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UK consumers are rejecting Apple’s iPhone because it is too expensive, a recent study suggests.

A poll conducted by market research company GfK NOP, which surveyed 500 people in the UK, has found that 72% would not buy an iPhone as the price is too high.

The survey indicates that despite a high 75% awareness of the iPhone brand, uptake is likely to be limited until the price drops considerably.

The iPhone, exclusive to O2 in the UK, currently retails for an inital one-off cost of £269 ($556) and a minimum monthly tariff of £35 ($72), an agreement to which customers are locked into for 18 months.

Richard Jameson, spokesman for GfK NOP commented that despite the hype surrounding Apple’s new offering, the iPhone has yet to capture the UK public’s imagination. He also warned that users in the United Kingdom were not used to paying such a large amount upfront for their mobile phones,

“We must take into account that the UK mobile market’s success has been down to subsidised handsets, therefore the iPhone’s price really stands out,” said Jameson “…consumers are not used to paying in excess of £200 for a phone.”

Figures released last week revealed that UK sales of the iPhone have been dramatically lower than expected, with one reseller estimating that since the 9th November launch only 26,500 of the Internet-enabled phones have been activated. Carphone Warehouse, the UK’s largest mobile phone retailer, only sold 11,000 of the 50,000 phones which they had brought in, with the launch event described as ‘disastrous’.

If Apple are holding out hope that Christmas 2007 will improve their fortunes they may be disappointed; only 2% of those surveyed said they were thinking of adding the iPhone to their Christmas lists.

In the long-term, iPhone’s prospects might be a little better. A 75% brand awareness is undoubtedly impressive, and the iPhone is also the brand most people think of first in association with music (78%) and mobile Internet surfing (65%). If Apple can introduce a meaningful price cut while the phone is still as prominent in the public consciousness they might be able to convert the high interest into strong sales figures.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 26th, 2007 at 1:40 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.