iPhone Bet Update
For those following along at home, my iPhone bet (I took the under on 10 million iPhones sold by the end of this year) has been pretty close. Apple had reportedly sold about 6 million of the original model in roughly one year (and the bet was for about 1.5 years) so they were tracking slightly under. However the 3G model has a much lower price (though it costs more over the length of the contract) due to carrier subsidies. This is clearly good for the over.
I thought my side was looking weak for a bit there, but a couple developments have me liking my action once again. For one, Apple quickly sold out of the 3g model. It did so in one weekend, which is impressive, but that was only around 1 million units. It’s questionable if they can even produce another 3 million in that time. They’re in the process of ramping up capacity, but that takes time.
Also, there’s been a much larger negative buzz around the 3g model than there was around the original. There were some temporary glitches that bricked a lot of units and the MobileMe fiasco, neither of which will probably have any long term repercussions. But the terrible battery life, poor stability, and now more than anything the fact that call quality somehow went from bad to awful, which is getting a lot of mainstream press, all bode well for my side.
So which side do you like now?
