$20m iPhone injection could boost Aussie adoption of 3G

The $20 million prediction encompasses the advertising value of the product’s release into the Australian market, rather than the simply amount of revenue it accumulated.

Apple has not released actual data about iPhone sales during the past few days, so Ibis examined a number of different issues to predict this figure.

“We looked at the whole host of factors that would affect the number, including extra sales staff, staff security, and additional product transport,” said Mark Ganz, Industry Manager at IbisWorld.

“Apple is very secretive when it comes to numbers, so it was quite a difficult one to calculate. The thing that really complicates the model is the varying prices and contract models, so we had to take a bit of a median view.”

Ganz said the iPhone carriers were only allocated 80,000 devices between the three of them, and the subsequent demand after those units sell out will further fuel the economic impact.

The launch is also expected to spur growth in the mobile market as a whole, not only for iPhone sales but for other 3G devices.

“I think the iPhone does will boost awareness for 3G in Australia and help give momentum for customer transitioning from 2G to 3G,” said Ganz.

“When you look at the telecommunications market, mobile replacement is currently 40 percent. I think it’ll increase to possibly as much as 50 percent in the near feature.”

During the next several months, Ibis predicts the iPhone will have even greater impact on the Australian economy and increase mobile telecommunications revenue almost 5.4 percent to $15 billion.

“$20 million was just for Friday, it’s just a drop in the ocean of the economy. We don’t know when that initial allocation is going to be sold out, but as they get restocked, the ongoing benefits to economy will be higher,” said Ganz.

“It’s a great positive for the industry, and we think the demand outstrips supply at the moment. There will be a lot of shortages, so Apple with really benefit from not having to discount prices to match demand and from locking down customers into long contracts.”