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Apple Sells Nine Million iPhones Over Weekend
Nerval's Lobster writes "Apple managed to sell nine million iPhones over the weekend, with the company claiming its initial supply of high-end iPhone 5S units completely sold out. Apple didn't sell out of the new iPhone 5C, its plastic-cased (and cheaper) alternative to the iPhone 5S; models are still available for shipment within 24 hours from Apple's online store. And the iPhone 5S selling out is no surprise: in the weeks ahead of the new iPhones' launch, rumors persisted that the initial production run of the device was relatively small in scope, which would make it far easier for Apple to sell out of its first batch. But how many iPhone 5C units did Apple actually manage to sell? In August, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggested that Apple would produce just over 5 million iPhone 5S units ahead of the device's launch weekend; if that number's accurate, and Apple sold every single one, it would mean Apple sold roughly 4 million iPhone 5C units in order to reach that 9-million-sold figure for both models. That's an impressive figure for any smartphone, of course, and it could quiet some of the naysayers who have spent the past several months suggesting that Apple's best years are behind it."
... that's a LOT of conflict minerals!
C has already been for cookie.
I look forward to the moment where I first see someone with a gold iPhone.
I'll make sure to stop, point at them and their phone, and burst out laughing.
The launch numbers for this phone are totally dwarfed by the news of GTA V's numbers.
Yeah, yeah, different industry, but still, side by side Apple's numbers look weak.
>> it could quiet some of the naysayers who have spent the past several months suggesting that Apple's best years are behind it
Not me. I'd love to know who is still buying Apple devices when Android gizmos do pretty much the same thing for a fraction of the cost.
Apple's finally about to start feeling what androids dealing with for years. For the longest time all iphone user's have been able to balk at android headsets running versions of android many versions behind. Now that the iphone line has gotten so long older phone's are starting to chug and eventually won't be updated. That's when the glory's gone.
So if selling 9 million high-end smartphones, according to the pundits, is "jumping the shark", I wonder what success looks like?
Nobody on Slashdot cares. If it isn't big news about how some Android phone is now number one market share or has features Apple doesn't fingers need to be inserted into ears.
Seriously, I don't know if 9 mill is good, bad or indifferent. What were the number of Galaxy 4 when that was released? I'm curious about the comparison to similar products on the market and their launch.
and that's 17 years' worth.
Especially when you consider that while you can probably steal somebody's phone in GTA V, you can't play GTA on your new iPhone.
What's the point of getting one then?
it could quiet some of the naysayers who have spent the past several months suggesting that Apple's best years are behind it.
If you know anything about Apple, it should be that nothing will really stop the fans and nothing will quiet the naysayers.
None of the self proclaimed finance shows have any integrity on TV. Doesn't matter if it's ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, or Fox. All the Android and iOS fanboys are tools.
...rumors persisted that the initial production run of the device was relatively small in scope, which would make it far easier for Apple to sell out of its first batch.
I love the implication that Apple artificially limited supply in order to get the sold out headline when they sold 9 MILLION phones, almost double the record number of iPhone 5 units that were sold last year, well in excess of any other mobile sales figures. The initial production run was "relatively small" only in so much as it couldn't live up to demand - they sold 9 MILLION units in THREE DAYS. That isn't "relatively small" by any logical measure.
Blows my mind how crushing sales like that can still be spun into somehow Apple failing.
Hah! You only *believe* you don't have itunes installed... muahahahahahaha!
What is new and revolutionary that came out of the tech industry in the past 50 years?
A bunch of incremental changes. Leading to the next step better. And every once and awhile a step back because they can do something useful and cheaper, and get a broad consumer market out of it.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
When Steve Jobs got up there and announced the first iPhone, he stated that Apple had relatively modest goals. Of the 1 billion cellphones in the world, Apple hoped to get the iPhone to represent just 1% - or ten million units. They completely blew that goal out of the water. Now they can hit that mark in a single product launch weekend.
Are you sure you want to pull a Trayvon on them?
