France Orders Break Up of Orange iPhone Exclusivity Deal
Linked by Kroc Camen on Wed 17th Dec 2008 19:32 UTC, submitted by risbac
PDAs, Cellphones, Wireless The French competition council has ordered the iPhone be opened up to other French carriers (Google-translated), breaking the exclusivity deal with Orange (France Telecom). The complaint was filed by France's third largest operator Bouygues Telecom who said that the deal violated local competition laws. Though the ruling [fr] is temporary whilst the issue is investigated further, the ruling did state that the arrangement reduced the effects of price competition, network quality and customer service.
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RE[6]: Far too late
by spiderman on Thu 18th Dec 2008 13:07 UTC in reply to "RE[5]: Far too late"
spiderman
Member since:
2008-10-23

Your link says "Apple also announced that it is now the third largest mobile phone maker by revenue"
It talks about revenue, not units.
It comes from an Apple satelite site and is misleading. Indeed, Apple revenues are stronger than Sony Ericsson and Motorola, but Apple does not just sell mobile phones, they also sell ipods and computers.
They say they sold $4.6 billions, but that includes everything (from ipods to computers to iphones). their own quarterly report says $419 millions (ten times less):
http://images.apple.com/pr/pdf/q308data_sum.pdf
On the other hand, Sony Ericsson and Motorola only sell mobile phones, and (nearly) all their revenue come from mobile phones. They probably sold 10 times more phones than Apple each.

Anyway, it's hard to find reliable statistics, but I don't have the feeling that Apple is selling much. I don't see iPhones everywhere. The last time I've seen one was more than 6 months ago...
I believe it is safe to say Apple is not in the top 10 mobile manufacturers.

Edited 2008-12-18 13:17 UTC

Reply Parent Score: 2

RE[7]: Far too late
by Adurbe on Thu 18th Dec 2008 16:08 in reply to "RE[6]: Far too late"
Adurbe Member since:
2005-07-06

your quite right!

my mistake, I read the units shipped was more than RIM and assumed it was refering to shipping units when it said 3rd

The iPhone beat RIM's BlackBerry shipments last quarter; RIM shipped 6.1 million handsets compared to Apple's near 6.9 million. Apple is now the third-largest mobile phone supplier in terms of revenue. Nokia and Samsung are first and second respectively while LG and Motorola are fourth and fifth.

Reply Parent Score: 2

RE[8]: Far too late
by spiderman on Thu 18th Dec 2008 19:19 in reply to "RE[7]: Far too late"
spiderman Member since:
2008-10-23

Yes but this is misleading. Apple's revenues are better than both Motorola and LG, but not iphone revenues. Remember Apple also sells ipods and computer and that iPhones are less than a tenth of Apple's revenue. Motorola's revenues are in billions, not millions. I'm quite confident they sold more than the iPhone, even if Motorola is struggling at the moment.
This is like comparing Apples and Oranges.
Apple and Oranges... That is funny when talking about an article about Orange and Apple.
+1 for me (funny)

Edited 2008-12-18 19:22 UTC

Reply Parent Score: 1

RE[7]: Far too late
by pxa270 on Fri 19th Dec 2008 17:12 in reply to "RE[6]: Far too late"
pxa270 Member since:
2006-01-08

The 4.6B is from just the phones, not including Macs or iPods. Their total revenues last quarter were 11.7B non-GAAP, or 7.9B GAAP (subscription accounting, where they spread certain revenues over 8 quarters).

Reply Parent Score: 2

RE[8]: Far too late
by spiderman on Fri 19th Dec 2008 21:14 in reply to "RE[7]: Far too late"
spiderman Member since:
2008-10-23

I don't know what accounting trick they use, but their report
http://images.apple.com/pr/pdf/q308data_sum.pdf says they made $7.464b for Q3 2008, of which $419M are from iPhones and related products and services.
I find it hard to believe they made 4.6 billions dollars out of iphones in Q3 2008. They would have had to sell 8 millions iphones or so in Q3 to reach that number and iphones would have to make more than half their revenue, meaning they would have sold more iphones than ipods and computers (portable and desktop) plus itunes combined... Their report says they sold 717 000 iPhones.
Is there something I'm missing, a nasty accounting trick perhaps?

Edited 2008-12-19 21:16 UTC

Reply Parent Score: 1