iPhone 3G threatens to impact global market

BEIJING, CHINA: With a thousand eyes watching, Apple unveiled the long-awaited second generation of its iPhone at the annual developers' conference (WWDC2008) in San Francisco on June 9.

With support for faster 3G wireless networks, the new iPhone has attracted fervent interest from consumers, and will undoubtedly increase the Apple's degree of internationalization. In the past three years, Apple's local market has had 48 percent share of its whole sales, European market 22 percent compared.

Expanding brand and product lines as well as broadening the international market, analysts believe that if Apple can keep these three plates spinning, it will successfully go global. Apple's iPod mainly sells at home at present, with 60-70 percent of them sold through retail establishments, 70-80 percent of which are mainly located in the US.

However, global demand for the new iPhone is extremely strong. In those  markets which are not officially authorized by Apple, consumers started to get iPhones unlocked. According to the market research firm Net Applications, the unlocked Apple iPhone will prevail in almost every country in the world, and China's sales on unlocked iPhones will reach 500,000.

There is no doubt that consumer desire is to make Apple iPhone easily enter these new markets. Apple is changing the rules of the game as well by increasing the number of operators to cooperate in some areas. In Italy, Egypt and Switzerland, consumers have more choices. In addition, Apple has become increasingly flexible on the revenue-sharing mechanism, and is willing to cut income sharing to achieve non-unique modes of co-operation.

Apple will also make great effort in China market. Tootoo.com, a global leading B2B search engine, analyses that China has become the world's largest consumer of mobile phones, and has more mobile phone users than any other country. To seize the numerous Chinese consumers, Apple is likely to set up its first franchised store in Beijing during the Olympic Games, as well as work together with China's largest mobile operators actively for co-operation. Although the co-operative agreements has not yet been reached, the iPhone engine will undoubtedly quickly start for the multiple streams of income as soon as Apple gains a firm foothold in the Chinese market.