Apple Cites 'Incredible' Demand for New iPhones Amid iPhone 5s Sellouts

OC40 said:

Your theory has a hole. Customers didn't know the supply ahead of time. People would have lined up whether apple had 10MM phones or 2MM phones.

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Yes customers didn't know the initial supply number, but scarcity is something you cannot lie about.

It's sold out everywhere, every customers are limited to purchase up to 2 iPhones. People need to book their purchase earlier or they run out of stocks.

Whether artificial or not, that's scarcity for you .. And it looks good on headlines "Sold out anywhere on Planet Earth" and for the coming years it will always be.

Do you go hunt and lining up for a new product of Pepsi? You sure don't, you can get one EASILY on your local retailer, or even mom and pop store.

Couldn't be happier with my yellow 5c. Big win for apple I think.

Well I tried to order on t mobiles site at 3 am on launch day and it was crash city. My wallet was in pain but I ordered on apples site with a shipping date of oct 7-11 damn it!!!! I stayed up for nothing. Called t mobile today and was able to order a space gray 16 gb model with only 99 down and........wait for it........ It ships monday and just because my phone is for sale and I may not have one ........wait she threw in next day free of charge. Never had a smoother transaction from now one while I'm at t mobile at least it phone sales for me!!!!!! And it was cancel city for the unlocked 700$$& 5s from apple.

Matching iWatch

TheOrioles33 said:

Its such a tacky color. I guess it will match the gold rims on their car.

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No, but it 'will' match their gold iWatch... I think this was the original motivator for the gold iPhone.

Thugs took over Apple line in Chicago

My friend and I waited in line for more than 12 hours at the Lincoln Park Apple store in Chicago. I was originally #8 in line when the line first started. But by 8 AM when the doors opened 30 thugs had line cut in front of all of us their leader carrying a 3" stack of $100 bills. Despite huge complaints from every one in line Apple employees allow these guys to stay and purchase every Gold, Silver and unlocked version. The thugs were violent and threatened us - but Apple employees did nothing. The ring leader walked out with more than 50+ phones - we got video of him with the cash walking around to each apple employee paying for the line crashers phones in cash. When they were done he walked out with 4 huge bags loaded with new iPhone boxes. He owned 5 phone stores and put half them on craiglist and the other he shipped offshore. Thanks Apple for not defending the little guy - after 5 years of being a front place line holder I'll never wait in line for an apple product again.

AppGuyChicago said:

My friend and I waited in line for more than 12 hours at the Lincoln Park Apple store in Chicago. I was originally #8 in line when the line first started. But by 8 AM when the doors opened 30 thugs had line cut in front of all of us their leader carrying a 3" stack of $100 bills. Despite huge complaints from every one in line Apple employees allow these guys to stay and purchase every Gold, Silver and unlocked version. The thugs were violent and threatened us - but Apple employees did nothing. The ring leader walked out with more than 50+ phones - we got video of him with the cash walking around to each apple employee paying for the line crashers phones in cash. When they were done he walked out with 4 huge bags loaded with new iPhone boxes. He owned 5 phone stores and put half them on craiglist and the other he shipped offshore. Thanks Apple for not defending the little guy - after 5 years of being a front place line holder I'll never wait in line for an apple product again.

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So why exactly did you wait in line when you could've just order it online?

AppGuyChicago said:

My friend and I waited in line for more than 12 hours at the Lincoln Park Apple store in Chicago. I was originally #8 in line when the line first started. But by 8 AM when the doors opened 30 thugs had line cut in front of all of us their leader carrying a 3" stack of $100 bills. Despite huge complaints from every one in line Apple employees allow these guys to stay and purchase every Gold, Silver and unlocked version. The thugs were violent and threatened us - but Apple employees did nothing. The ring leader walked out with more than 50+ phones - we got video of him with the cash walking around to each apple employee paying for the line crashers phones in cash. When they were done he walked out with 4 huge bags loaded with new iPhone boxes. He owned 5 phone stores and put half them on craiglist and the other he shipped offshore. Thanks Apple for not defending the little guy - after 5 years of being a front place line holder I'll never wait in line for an apple product again.

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I don't believe this story for a second. Pics, video or it didn't happen!

