Can Apple reach beyond its early adopters?
The survey showed that most iPhone users are relatively youthful technophiles; half are under age 30, and a third of them even carry more than one mobile phone. This group of customers is great for launching a product, but there aren’t enough of them to create sustained growth. The biggest question about the future of the iPhone is whether Apple can reach beyond the early adopters to generate substantial amounts of mainstream demand for the iPhone. Apple has a history of doing that successfully with products like the iPod, but that was much more narrowly focused on a single usage — it was a mobile appliance rather than a mobile computer. The iPhone’s multiple features make it very appealing to technophiles, but potentially confusing to mainstream customers. The history of the mobile industry is littered with products that sold well at first but then fizzled out. Although the iPhone’s future looks very promising today, its long-term success is not guaranteed. A good example of how to gr
