Steve Jobs biggest mistake?
With news coming out of almost half a million unlocked iPhone’s running on China mobile’s network its time for Steve Jobs to admit he made a mistake on the iPhone marketing.
Apple’s loss of revenue from the missing one million iPhones must be almost $30 million a month.
A simpler solution would have been a two tiered sale strategy
a. Normal sales channel- buy as normal with a 2 year contract.
b. Buy a completely unlocked iPhone for $250 extra.
Its a simple strategy with no unlocking and users who really want an iPhone having the ability to purchase it and not have to worry about bricking or unlocking.
China Mobile appear to be releasing this news as a method to put pressure on Apple to return to the table and this will certainly work.
Assuming China Mobile is in a mood to deal reasonably. If not, then Apple’s 500K phones to the good. You know far better than most how much negotiating power CM has in a deal like this. Not sure Apple is ready for that level of play.