Jimbo47 said:

Of course they have high demand. The issue is they have very low supply to go around. I have a feeling the actual amount of devices sold (I shouldn't say sold, rather the first wave of shipments) is very low.

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What's with all the haters? The iPhone is the number one selling smartphone in the world. Every year. Every year. Millions of phones. The number 2 phone is usually the previous years iPhone. The iPhone 5s will be the number one phone. That means tens of millions of phones. This is not surprising so it's weird to have so much doubt about it.

mbh said:

How honest are you? You made up your own question for Phil's answer. The actual question is here:

http://9to5mac.com/2012/09/25/apple-marketing-svp-comments-on-iphone-5-scratches-and-chips-that-is-normal-for-aluminum-products/

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Very honest and realistic. I was deliberately just being lazy quoting that exact question, because of the simple reason that the question about these issues didn´t really matter. Whatever you would ask Phil about the iPhone 5 issues, you will always get the same answer from him.

Answers such as this are prepared beforehand, so he doesn´t need to acknowledge production issues to the public. You can bet your ass though, that the first thing Schiller does after he hears of such issues in mass, he´s going to plan a meeting and talk about it with the people in charge of production and talk to Foxconn very seriously. So the end result of that is they cancelled the 5 altogether, because they realized the anodizing wasn´t the best idea and introduced a new space gray.

So no, it´s not "normal" that a phone dents like that, because that would mean that QA didn´t really do their jobs right. And that would not go well when iPhones are the "gold standard" as Phil likes to call them.

So I got to my local AT&T store about a 1/2 hr. before they opened with the intent of getting a white 32GB 5S. After about an hour of waiting & finally reaching the door, the AT&T rep asked what I was looking for. Right after I said white, he looked at me funny & said they didn't get ANY gold or white models. So I left & tried ordering on the Apple Store app, & I ended up getting an error message at Checkout.
So I returned to the line at the perfect time cuz the rep told the guy behind me he'd be lucky to get one. I ended up walking outta there w/ my shiny new Blk/Space Gray 32Gb 5S. Thank god them 2 hrs didn't go to waste.

I'm really digging the gold 5S and I have my sights set on a 32GB after I swore to stay away from the iPhone until it got a larger screen (5" would have been perfect). But that thing just looks so sexy and classy it'll be nice to have a color that stands out from all the black and white phones out there.

iSayuSay said:

Yes customers didn't know the initial supply number, but scarcity is something you cannot lie about.

It's sold out everywhere, every customers are limited to purchase up to 2 iPhones. People need to book their purchase earlier or they run out of stocks.

Whether artificial or not, that's scarcity for you .. And it looks good on headlines "Sold out anywhere on Planet Earth" and for the coming years it will always be.

Do you go hunt and lining up for a new product of Pepsi? You sure don't, you can get one EASILY on your local retailer, or even mom and pop store.

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I agree with you 100%. I am only stating that the initial folks whom lined up did not know that the supply was non existent. Meaning, supply was irrelevant in this scenario as they were going to line up regardless.

On your last sentence: (i) I do not drink soda and (ii) I would never line up for a new product - my sales rep called me at exactly 5am PST to process my order (8am EST, where he is located). I still received a 7-10 day ship date.

groovyd said:

I guess now we know the 3 colors of the new iWatch

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Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh?

iSunrise said:

Very honest and realistic. I was deliberately just being lazy quoting that exact question [...]

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You did exactly what you were accusing Apple of doing.

9 Million!

APPLE IS DOOMED!!!
APPLE IS CONSTRICTING SUPPLY TO SAY IT'S SOLD OUT!!!
NO ONE IS BUYING THE NEW IPHONES!!!

....oh wait they sold 9 million?
....and Apple stock is up?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24201526

Ok folks. Please pin this thread.

Last year someone said "Apple is constricting supply as a marketing tactic" and then sells out 5 million.

This year someone again said "Apple is constricting supply as a marketing tactic" and then sells out 9 million.

We'll want to reference this again next time someone says "Apple is constricting supply"....

Leo

milo said:

Every iPhone release, the trolls always insist that the demand is faked by having low supply. Same as the whining that every iPhone update has "nothing new".