Microsoft is neck-and-neck with Apple, selling nine Windows phones on the same weekend.
Android gizmos have average build quality, good specs, lower quality software and poor long term support. Apple iPhones have better build quality, good specs, higher quality software and excellent long term support. Apple takes usually years to 'orphan' an older device. IOS 7 runs on iPhone 4, while that device is only three years old, in the Android world getting a 3 year old device to run the latest version of Android usually does not happen.
If you're the proud owner of a new iPhone 5S or iPhone 5C -- or if you're thinking about buying one -- be sure to handle it with care. Durability tests suggests the new models are more likely to break if you drop them, compared to previous iPhone models.
The new phones were tested by SquareTrade, a provider of protection plans for gadgets. They also tested several other competing smartphones to see which ones best withstand drops, dunks under water, and other common hazards. Its finding: The latest iPhones aren't as durable as last year's iPhone 5.
The biggest loser, however, was Samsung's Galaxy S4, which failed to work after being submerged in water and being dropped 5 feet off the ground, according to San Francisco-based SquareTrade.
The phone that withstood SquareTrade's torture test best was Google Inc.'s Moto X. The Moto X is the first phone designed with the Internet company as Motorola's new owner. Released in August, the Moto X is also the first smartphone assembled in the U.S.
"We were expecting that at least one of the new iPhone models would up its game, but surprisingly, it was the Moto X that proved most forgiving of accidents," said Ty Shay, chief marketing officer at SquareTrade.
Officials from Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. and Google Inc. didn't immediately return email messages for comment.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57604082/new-iphone-5s-iphone-5c-may-be-more-likely-to-break/
People forget when Microsoft injected cash in Apple when it was going nowhere.
Mightier companies than Apple have fallen, and unfortunately for them it begins to look like they are living from a "perception marketing bubble".
Remember Nokia? It was washing the floor with the competition. Apple did very well to change some of the paradigms of the mobile phone platform, but they have contributed very little and the release of "cheaper" iPhones recognizes that the only differentiator now is in price not in features.
And that is the problem for Apple: to keep charging for a phone that does pretty much the same as any other you have to resort to gimmicks: selling golden phones for example, in technology that can take you only so far.
Proof: people wanted a phone just because it was golden. That is not innovation, is hype, sooner or later the bubble will burst and all the chickens will come home to roost.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
That's a lot of sheeps!
There's a rumor that Apple is going to show its appreciation to all of the Chinese sweatshop workers who made this possible by giving them a free iPhone with service. Is that true?
....you will invest a lot of energy justifying such purchase.
while AAPL eclipses 3X as many in a weekend. Buh bye Blackberry.
Like it or not, iPhone changed the world. Android exists inside a universe created by Apple. They continue to control it with faster response, faster processing and further processing advances without needing to own it.
That's good enough for me
I look forward to the moment where I first see someone with a gold iPhone. I'll make sure to stop, point at them and their phone, and burst out laughing.
If you are trying to mess with them it might be better to just say "Oh, the iPhone comes is beige now". ;-)
when ANY sort of criticism of Apple here on Slashdot meant an immediate moderation down to -1.
But companies aren't gods, ....
Apple has this brand loyalty that very few other companies have. As a matter of fact, it was actually a case study in B school.
Apple did what many companies dream of - have people make a product as part of their identity.
Harley Davidson and some fashion designers have also achieved it.
You are welcome next year when the iPhone 6X launches...
Oh boy...
One of the reasons Apple has been so successful with their consumer electronics devices is they've made them fashionable to own. They didn't make the first MP3 player, and certainly not the first portable music player, but they made it cool. It was fashionable to be seen with an iPod, complete with white earbuds hanging out in front of your shirt (headphone companies had never had a demand for white earbuds before but suddenly they did). Their products were good at what they did too, but the thing that truly drove them to be the thing was they were fashionable. People want to have an iPod, not an MP3 player.
