Let’s face it: while the iPhone is a pretty cool unbelievably amazing device, who would really fork over the $500 for it? Well, according to a recent survey, high schoolers would.
The survey, which was conducted by PiperJaffray, asked 500 high school students in 11 schools across the country about buying patterns and purchases of digital music and digital music players. Obviously, some of the questions in the survey involved the iPhone. According to the results, 84% have heard of the iPhone, and 25% would be willing to pay its premium $500 price tag. This is a pretty substantial number for high school students who probably can’t even afford the iPhone (or have parents who don’t want to cough up the cash). What’s also interesting is that while the iPhone’s features attracted more possible teenage buyers (0% and 9% of high schoolers in the Spring and Fall of 2006, respectively, would buy an iPod/cellphone combo for more than $300), less wanted to buy the iPhone after seeing its price tag (down for 70% and 74%, in Spring and Fall 2006, respectively, to 25%).
As a high school student and Apple enthusiast, I asked some of my fellow pupils about the iPhone after it came out. This survey seems to be somewhat similar to my findings, with almost everyone I asked knowing about the iPhone (even the day after its release), but almost no one wanting to buy it. Of course, I only talked to a few select kids in my grade, and many students couldn’t even get the iPhone because of its Cingular-exclusivity (Verizon is the most popular choice in New York, especially with Cingular’s lousy local reception).
So, while 25% is a fair portion of the teenage market, Apple will have to try harder to sell 10 million units by 2008. Well, at least teen iPod market share is great (can you say, 82%?).
[via digg]
I've found mostly the same at my school. Most people know about the iPhone, and many are really excited, but they're turned off by the price. You can bet that they'll want one when the price will come down in the future.
It's also worth mentioning that the study found teens downloaded illegally less songs than before. CNN Money:
"The Internet analysts at investment bank Piper Jaffray, who surveyed nearly 500 teenagers in 11 high schools across the country, released a report late Monday about teens and music buying. According to the survey, 36 percent of the teens that download music online said they purchase music legally from [online] stores..."
25%, if this number had meaning, would be HUGE!. Unfortunately, I don't think willing to pay implies able to pay.
I had a really good read on this, very detail, and very useful information.
Thanks.
http://www.avi-converter.net
The people at my school who know the iPhone exists want one. I was actually quite surprised.
A lot of it will depend on the parents, so it's pretty much useless to ask the students. Even if the students have saved up enough to buy iPhone, which is both possible and probably, they will more than likely have to convince their parents to change carriers if they are not already with “the new whatever.” They've had enough time to save up for it, and they might convince their parents to switch. That leaves the high schoolers who drive to school in BMWs and Mercedes provided by their parents. They'll have no problems getting iPhone.
I wouldn't dismiss this. While these kids are definitely counting on their parents to foot the bill, they probably have a good idea what they can get their parents to do. There is a growing problem with parents telling their kids "no." In a recent story on the local news, several kids were interviewed and almost all of them had shoes/purses/cars that exceeded the value of anything their parents had.
I went to a party with a bunch of teens (sigh) the other night and I asked one what he thought about the iPhone and this is what he said:
"Don't even start talking about that dude, because we'll never stop."
So there you have it.
I would say the desirability of the iPhone amongst teens is oh, say, an order of magnitude greater than that of the T-Mobile Sidekick 3 (try Googling THAT to gauge its interest among adolescents).