The iPhone may soon become a lost leader as inventories continue to rise at Apple, AT&T and Verizon. On the earnings conference call today, Apple management stated the iPhone sales are expected to decline in the next quarter. Is this because consumers are waiting for iPhone 5 LTE or for different reasons outlined below.
iPad sales are obviously making up the bulk of Apple's revenue going forward and will become the future of the company. Carriers are becoming less important to Apple as most consumers are buying WiFi only iPads. Are iPhone's priced correctly or are the data plans too expensive? To me their pricing doesn't make sense to pay $600 for an iPhone and $399 to $499 for an iPad. Most smart people realize the carrier subsidy is kind of a bogus pricing scam.
The market for connected devices is changing from smaller 4 inch screens to 10 inch screens on the iPad. 90% of Fortune 500 companies and 70% of Fortune 1000 companies are testing the iPad so this may be the only opportunity for carriers going forward. Carriers need to enable their enterprises to sell iPad 3 LTE data plans.