Now that's great... Until it stops working. Fashion is a very fickle market. What is fashionable today is passe tomorrow, often with no warning. Your brand and look isn't fashionable anymore and you have to move products based on other things.
So if Apple falls out of fashion, that'll be a hit to their market in a big way. Particularly since they go for premium pricing. The consumer electronics market is notoriously price sensitive. You see that all over. However fashion is not, and in fact can even be the opposite. Well if Apple's products stop being the cool thing to own and just become a thing to own, their pricing could be problematic.
None of this means Apple is "doomed" they can adapt for sure, but this idea that their business model can and will continue forever is a bit silly.
The problem is not rather the 5C not being sold well because being of "plastic", but rather because it is brain-dead to expect people to pick up yesterdays technology for a meagre 100 dollars. They would do better using the manufacturing resources of the 5C to ramp up 5S production.
Apple is now around or over 3/4s of the USA postpay market. Are you really going to argue that those people are being driven by fashion or are particularly fashion conscious?
I'd love to know who is still buying Apple devices when Android gizmos do pretty much the same thing for a fraction of the cost.
Because the "fraction of the cost" argument doesn't apply to most people in the U.S. Its not the cost of the unsubsidized no-contract phone that most people see, its the cost of the subsidized phone with a contract. To most people an iPhone 5S is $200, a 5C is $100 and a 4S is free. Much like they see a Samsung Galaxy S4 for $200 rather than $600, and a Galaxy S III for free rather than $400.
...
Given the subsidy iOS and Android are basically equivalent in cost. What helps Apple is the app ecosystem. Apple gets more attention from developers, 4x the revenue per app download (over $0.08 on average vs under $0.02), less fragmentation to deal with (dev time and test time),
The 5S/5C was released in eleven worldwide markets simultaneously this year vs nine markets for last year's iPhone 5 release, including China. Me thinks the one-weekend sales figures aren't comparable.
"C" also stands for cancer.
Look, they immediately sold out of the 5S. It looks like *pple fanbois all want to be part of the the shiney gold 5S master race , not candy-colored 5C peasants .
probably about 8 million of those users' old phones are destined for the trash, expensive electronics recycling, or to be shipped overseas for ''recycling'' (either straight-up dumping or dismantling for partial recycling by near-slave labor).
quit buying new phones so frequently.. planet earth thanks you
our own phones are from 2005 and 2007. who gives a shit about all the other crap.. they do what a phone is supposed to do.... make and take telephone calls. our parents didn't have handheld computers for cell phones (bag phones and car phones were still quite expensive back then), mobile farmville and angry birds, and internet access anywhere.. so why do we now? if you can't live without looking at facebook, or twitter, or whatever til you get home to your home computer... there's something seriously wrong with you.
People forget when Microsoft injected cash in Apple when it was going nowhere.
That was when Apple was a computer company. Apple is now a phone, tablet and music device company, its in a different market. In the old computer market Apple had a lot of 800-lb gorillas as competitors, in the new devices market Apple is one of the 800-lb gorillas.
Yes Apple still sells computer but that is not their focus. The revenue largely comes from the devices side. Apple has even changed its name to remove "Computer".
Android existed before the iPhone was announced. Also the iPhone hasn't been able to set a processing benchmark in a long time.. the 5S was a comparatively slow phone to top of the line Android devices before it even came out. So your facts are garbled quite a bit.
Nine million is still three times the fans of the most recent season of Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Would the iPhone 5C exist if Android wasn't around? What would the prices and features be like? Same on Android. Fact is, consumers benefit from healthy competition in the smartphone market. It drives innovation and keeps prices in check. Why people want on side to fail is beyond me. I have an Android phone and am ecstatic to hear about the new iPhone success!
More android devices were sold this weekend than IOS devices ... and that same amount was sold last weekend and the one before that, etc.
No one notices
There's nothing interesting or revolutionary about the iPhone 5.
