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Math on iPhones Just Doesn't Add Up?

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the bad-math dept.

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."

25 of 289 comments (clear)

  1. i know! by vanDrunen · · Score: 5, Funny

    They all got blended:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg1ckCkm8YI

    1. Re:i know! by flyingsquid · · Score: 5, Funny

      The Apple fanboys don't actually use them. They just stare, doe-eyed and utterly enraptured, at the sleek lucite and brushed aluminum, totally lost in the beauty of its industrial design. Occasionally they caress the device or whisper sweet nothings to it.

    2. Re:i know! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      my precious

    3. Re:i know! by ContractualObligatio · · Score: 5, Funny

      Actually, I didn't even take mine out of the box. I know it was perfect the day Steve Jobs announced it, why sully it with the imperfect air which I breathe? Let it's perfection remain untarnished for ever more!

    4. Re:i know! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Like some colectors do with Comics, or with some toys.

      She's an ACTION FIGURE, you bastard!
    5. Re:i know! by maxume · · Score: 2, Funny

      And then the sun exploded.

      --
      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
    6. Re:i know! by Reality+Master+101 · · Score: 4, Funny

      You know, I have no love for Apple (I actually hate the company), but I did buy an iPhone, because it has the best browser and best map application (I wanted a browser with a phone, not a phone with a browser).

      That said, I have to say one thing. The iPhone came in the nicest box and packaging I've ever seen. It's almost decadent, how thick the cardboard is and how nicely constructed it is. The iPhone comes cradled in this thick, thick, clear plastic holder. The manual came in an elegant black envelope. You have to see the thing to believe it.

      I seriously can't bring myself to throw it away. It's utterly useless at this point, but it's so nice, it feels like I'm being wasteful by putting in the trash.

      It actually gives me another reason to hate Apple. There is absolutely no reason that this box is necessary, and it really is a waste of resources. I think they used an entire tree to produce the box.

      --
      Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
    7. Re:i know! by p0tat03 · · Score: 2, Funny

      You idiot, even the box is holy and must be protected! I filled an airtight plexiglass box with air from my local Apple Store (approved by The Jobs Himself!) and put my iPhone box in there. It must immerse in Steve's blessed air to maintain its perfection!

    8. Re:i know! by dwater · · Score: 2, Funny

      ...ran over on accident by his spouse and car Spouse *and* car ... wow. No wonder.
      --
      Max.
    9. Re:i know! by mvdwege · · Score: 3, Funny

      Believe this man! Mod him up! Buy him a beverage of choice when you meet him!

      All joking aside, I ride Italian motorcycles, and by God isn't this post on the money. The engine, the frame and the suspension are a wonderful unit, the cycle rides like a dream, the styling is great. Yet, stupid little design flaws keep cropping up, like the headlight fittings not being designed to hold up under heavy use (my headlight is now fixed to the frame with tie-wrap).

      That's Italian design for you: it does what it's supposed to do, so we it out of the factory. Never mind the details, they're not important to the main purpose of the product. So we get cars that look great, drive great, and have body panels that fit badly; the creaking of the body of some Alfa Romeos can really get on your nerves. Or motorcycles where someone thought it was a good idea to run the cables to the rear light right through the middle underside of the rear fender (my previous bike).

      And yet...there is something in Italian engineering that captivates us fans, and makes us put up with their lackadaisical attitude to details. Damned if I know what it is, but it's there.

      Mart
      --
      "I know I will be modded down for this": where's the option '-1, Asking for it'?
  2. Shocking! by Alexx+K · · Score: 1, Funny

    A $499 iPod touch with phone capabilities and locked into America's most evil telco isn't selling! I am well and truly shocked! I never suspected this would happen!

    --
    Don't mind the extra X. Alex
  3. No worries by DaffyDuck101 · · Score: 3, Funny
    From the mouth of the great leader himself:

    Apple faithful, trust me on this. The phones are not lost. Okay? I just saw them, like, I don't know, last week. Or was it just before Macworld? Tim Cook is trying to find the paperwork because he says he knows we shipped them and he can totally remember seeing the invoices but now he can't remember where he put them but he swears they're around here someplace. Ja'Red is on the job too.
    http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/2008/01/so-were-missing-few-hundred-thousand.html
  4. Re:Terrorists buying them to make a Beowulf Cluste by flyingsquid · · Score: 5, Funny
    The iPhone is the cool new thing.

