A study performed by a danish group, Strand Consult, might generate some buzz.
According to their investigation, the iPhone is not really the golden device to make money, at last for carriers. To reach such conclusion they studied the following factors:
- Apple sells the iPhone at premium price to the carrier.
- Apple would ask a percentage of iPhone-driven profits (Apple is suspected to have asked for a fee for TV applications for the iPhone
- Managing the device and customers is time and money consuming for carriers.
To support this conclusion, they used information from different carriers that warn investors about smaller than expected iPhone-driven profits. We can also add that the iPhone prevent carriers to get revenues from selling ringtones and music tracks, as it reserved to the iTunes Store.
However, as we could have experienced it in France, carriers are ready to go to court to get the right to distribute the iPhone on their network. So, they should think they can make money even though they have to speed up investment for upgrading infrastructure to support the bandwidth consumption of iPhone users. It is clear that dealing with Apple is not like dealing with Nokia or Sony-Ericsson. The price of mobile phones is on the high range for Apple (and Nokia N series), and it costs money to the carrier, even though customers will pay back the price splitted on 24 months of subscription fees.