The 5 is discontinued, its the 5S that is of interest now. Personally I find the mobility coprocessor interesting. Instead of frequently getting a GPS fix the 5S can get a fix less frequently and determine intermediary positions by the motion it senses via the motion processor while the CPU and GPS circuits are powered down. It could greatly reduce battery usage during some activities.
Also as a developer I think the A7 CPU is interesting, opening up some new possibilities for apps. I used to do some work in computer vision, it may be more practical to do such stuff on the A7.
the same can be said for Cars. Pretty well all cards do basically the same job yet there is a vast choice of makers and models all doing the job of getting from A to B.
If you had your way we'd still be driving Model 'T' then? Didn't they do the job perfectly well?
I'm going to upgrade my iPhone. The only reason I'm doing it is because I dropped it last week and it finally gave up the ghost. It hadn't done badly though as it was an iPhone 3.
I'm unclear about what to buy though (no contract phones in my house). Will it be Android? Or will I take the easy way and buy an iPhone?
I do know that the almost new Android device I'm using at the moment is a total POS when compared to the iPhone 3 I've used for years.
I have plenty to choose from and I'm going to make the choice. Is'nt that one of the things that Fandroids like to promote? If I choose and iPhone then that is my choice.
Brittney Spears has sold millions of albums and McDonalds has sold billions of hambugers. It doesn't make either of them are good. It just means lots of people have shitty taste.
Tim Cook bought them all?
Captcha - "reasoned" was my comment that?
Sorry, too lazy to sign in just for the above.
Hmm.. Maybe I'm one of those cognitive dissonance people. I've always felt uneasy about Apple products. They have a history of rent seeking, and are not even hiding it: super-expensive addons, non user serviceable batteries, no removable storage on their phones, proprietary connectors, total vendor lock-in in both hardware and software, significant barriers to entry for software on their devices. I have been actively avoiding Apple products. Even if there were no alternative, I would prefer to go without. Looking around at meetings (at a University) feels a little creepy. People use almost exclusively Apple products: iPhones, iPads, Macs. Some of my family members are also heavy Apple product users. I just do not understand this phenomenon, and probably never will. I do not think the alternatives are better than Apple's stuff in any significant technical way, but they are not nearly as oppressive.
Pretty much, because they believe the phone is the best, so they'll pay for it. Once its revealed the price isn't worth the product they'll take a huge hit
Apple would produce just over 5 million iPhone 5S units ahead of the device's launch weekend; if that number's accurate, and Apple sold every single one, it would mean Apple sold roughly 4 million iPhone 5C units in order to reach that 9-million-sold figure for both models.
No. The 9 million number takes into account online orders for phones as well. As their 5s supply ran out, many/most ran to their carriers or Apple's website and ordered it online. It does not [necessarily] mean that 4M 5C's were purchased.
Unfortunately for AAPL, its investors and its long term business, the number of sales of the phone in the first three days is good really for only one thing -- this month's revenue.
Its a given that last week some percentage of iPhone users were sitting on devices that were out of contract. Its also pretty much a given that the majority of people in that state are waiting for a new iPhone, since they would've already switched to another handset if that was their intent. So its just basic math at that point -- how many phones do they have actively being used globally, and how many of them are up for contract. With their large customer base, if they sold 3m of them, it would've been a complete flop. But 9m doesn't mean it *wasn't*.
What investors want to see is:
- Does their existing trend in losing users taper off at this point? A large but shrinking market is not good for long term investment, even if short term revenue is solid.
- Do the devices start to sell better in the markets where Apple isn't #1 or #2? (Which is a lot of them outside of the North American market!)
- Do the handsets move the needle with software or media sales?
AAPL, as a stock, has always been a "fun" one to invest in -- you get solid 5-10% swings driven by inexperienced investors, and you can game those constantly to make a quick buck. It won't start to crawl its way back up to where it was before its near-constant downward trends since Tim Cook took over until the professional investors start seeing growing substance behind the hype.
Apple isn't dying folks. There a huge company and a good model for business.
