iPhone Roundup: KPN Calls iPhone Useless; DoCoMo Difficulties; Apple Third In Global Market

topics

iPhone Roundup: KPN Calls iPhone Useless; DoCoMo Difficulties; Apple Third In Global Market

—KPN Chief Calls iPhone “Useless”: Ad Scheepbouwer, chief executive of Dutch telecoms company KPN has called the iPhone “pretty useless,” gloating that its sales in Germany have done little to hold back subscriber growth at its German mobile operator E-Plus, reports the FT. Scheepbouwer told the newspaper, “I had one and I thought it was a pretty useless phone, to be quite honest. The battery ran out in no time. I didn’t like the touch screen.” Plus, the 70,000 iPhones sold since November in Germany was “not a particularly impressive number,” compared to the 700,000 new customers E-Plus added the fourth quarter. Still, Scheepbouwer said KPN would “be more than happy to sell” the iPhone in the Netherlands where KPN has half the market share. Scheepbouwer said he had spoken to Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), though he did not know when they were planning to launch in the Netherlands. He added, “We hope we will be the party of choice.” No word yet from T-Mobile Germany how much Vodafone’s injunction to bar them from selling the iPhone—since overturned—has hurt their sales.

—NTT DoCoMo (NYSE: DCM) And Apple Talks Continue: Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo revealed that its talks with Apple to bring the iPhone to Japan have revolved around technological issues and revenue sharing (that old chestnut). Bloomberg reports that NTT DoCoMo CFO Masayuki Hirata said that while the “handset is easy to use and can open new markets…the specifics are still in the future.” The problem revolves around the fact that iPhone still uses GSM technology, while DoCoMo’s networks have already upgraded to the W-CDMA standard. As Hirata conceded, Apple probably won’t be rushing to introduce a 3G iPhone out just to satisfy the Japanese market, as it may “cannibalize” Apple’s GSM service in countries where the handset is already available. “The global GSM market is measured in hundreds of millions of users, compared with 50 million W-CDMA subscribers in Japan,’’ Hirata said. “It’s unlikely they will launch iPhone in Japan exclusively for DoCoMo.’’ Hirata added that it also needed time to “evaluate” Apple’s revenue share model—which he noted, is not how they do it in Japan.

—Apple Is World’s Third Largest Smartphone Maker: Finally, Canalys Research’s latest report puts Apple’s share of the US smartphone market in Q4 2007 at 28 percent. This is behind RIM’s 41 percent, but a good distance ahead of third place Palm (NSDQ: PALM) which has a 9 percent share. Plus, this puts Apple ahead of all Windows Mobile device vendors combined, whose share was 21 percent in the quarter. In the EMEA region, Apple is the fifth largest smartphone maker. Worldwide, they are the world’s third largest with a 6.5 percent share, behind Nokia (NYSE: NOK) (52.9 percent) and RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) (11.4 percent). The research firm notes for a company with one product and limited operator and country coverage, Apple has done well for itself, and its success is a “wakeup call to market leaders.” It predicts that 2008 will see other vendors playing catch up, and notes that Apple will have to keep innovating to stay in the game, as “experience shows…a vendor with only one smart phone design, no matter how good that design is, will soon struggle. A broad, continually refreshed portfolio is needed to retain and grow share in this dynamic market. (release).”

Related Stories

Dianne See Morrison Feb 6, 2008 7:33 AM ET

Posted In: Gadgets, Companies, Apple, T-Mobile, Countries, Europe, Germany

latest headlines

Stephen

So interesting to see what reflexes Scheepbouwer has when he doesn't have it his way immediately. No insight, no thinking. He responded the same way to competition on landlines, which was long overdue. I mean, Pretium had to take him to court how many times? And they won each and every time, if I am not mistaken.
This is a business of rapid change, you know what they say: If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

help4mac

KPN is laying off more workers, the company announced today.
http://www.expatica.com/nl/articles/news/KPN-scraps-more-jobs.html

Nothing like success!

Sasha Svitlica

I have personally met Ad Scheepbouwer and talked to him on few occasions and I can say with confidence that as a CEO he is pretty useless. The man is known in Netherlands as cost-cutter and nothing more. He was brought in KPN to save it from edge of disaster after dotcom bust and he does know how to lay people off, remove reception desk people and provide his workers with most distasteful coffee I ever had chance of tasting (all while pocketing few millions for himself).

I can personally attest to that man does not know megabyte from megahertz and that he dresses terribly. So how can someone without technical knowledge and with no style whatsoever dare to say anything about iPhone is beyond me.

Strictly from the business point his remarks are utterly stupid. Steve Jobs is known to hold a grudge and such negative remarks about iPhone are not helping. Another interesting fact is that KPN would not be able to sell iPhone because despite the fact that they were the only one in Netherlands who had a very good EDGE network - they have switched it off in June 2007 just when iPhone was about to get on the market.

So why did Ad Scheepbouwer made such a stupid remark? One possibility is that he has intellectual capacity of a squashed apricot (quite possible). However the most probably is that he failed to ensure that iPhone will ever come on any KPN network and since he has nothing to lose it can't hurt to throw some mud in the general direction of Coupertino. (I told you the man has no style)

As for his remark that T-Mobile sold only 70.000 phones - even intellectually challenged people like Ad know that initial numbers of subscribers are less important. The most important metrics in the mobile telecom world is churn (how many customers you lose to your competitors) and in the case of iPhone that is almost zero (once you try Mac - you never go back). And that is what hurt the badly dressed, foul mouth, farmer CEO. He knows that device he can't understand is going to take a LOT of customers away and no amount of free Nokia's, shiny LG's and interface challenged Samsung's is going to change that. And that pisses him off.

Sad individual, I'd say.

James

It's called double Dutch:

I don't like you because you're not my friend.
But I'd like to have you as a friend.

His name means Shipbuilder, but I'm not so sure whether this is the best way to build the KPN ship.

From a previous KPN customer.