margin; second-place Dell (56 percent) trailed by 25 points, just ahead of Gateway (54 percent).

Not that Consumer Reports has been chugging Steve Jobs’ Kool-Aid. As it has done often, CR criticized Apple for its brief 90 days of free tech support compared with a year for most other PC makers.

Because of that, as well as the above-average service Apple customers get with paid support plans, the magazine advises Mac buyers purchase an AppleCare plan.

Consumer Reports also points out, however, that all Mac owners can get free tech support at the Genius Bar in Apple’s retail stores, which CR says solved problems an impressive 90 percent of the time. But the customer is responsible for the cost of any required repairs.

However, the CR piece misleads a bit when it describes the Genius Bar as “walk-in support.” Yes, you can walk in to any Apple Store with a Mac problem but you can’t consult with a Mac Genius unless you’ve made a reservation.

The only truly bad news for Apple appears in the main article, in the “Brand Repair history” survey chart. While Apple’s desktops boast the fewest repairs – 12 percent versus 17 percent for its closest PC competitors – Apple’s laptops sit at the bottom of their category.

According to the CR survey, 23 percent of Mac laptops required repair or had a serious problem. While that’s not so far from Lenovo’s category leading 20 percent, Apple should take note that the quality control of its laptop line could stand improvement.

Elsewhere in the main article, in which CR makes its general recommendations, both Mac laptops and desktops earn high marks.

In the 15.4-inch “workhorse” laptop category, the MacBook Pro was the magazine’s top choice: “The Apple weighed the least and had the best battery life among the 15-inch models.”

The beefier 17-inch MacBook Pro earned top honors in the “Best Desktop replacement category despite its much higher price relative to its competition (it costs $1,000 more than the next cheapest laptop in that category – a Sony Vaio VGN-AR770).

Meanwhile the newest member of the MacBook family, the MacBook Air, managed to take second in the “Best Lightweight laptops” category on the strength of its exceptionally low weight (3 pounds), strong battery life and slim form factor. The CR editors apparently decided those characteristics trumped the Air’s higher price and missing features (no CD/DVD drive or Ethernet port).

Here’s how CR assesses the Air: “This somewhat pricey, ultra-thin ultra-portable won’t replace your everyday laptop, but the generous keyboard, touchpad technology, and small size make it worth considering. The compromises are in performance and ease of loading and unloading data.”

On the desktop side, the Mac appears absent at first, but it turns out Consumer Reports has added a third Apple-inspired category: all-in-ones.

CR says the best inexpensive all-in-one is the 20-inch iMac (“excellent performance and good ergonomics”) -- and that was before last week’s processor upgrade. Going from a 2.0 gigahertz Intel Core 2 Duo to a 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo, the 20-inch iMac represents an even better value now.

The 24-inch iMac was ranked behind the HP TouchSmart IQ775 (who comes up with these names?), but that model’s processor upgrade to a 3.06 GHz Core 2 Duo from 2.4 GHz enhances its value quite a bit, too.

Curiously, the Mac Pro got no mention in the “high-end” desktop category, perhaps because it’s not aimed at ordinary consumers but rather video and graphics professionals.

Overall, this year’s CR report card looks as more favorably upon the Mac than ever. That’s the sort of positive reinforcement that could encourage more potential Windows users to switch in the months ahead, maintaining the Mac’s market share growth momentum.

Posted by David Zeiler at 5:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)