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Verizon is expecting a surge in demand for smartphones like the iPhone in 2011, however how many Apple devices will sell is unknown because of uncertain quantity of supplies. The lack of supplies has really come to their attention in the last quarter of 2010 were they had a 2.6% decline in revenue. Even Apple claimed that they would've sold way more iPhones in the same period, had they had more supplies to meet the demand. The reason that Verizon predicted that this great surge in demand for the iPhone will come and are trying to gain more resources, is because only 26% of their customers own a smartphone, and they predict that 50% will be on a smartphone by the end of 2011. Verizon wants to be prepared for the launch of the iPhone. CFO Fran Shammo, stated that if Verizon is able to sell 11 million iPhones, that their revenue in 2011 could increase from  4% to 8%, and earnings from 5% to 8%, and these figures could double in 2012.

After having witnessed a loss in profits due being unable to meet the demands of consumers, Verizon is allocating more resources to the production of iPhones. On a PPC graph the demand line would increase showing that Verizon will have an increase in both the quantity of the supply and the increase in the price of iPhones. This is a signal of less scarcity in the market, and the incentives of both the consumer and the producer. Because of this increase in the supply of the iPhone, competition to Apple will have a decrease in potential consumers. A producer's incentives have become to produce more at a higher price. Since Verizon doesn't want to make the same mistake twice, they will allocate more resources to the production of iPhones so that they can maximize profits.

The demand for iPhones is greatly increasing in China. In Apple's fiscal year of 2011, they were able to sell 72 million iPhones, a number that soon might almost be sold in China alone. Currently, 10 million iPhones are sold in China, but this is because China's lead mobile carrier; China Mobile, has a network that is not compatible with the iPhone 4s. However, this year China Mobile is flipping to their knew network; the 4G which is compatible with the iPhone 5. This will open up a new market for Apple, as now, millions Chinese will be able to effectively use the iPhone 5 with China Mobile's network. Therefore, the demand for the iPhones will greatly increase due to the 'new' market.

Apple sold 72 million iPhones in 2011 to more than 100 countries. It is said that Apple will sell 57 million more iPhones per year in China since the demand is increasing. There are currently 650 million people who are branched to China Mobile which does not carry the iPhone network which includes 100 million who have found ways to use the iPhone through the network. Next year, China Mobile will change to the 4G network which will allow those additional 500 million people to get the iPhone.

Apple is facing problems due to one of their display suppliers named Sharp, having "manufactoring difficulties" as stated by The Wall Street Journal. This will result in a decrease of displays produced for IPhones, and with this, the supplies of IPhones 5 expected will not be fulfilled. This will therefore also affect the demand of the costumers which will not be satisfied since Sharp still is not in full production. Apple is still hoping to launch the Iphone on september 12th and start the sales on september 21st.

Due to Apple having screen supply problems with one out of their three companies, Apple has to see if they can increase the production of IPhone 5 screens in the other companies, or else they will have less supply than demand available. This will mean that the supply curve will shift to the left leaving lots of consumer demand uncovered. Not only would Apple not be able to cover all of the costumers demands, but also, due to a scarce amount of IPhones available, the new equilibrium will also have a higher price per unit sold. Therefore the consumers incentive will decrease due to longer waiting times in order to get their IPhone5, as well as due to higher prices, which would then decrease the IPhone sales. Therefore, in order to avoid this, Apple will need to find another way of producing all of their needed screens in order to fulfill all of the demand and avoid costumers from turning away from their product.

RIM, the Canadian company that developed and designed the Blackberry smartphone devices released from 1999 onwards, published revenues and profits below the analysts' estimates that were made earlier on this year. According to Bloomberg, RIM's share of global market decreased to a mere 8.2 percent in contrast to the 14 percent they obtained in the previous year. This decrease in global market share can be traced back to the skyrocketing iPhone shares, which simultaneously rose from 16 percent market share to 24 perfect. With so much of the consumer demand shifting towards iPhones and alternative smartphones, the consumer demand for Blackberries are decreasing, thus in turn lowering the annual revenue and profit of RIM. Another way this article relates back to the Economic concepts we discussed in class would be the market structure of cellular phones. Seeing as RIM's global market shares' decrease was so closely correlated to Apple's iPhones market share increase, we are looking at a low number of cellphone producers with large global market share percentages. We can also establish that they produce either similar or slightly differentiated goods, which concludes that the type of market structure being discussed in the article would be an oligopoly.

In an attempt to impede on music and film piracy, the Dutch government will implement a tax on smartphones, laptops, and mp3 players (among other devices) as of January 1st, 2013. The tax will be based on the storage capacity of devices, allowing anything from empty CD-ROMs to set-top boxes to be taxed. A maximum fixed levy of five Euros will be placed on devices, some only with a fixed levy of one or two Euros. Thus, the producers and consumers of smaller, less expensive devices will feel the effect of these fixed levies more than those of laptop and smartphone producers for example, as the fixed levies will be a larger proportion of the price for cheaper products. The tax revenues will be distributed among the affected industries.