Uber has strong support from NYC consumers. They positioned this battle - rightly or wrongly - as "Uber vs. unjust cronyism" and all my friends in NYC avidly support that image of Uber in the not-totally-accurate fight. Admittedly a limited sample set, but those people are BIGGER supporters of Uber now and use the black car service more.
As for Uber having problems rolling out the taxi service in Feb 2013... the consumer demand is there. Give drivers a way to make more money and the rational ones will join. Economics is a powerful force.
Apologies- I deleted my post by mistake. I've reposted it, but now your reply is lost.
In my experience Uber has a middle-to-none brand recognition for most people in New York. The only people I know that use it are techies.
Uber launched their product too early because they are scared of competition- it's as simple as that. By Feb 2013, Hailo and GetTaxi will be in the city and they both have far more experience with yellow cabs than Uber- and haven't already annoyed a large group of them.
I live in NYC and don't see the use for Uber unless you live in an area that isn't serviced by yellow cabs especially given the premium that they seem to charge. The vast majority of NYC residents don't use taxies frequently (roughly 241M passengers per year, on par with a single subway line) and a very small subset of those use livery cabs.
As for Uber having problems rolling out the taxi service in Feb 2013... the consumer demand is there. Give drivers a way to make more money and the rational ones will join. Economics is a powerful force.