The problem is competition is higher and technology development is going through a period where earth moving changes are not occurring. This is a temporary problem. Since I think technology growth will start occurring in a more stepped fashion. When some earth moving advancements occur more dramatic changes will appear to technology. Till then companies are competing on price. Apple has a disadvantage in this area right now. They can't offer 5C's for little to no cost so competing with Samsung is hard.
Anyways, yesterday I found an open convertible with a iPhone Gold edition attached to the Windshield. It was in a sleek black case that was mounted on a podium like suction cup mount which was attached to the windshield. I snapped a few photo's of it.
I couldn't help but reach in and see how easily it slid off the Windshield (Leaving the suction cup attached to the windshield.) It slipped so easily in my pocket but being honest I decided to slide it back into its swivel mount and wait for the owner to find out where he got the case from.
He told me he got it here: KickStarter Project.
Anyways, if you want to get one of the coolest cases I have ever seen then take a look!
I can assure you that Apple does not see this fashionability as a problem. On the contrary, Apple assiduously uses fashion to both create and retain customers, and has been doing so since their beginning. Fashion is perhaps what Apple understands and other device makers who would sell their first-born for nine million unit sales in a weekend emphatically do not. That said, if you think that the cohesiveness and stickiness of the Apple ecosystem is just fashion, I have a poop-coloured zune to sell you. Someday, people will understand that consumers don't know what the specs on phones even mean, they just want a device that's priced within reach, looks cool, and works well for their needs.
Last time I looked, this was Slashdot, not Apple.com. (Yep, just checked, this is definitely /.) Apple enjoys some popularity here only by dint of the fact that Steve Jobs was a slightly less evil bastard than Bill Gates is, but it's only a matter of degree.
What is new and revolutionary that came out of the tech industry in the past 50 years?
Integrated circuits, satellite communications, GPS, the internet, flat monitors, mice, GUIs, cell phones (never mind smartphones, 50 years ago a cell phone was science fiction), wi-fi, bluetooth, CDs, DVDs...
That is true, and that likely is a factor at play here. After all, more markets means more sales, since increasing the number of available purchases reduces one of the constraints on the number of sales they can have. I suspect that affects the 5C more than the 5S, however, given that the 5C didn't sell out. As such, shifting the units around to more markets would open up more sales.
That said, supply for the 5S is being far outstripped by demand (it's already back-ordered through late October in the US), suggesting that the real constraint they're facing is not one of having enough people to sell to, but rather simply having enough product to sell. Whether they opened up China or not on day one, they'd have sold out of the 5S regardless. Not to mention that there's always been a booming gray market for Chinese buyers to grab as many units as possible in the US and elsewhere and ship them back to China, meaning that the opening on day one in China may not be as significant as it would have otherwise been, had the gray market not been in place (in fact, rumors indicate the gray market is still doing fine since white market sales are not sufficient to meet demand).
Yup. No one wants is 4" phone. No one.....except 9 million people.....but other than that no one.
It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
I moderate therefore I rule!
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80% increase in the number of handsets sold for, what, 30% increase in the target customers base, isn't credible?
In the 1970s and early 1980s, Opel and Volkswagen were not known for the generous amount of equipment included as standard on their cars. Things like the passenger side wing mirror and IIRC even rear-window heating were optional extras on the base models.
Both companies sold models with the trim level indicated as 'C' (Golf C, Kadett C). Now, officially this was an abbreviation for 'Comfort', but as this was one of the lower-spec models, we always called them 'Crisis' instead.
What calculation did you use to arrive at a 30% increase in target customer base?
Lemmings
You do realize apple controls how many are made, where they are released, and knows how many are sold the first month for each release?
No doubt there is a bean counter who figures out that they will do 20M 5s/5c the first month, so next year if they add 2 more countries they can do 11M day one, "breaking the record" on what will be 22M sales with growth.
These things aren't left up to chance. You'll know something is wrong when iPhone next is not 120% of iPhone previous.
Shrinking markets for Microsoft as it stares blank faced at IOS and Android and now SteamOS.
