T-Mobile sold only 120,000 iPhones in Germany, Holland, and Austria
Written on August 26, 2008 – 10:45 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Despite their incredibly inefficient way of selling the iPhone - 6-hours waiting times and shop-assistants who sell to their friends first - T-Mobile has sold 120,000 of those shine objects since July 11th. T-Mobile CEO Hamid Akhavan gives a simple reason for the distribution problems. “Our (sales) expectations were surpassed,” he told Reuters. Of these 120,000 phones, 75,000 phones were sold in Germany.
I’m actually surprised by these somewhat low numbers. Especially in Germany, home of 82 million people, one would expect to sell more than just one phone per 1100 people. Even in the first six weeks. Akhavan told Reuters that the distribution had hit a snag due to its wide-spread launch in 22 countries.
The Dutch have always been famous for their critical and direct attitude. Well, T-Mobile won’t deny this. Since they haven’t received complains from Austrian and German users, but they did from Dutch users. Typical…
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The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show of, the future of the Web. (
By Joeles on Aug 26, 2008
Yes - and guess what: It’s because carrier lock in sucks.
Although there is massive demand for the iPhone, customers elected by not buying the iPhone (or at least -not buying locked ones- currently legally unlocked iPhones without any contracts are availiable in belgium, italy and greece).
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By Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten on Aug 26, 2008
Only 59 million people in Germany own a phone right now. That’s nearly 72 percent of the population which is below the European average of 77 percent. Germany, in general, is fairly conservative so I wouldn’t have been surprised at lower numbers there at first. Also, T-Mobile is one of 4 players (formerly state owned) so they are probably the biggest player (are they?) but that would also limit uptake.
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By Roy Tomeij on Aug 26, 2008
The Dutch complained about what exactly? The phone, or the way it was sold (queues, etc)?
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About how it was sold, see: http://thenextweb.org/2008/07/.....amsterdam/
or search on Bright. It was just plain horrifying :-)
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By Joeles on Aug 26, 2008
@Boris:
T-Mobile is known in germany as the “AT&T of Europe”, since it is a subsidiary of German Telekom (which not only wiretaps it’s customers, but it’s employees and exceutives, too). T-Mobile offers the most crapiest voice & data plans in the whole market, the customerservice sucks so hard, that every time you call them and ask the same question, you get a completely different answer - i really dont know where to start and where to stop. personally i would never ever sign a contract with t-mobile, even if they sold a device which is able to cook coffee, gets me a new job and 10 blonde chicks.
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That last remark just makes you whole comment unreliable. You would sign up even if they would include only 1 blond chick. Don’t lie now! ;-)
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Haha - I couldn’t resist.
Well in normal cases i’d say: depends on the chick, but seriously: A friend of mine works at t-mobile and so I had even access to the friends & family - but really: i’d never ever sign a contract with t-mobile ;-)
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