"Analysts wondered if Apple could live up to the hype. They cautioned that only the wealthy or the tech-obsessed might cough up the cash. Only 15 percent or less of phone users said in a 2007 survey by Jupiter Research that they were willing to pay $100 or more for a phone.
Jobs said he aimed to get just 1 percent of the market by 2008.
AT&T threw its backing behind the iPhone again a year later. It decided to subsidize the iPhone 3G — the second generation of the phone — to boost retail sales and ultimately add more wireless customers. It began paying Apple about $300 per device, according to analysts' estimates, to lower the cost for customers. It charged $199 for the iPhone 3G, a sharp price cut from the first phone.
More than 1 million of the phones sold in the first weekend. By January 2008, the iPhone had become AT&T's most popular smartphone, leading to an uptick in wireless customers for the legacy telecom as landlines began to decline."
see https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2007/06/26AT-T-and-Apple-Anno...
[update: added following text about AT&T's subsequent iPhone marketing]
from https://www.dallasnews.com/business/technology/2017/09/12/10...:
"Analysts wondered if Apple could live up to the hype. They cautioned that only the wealthy or the tech-obsessed might cough up the cash. Only 15 percent or less of phone users said in a 2007 survey by Jupiter Research that they were willing to pay $100 or more for a phone.
Jobs said he aimed to get just 1 percent of the market by 2008.
AT&T threw its backing behind the iPhone again a year later. It decided to subsidize the iPhone 3G — the second generation of the phone — to boost retail sales and ultimately add more wireless customers. It began paying Apple about $300 per device, according to analysts' estimates, to lower the cost for customers. It charged $199 for the iPhone 3G, a sharp price cut from the first phone.
More than 1 million of the phones sold in the first weekend. By January 2008, the iPhone had become AT&T's most popular smartphone, leading to an uptick in wireless customers for the legacy telecom as landlines began to decline."