From Macrumors. This is kinda hard to believe, while not, all at the same time:

Fifty percent of iPhone owners who have iPhones swapped at the Genius Bar have never plugged them into a computer to backup or sync


If you didn't believe Joel Spolsky's Strategy Letter III before, you should now.

This calculus means that eliminating barriers to switching is the most important thing you have to do if you want to take over an existing market, because eliminating just one barrier will likely double your sales. Eliminate two barriers, and you'll double your sales again.


Now interestingly, if you're still in the lead, a single barrier doesn't necessarily kill you like Spolsky thought it might. And, of course, iPhones don't, I assume, make up a majority of the iPods out there. Makes you wonder how many iPod touch users synced, or if they just bought music via WiFi.

To take over a market, you have to address every barrier to entry. If you forget just one barrier which trips up 50% of your potential customers, then by definition, you can't have more than 50% market share, and you will never displace the dominant player, and you'll be stuck on the sad (omelet) side of chicken and egg problems.


Will iCloud mean more iTMS purchases? No idea. I don't sync up my Android phone much, and kinda like leaving the tether behind. It's not like the iPhone had to be synced to buy apps or music. It's really just a backup issue, right?

Still, Apple screwed up there. Who knew?

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