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19 Million Americans May Buy Apple iPhone

6:30 am on June 20, 2007 | Category: Business, Cell Phones, Mobile Devices

Almost one in ten American cell phone users has a â€œstrong interestâ€ in purchasing the forthcoming Apple iPhone device, according to a recent study by M:Metrics, a research company that tracks the mobile phone market.

About 9% of the 11,064 cell phone users surveyed said that they were inclined to buy the much-hyped music phone, which is set for release on June 29. This works out to approximately 19 million American wireless subscribers, according to M:Metrics’ report.

That is “an impressive figure, when you consider that the installed base of most high-end devices rarely approaches 1 million and respondents were informed of the ($500+) price point as well as of the AT&T exclusive,” commented senior analyst, Mark Donovan, in a statement.

The Apple iPhone will be offered exclusively through AT&T Wireless, at a cost of $499 with 4GB of built-in memory, or $599 for the 8GB model, with a two-year service contract.

Of the respondents who indicated a strong interest in the Apple iPhone, 67% were customers of a different carrier, and were open to the idea of switching to AT&T. Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile would be the hardest hit by such an exodus of customers, according to the M:Metrics report.

Sales of standalone digital music players could also take a dive after the iPhone’s launch, the study found, with 64% of potential iPhone buyers already owning an MP3 player.

“It will be interesting to see at what rate consumers replace their digital music player with an iPhone,” senior M:Metrics analyst, Paul Goode, said in a statement.

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