Business Week Talks Apple's iPhone Rollout

Peter Burrows, writing for Business Week, reports on Apple’s rollout of the iPhone to more and more countries. Prior to today, the iPhone was offered in 22 countries which, according to this MacDailyNews article, put it in front of 320 million potential subscribers. Today, Apple expanded that number by 21 more countries and another 290 million potential subscribers.

According to Burrows’ article a person familiar with Apple’s production plans has stated that Apple is planning on manufacturing 40-45 million iPhones through August of 2009. This represents a 52% increase over the estimates of Gene Munster, analyst for Piper Jaffray. Given that Munster’s predictions are significantly more optimistic than most analysts, Apple is indeed planning an ambitious rollout.

Burrows’ goes on to say that Apple’s success with its ambitious expansion plans hinges on :

1 Apple’s and AT&T’s ability to speed up in-store activations.
2 Apple’s ability to address usability problems, the most significant of which is the problems some users are experiencing with the 3G network.
3 Apple’s ability to address component supply issues.

There are signs that all of these constraints are being addressed and Burrows concludes that even if Apple can’t meet its own lofty goals, it is likely to meet the average of most estimates.

The article is a good read and you can read it in its entirety here.

Joe Henry