Math on iPhones Just Doesn't Add Up?

Tech Dirt is reporting that recently announced numbers by Apple and AT&T suggest that there is a large gap (1.7 million) between the number of iPhones being sold and those being activated. Taking into account factors like the iPhone launching outside the US and a 20% estimate of people buying the iPhone just for the purposes of unlocking, there are still 700,000 iPhones unaccounted for. "[...] suggesting that they're sitting on store shelves, piling up as unsold inventory. That number suggests at least some gap between perceived demand and actual demand -- while also raising questions about how much effort it will take to eat through that inventory."

Comments

A million here, a million there, and sooner or...

[Henry V .009]

Fake Steve has a write-up on this (of course). If the phones have really been sold to the public, and aren't missing because of inflated numbers or internal sales, then this has really got to be hurting the bottom line. I believe that the phone contract subsidizes the hardware, and if people buy phones without contracts, Apple is losing money on each sale. 1.7 million phones winds up being a lot of money. The amount that each phone is subsidized is unknown, of course.

tag: stuffthechannel

[Ralph Spoilsport]

I wouldn't be surprised if this is typical late 90s shenanigans on the part of apple. I know a lot of software companies did this back in the 90s - they print up a jillion boxes of software and ship it to the stores, counting it as sales. This works in the short term, but when the stuff shows up on wooden palettes at the Qwiky Mart all marked down 50%, it travels back up the chain pretty quick, and affects share price. so, i would propose a tag to this article, stuffthechannel.

RS

I knew it!

[iknownuttin]

I got modded down for my joke.

To paraphrase Bob Newhart on the Tavis Smiley show when asked about his jokes about women and Chinese drivers; We as a culture have lost our sense of humor. Women are funny. Chinese people are funny. Black people are funny. Everyone can be funny.

I have a gay relative and I'll leave it that because I don't want to inadvertently out him, and upon opening and pointing to his new MacBook he said, "Yep, I'm gay!"

Some of you folks need to get a fucking grip! And it's funny, folks who are offended are usually NOT the subject of the joke. They are sanctimonious PC people who just like to bully others. I think they (white liberal morons living in their gated all white communities who get offended at "off color" jokes are assholes.

Ahem

[sneakyimp]

Don't really mean to say the "maths don't add up". 'Math' after all is short for 'mathematics,' which is pural.

Re:FP

[armada]

How sad an existence do you have to have to draw pleasure from a "first post"? Specially when you are not actually posting anything.