Paul Withers explains how receiving iPhone stock through B2B distribution will make a dealer’s life much easier and significantly increase their chances of holding onto customers
It’s not often dealers have a lot to cheer about, but Apple making iPhone stock available through distribution is one of the best pieces of news they’ve had in ages.
Dealers have long complained about how difficult Apple is to deal with them almost being forced to jump through hoops just to get their hands on stock. There was even a time when they had to go on training courses and gain accreditations just to sell it.
This has always been magnified in the weeks following a new iPhone launch, when even the biggest mobile retailers and mobile operators have sold out of iPhones and have had to wait for the next deliveries.
The seeds were sewn all the way back in 2007 when the first iPhone was released. The device was made available exclusively through O2 in the UK, making them gold dust to a lot of dealers.
It wasn’t until two years later that rival operators were allowed to sell it, proving just how difficult dealers found it to compete when the biggest and most popular smartphone ever was selling around them in its millions.
Over the years however, Apple has gradually loosened the reins on the iPhone in the channel where dealers have been able to get them through the mobile operators or through Apple direct.
So it’s cheer all-round for dealers. They will be able to gain access to more stock more frequently as they are now dealing with a distributor that some would have had a closer and longer term relationship with. Best of all, this will all add up to more customers and added revenues at a time when making a customer ‘sticky’ is king.