The headline of this post is straight up from John Strand of Strand Consulting, a company that is regarded as one of the leading authorities on mobile technologies, business and revenue models and distribution strategies.

John Strand, very much like myself, has chosen to face reality and tell it as it is than swim in the waves of euphoria and hysteria. He starts off a very informative article with the following paragraphs:

A lot has been said and written about the iPhone and there is no doubt that Apple has created a beautiful phone that has many fans and that has received a great deal of media coverage. In fact, Apple has an army of devoted and almost religious supporters among journalists and other good people that really impresses me.

But the truth of the matter is that the iPhone only has a little over 1% of the total global mobile telephone market. In other words, there are more people with Polish passports in the world than iPhone users!

When Apple originally launched the iPhone in January 2007 many people asked me for my opinion. My answer was the same back then as it is today; it is a beautiful phone targeted at a niche segment and that it will be unlikely to have any great influence on a mobile operator’s total business case.

In this write-up, John mentions a Danish company contacting him about a new app they had developed for the iPhone – and how they were very angry when he told them that they would probably have a better business case selling coffee to Turkey than selling apps for the iPhone.

It is the same absurdity that we see with web designers creating iPhone-specific sites – that is they are targetting a mobile phone that only has around 1% of world sales. That is foolishness – the same foolishness that Dennis Bournique pointed out when he wrote iPhone Only Web Sites Are Bad Business.

It is also the same absurdity that I addressed in my article, iPhone myths propagated by US bloggers – and no, I am not anti-American, anti-Apple or anti-iPhone either. I just cannot bear to see facts twisted.

But my favourite line from John Strand’s article is the one that reads: “The iPhone reminds me of Paris Hilton – I really don’t understand why she gets so much attention either!”

Read the full report, John Strand: “No I do not hate the iPhone”. Enjoy!

The West African International Telecommunications & Information Technology Exhibition (WAfriTel) is coming up in Lagos from the 2nd through the 4th of June.

Members of the MobilityNigeria team will be there to pick up scoops from mobile operators, value added service providers, and developers (if any).

If we find anything really interesting, we will also have video clips for your viewing.