Apple COO Says On Target To Sell 10 Million iPhones; iPhone To Launch In Ireland

Apple's (NSDQ: AAPL) COO Tim Cook presented to a crowd of Wall Street types yesterday, touching on a number of subjects but getting significant attention for saying they are on track for selling 10 million iPhone sold in 2008—and that they are not married to the single, exclusive carrier model. A blow-by-blow account of Cook's presentation at the Goldman Sachs event is available at http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/16527/" title="MacDailyNews">MacDailyNews. Audio.

-- On sales and distribution: iPhone was rolled out in only 4 markets, so Apple could learn and apply what they learned to future rollouts. We sold 4 million units sold over the first 200 days, and believe we are on track for hitting goal of 10 million units sold in 2008.

-- On unlocking: iPhone unlocking shows a lot of pent-up worldwide demand. There will always be some level of hacking. Most people are unlocking iPhone in countries that do not yet have official iPhone carriers. In U.S. most iPhone are used on AT&T (NYSE: T). Why not offer the iPhone unlocked? In U.S., Apple would have had to have two phones. Apple is not married to the single, exclusive carrier model. Apple is married to making the best possible products for users, that's all.

-- On the SDK: We have over 1,000 Web 2.0 apps for iPhone today. Now forthcoming SDK will make iPhone even more compelling. iPhone has the highest customer satisfaction of any Apple product ever shipped. Even higher than Mac.

-- On Price Cut: Apple cut the iPhone price in order to make the device as attractive as possible for holiday shoppers. The more iPhones Apple could sell, the more developers the iPhone would get, the more word of mouth would sell additional iPhone, etc. The holiday season only comes around once per year. Apple chose to go for it.

Based on the comments, Apple's shares jumped $5.29, or 4.4 percent, today to $128.35, however, the shares are still a long way from recouping a 30 percent decline over the past three months, according to Reuters. Analysts were bullish after the news that Apple was going to discuss its software roadmap next week at its headquarters. They suspected that the upcoming SDK would allow the iPhone to be used in the enterprise, making it a more viable competitor to BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices.

iPhone in Ireland: Separately, O2 Ireland confirmed today that the iPhone will debut in Ireland March 14, according to cellular-news. The iPhone will be sold through O2 Ireland and the Carphone Warehouse retail stores for $600 (8 Gig) and $750 (16Gig).

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