    Totally. Kim Jong Il got one, and now Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Osama Bin Laden are really jealous, to the point that it's threatening to completely disrupt the Axis of Evil. It doesn't help that Osama got a brown Zune for Christmas and now Kim Jong Il and Ahmadinejad are teasing him mercilessly about it.

  5. Maybe... by niceone · · Score: 2, Funny

    They've been pinched?

    (British joke only, I guess)

    --
    ccalam - acoustic versions of new songs.
  6. Or Bricked by Skevin · · Score: 4, Funny

    I work as a Construction Contractor for some rather extravagant celebrities*. One of my more indulgent clients asked what was the most expensive building materials I've ever seen. Well, I heard on Slashdot that unlocked iPhones make excellent bricks...

    Tomorrow, I'm getting my sixth truckload. The North Wing is almost complete, and then I'll start working on the guest house.

    * (just kidding, of course. I'm a working techie stiff just like everyone else here)

    Solomon

    --
    "Twice half-assed makes an ass whole." --Solomon K. Chang
  7. Re:FP by Fieryphoenix · · Score: 3, Funny

    With all the junk passing for off topic first posts lately, it's kind of a pleasure just to see a plain old, old-school one for once.

  8. Re:Terrorists buying them to make a Beowulf Cluste by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    It doesn't help that Osama got a brown Zune for Christmas

    Makes sense.. That thing is a bomb.

  9. Crazy People. by jellomizer · · Score: 3, Funny

    1. Colectors buy one keep the seconds in its origional package.
    2. Horders buy as many as possible and sell them on ebay.
    3. Short attention span. They bought one but never decided to use it.
    4. Stupid People. They couldn't figure out how to use it.
    5. Loose recepts. Broken or didn't like it but never returned it.
    6. Like to break things. Will it blend what makes it tick.
    7. Uninformed after spending $600 on a phone they realize their home has no Cell reception
    8. Competitors buy the phone and study it for its secrets.
    9. Compulsive cleaning spouce. New Toy left in the wrong spot got tossed.
    10. Enemies a person is jelious that you just got an iPhone... Have it dissapar.
    11. Kids... Shiny... Small... Toilet... Nuff said.
    12. Gifts that were never open.
    I bet more too.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  10. Re:Terrorists buying them to make a Beowulf Cluste by Basehart · · Score: 3, Funny

    There's no way Osama would use a Zune. He's an iPod Nano guy if ever I saw one.

  11. Look under the there... by BrainGravy · · Score: 2, Funny

    I just found 700,000 iPhones hidden under my AT&T bill.

  12. Re:Terrorists buying them to make a Beowulf Cluste by RealGrouchy · · Score: 3, Funny

    Actually, Kim Jong Il got two, because he got a hole in one the first time he tried using it.

    - RG>

    --
    Hey pal, this isn't a pleasantforest, so don't waste my time with pleasantries!
  13. Re:Terrorists buying them to make a Beowulf Cluste by Dragonslicer · · Score: 3, Funny

    Mahmoud Ahmadidntgetaniphonejad?

  14. Re:Terrorists buying them to make a Beowulf Cluste by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Actually Osama's not so pissed that he got a Zune as that he got it for Christmas .

  15. Re:Enough anti-iPhone FUD to choke on... by LearnToSpell · · Score: 4, Funny

    And do you think AT&T is stupid enough to take inventory of 700,000 phones at once?

    Having been on the phone with AT&T for the last four hours, yes, yes I do.

    --
    Haida Manga
  16. Re:Terrorists buying them to make a Beowulf Cluste by porcupine8 · · Score: 2, Funny
    a little more north

    Of COURSE! Santa is stockpiling so that he doesn't run into the same situation next Christmas with the iPhone that he had this year with the Wii!

    --
    Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.