I think their best move now would be to put a woman in charge.
Apple is the most successful company ever to use the "product launch format" from Eben Pagan and the other Internet entrepreneurs. The only difference is Apple has an actual product that has some value to it - not as much value as the price, but more than gonzo dating advice or bogus stock tips. I'm surprised the media doesn't draw the connection and discuss it more, since Apple is analyzed in such insane detail all the time. Apple has the buildup, hype, and launch like no other company.
9 million iPhones is not so impressive if you consider that 1.5 million Android phones are sold every day on average. And only the ones registered at play.google.com are counted. So 9 million iPhones on the first weekend is six days of Android sales. But this was the weekend when the hyped iPhone was first sold. Later the numbers will return to normal figures. And there Apples iOS will remain a solid number two in the market.
Fanbois have to have their gold plated turds or they ARE nothing...,.
So now their will be a bunch of used units out there for cheap....
Or do they give a few dollars off for handing them in (probably go to china for personal data extraction)
Yes
Bah those integrated circuits were just a repackaging of normal Circuits.
Satellite communication, just an other radio communication.
GPS, ok we see a neat little effect with Satellite communication, lets use some basic match to give you location.
Internet just an extra overhead from computer to computer communication.
Flat Monitors, ohhh a beefed up digial watch!
mice, You mean the upside down trackball?
GUI, well we are already displaying text, we slow down to pc to put that text in a little box
Cell Phones, we have normal phones but we use the radio communication too... Lame.
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth more radio hackery.
CDs, DVDs... You mean LaserDisks?
They came from incremental changes over time... None of these things when released were a huge Wow! Like dropping the Atomic Bomb.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Rear window heating was optional on luxury brands back then!
And in the "You may like to read:" section, the top link is Larry Ellison Believes Apple Is Doomed
Larry Ellison is smart, but I don't agree with him on this one.
...Android can be loaded onto an iPhone.
Check and mate.
How is this off topic? New iPhone means new iTunes... even if you don't have it installed!
Detractors tend to attribute Apples success to "hype," yet there are numerous products that have been heavily promoted and yet failed to sell. Consider Microsoft's "Surface" tablet/netbooks. Remember the ads with music and the acrobatic demonstrations of its clever (and brightly colored) keyboard covers. Brilliant ad, on a par with Apple's best. Yet the Surface tanked (Round two now coming up).
So what is it about Apple? At this point, it's not so much about the hype as about the brand. Most people who use Apple's products appreciate the attention that Apple gives to designing the user experience. It's subtle things like how fast Apple's phones and tablets respond to touch. Apple has built a reputation of only making premium products--no cheap, shoddily built stuff just to build market share. Other companies tend to have some good models and some not-so-good models. You buy Apple, and you know that you are getting a quality product that has been carefully tuned to optimize the user experience. You can trust Apple not to push specs at the expense of battery life, for example. So a lot of people probably ordered a new iPhone just because their old phone was two years old and out of contract, and based upon their previous experience with the company, and they trusted Apple to have something good. And judging from the early reviews, it appears that Apple has delivered once again.
I never thought it was a hassle to connect a micro-USB connector, until Apple introduced the lightning connector. Now almost daily I notice how many tries it actually takes to plug in my Mophie, GPS, or camera. Damn you Apple!
http://teamcoco.com/video/conan-highlight-gold-iphone
Funny that no other technology company has been able to make their products fashionable or hire marketing firms.
You mean they made it better. First company to use 5 GB micro hard drives, when everyone else was using tiny flash storage or bulky notebook or even desktop hard drives. And used a 400 Mpbs interface when everyone else was using 11 Mpbs USB or even parallel. And a software interface that didn't suck hairy goat balls.
And yet Apple has either remained dominant or competitive in the markets it has chosen to pursue, long after bell bottoms have fallen in and out of fashion and back again. Almost as if they make decent products after all, and you're just casually playing the 'fashion' card to deny them any legitimacy.
Huh, interesting.