If you are getting a little jaded with all the favorable press surrounding the iPhone and how it has single-handedly revolutionized the telecoms industry then you will be happy to hear that somebody has taken a lot of time to debunk a number of iPhone ‘myths’.
Strand Consult, no I hadn’t heard of them before either, has published a 105 page diatribe titled ‘The Moment of Truth – a portrait of the iPhone‘, on why the iPhone is not so great and good. These are the myths, according to the author:
- The iPhone creates data traffic in mobile operator’s network
- The iPhone helps operators attract new customers
- The iPhone is good business for mobile operators
- The iPhone is dominating the mobile services market
- App stores are a huge success that has revolutionised the services market
- There is money to be made by developing iPhone applications
- iPhone customers are creating the majority of the current online mobile surfing traffic
- The iPhone has a large market share
- The iPhone was the first mobile to launch with a touchscreen
- The iPhone is a technically advanced mobile phone
After about page thirty you begin to wonder if all the other phone manufacturers and operators without iPhones had gotten together to commission this report. I was particularly interested to read about the revenue streams created by the iPhone and was tickled to read the summation at the end of this particular chapter:
“If you examine today’s mobile services market, there is no doubt that the operator centralised model has won and that application and the fact that service providers can market services across networks and devices significantly helps reduce marketing costs. The historical facts show that no alternative models to the operator centralised model have so far been successful and that content providers receive their revenue from the operators’ billing systems.”
Fact or fiction, this report is a compelling read, but I’m afraid this jury is still out on its credibility.