Yet every release, after a few days apple releases real sales numbers, "X million sold in Y days". And for the most part the numbers keep going up with every release.

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And there it is.

iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c Sales Top Nine Million in Launch Weekend

iSayuSay said:

If Apple supplies 10 million iPhones on the launch day, there would be no need for lining in store.
Just come when you want, where you want and grab one.
That doesn't look good on headlines. Or any lines.

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So you're saying Apple could have had 10 million manufactured but intenionally made fewer so that it would sell out? That's just ignorant of how manufacturing works. It takes time to ramp up to having 10 million ready to sell. The only way to do that is to start making it months in advance, which means that money is spent making new phones but then they sit in a warehouse (costing the company money) instead of being sold (making the company money) OR create a huge production line just in order to meet demand, but then they'd have to ramp that production back down once initial demand was met. Not to mention that there may be parts constraints from suppliers.

Has any consumer product ever had ten million units available on launch day? Or even come close to that? In comparison, the Kinect claimed to be the fastest selling consumer device of all time, and that was 8 million in 60 days. Apple just sold nine million phones (2 models) in a weekend.

If Apple had been able to make enough phones to meet demand, of course they would have done that, it would have been idiotic not to. Not to mention that even if they had enough to meet demand, people still would have lined up - they didn't totally sell out the first day, but besides getting a phone at all, people wanted to make sure they were able to get the specific model they wanted. And when Apple has a weekend of selling 9 million phones, that's the headline they really care about, not the people standing in lines.

Moorepheus said:

Absolutely yes, Acceptable is 8%-10% of the customer base.

Based on subscriber numbers, ATT has about 107 Million, Verizon has 116 Million, Sprint has about 64 Million and T-Mobile has about 44 million customers (US Number only). Let's add that up ...331 Million customers. If they only sold 8 Million phones, that is only enough phones for 2.4% of the US Market. Really. I would take to guess that at least 10% of the US market would want the new iPhone. Let's add in the rest of the world and watch that % shrink even lower. So, this is all a Marketing ploy and a lot less about how many they can sell or want to sell.

I just hope their sales figures don't include the people waiting 7-10 business days to get their phones. But we will never know.

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So, the numbers are out. Impressive 9 millions in 3 days. Samsung does that in a month.

Now tell me, do you know see how unreasonable you were or you still believe that 9 millions for a weekend is not enough???

tigres said:

Doesn't seem that apple will break any records on the 5s; as limited supply constraints makes that a given. As for the Gold/ how do they call it unprecedented demand if they had next to nothing to begin with.

gotta love the marketing spin, be very surprised if the 5c numbers compensates for the lack of #'s on the flagship device.

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Reality: 9 million iPhones sold over the weekend, with the flagship 5S making up the vast majority according to analytics data.


Please give us more of your brilliant analysis!

CausticPuppy said:

Reality: 9 million iPhones sold over the weekend, with the flagship 5S making up the vast majority according to analytics data.


Please give us more of your brilliant analysis!

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What was your's prior to data launch?
Or do you like combing the threads calling people out? Just wondering if you would include all of the analysts in your dig as well- seems they were all off.

China however was included, do you by chance have the data on how they fared?

AppGuyChicago said:

My friend and I waited in line for more than 12 hours at the Lincoln Park Apple store in Chicago. I was originally #8 in line when the line first started. But by 8 AM when the doors opened 30 thugs had line cut in front of all of us their leader carrying a 3" stack of $100 bills. Despite huge complaints from every one in line Apple employees allow these guys to stay and purchase every Gold, Silver and unlocked version. The thugs were violent and threatened us - but Apple employees did nothing. The ring leader walked out with more than 50+ phones - we got video of him with the cash walking around to each apple employee paying for the line crashers phones in cash. When they were done he walked out with 4 huge bags loaded with new iPhone boxes. He owned 5 phone stores and put half them on craiglist and the other he shipped offshore. Thanks Apple for not defending the little guy - after 5 years of being a front place line holder I'll never wait in line for an apple product again.

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These people were violent and threatened you, but you didn't call the police?

Apple is the leader in PR games with this one.

No preorders, no in-store reservation at launch, forces the people who want one really bad to line up. Had they done pre-orders, and had they stocked the stores friday instead of today, there would have been no hype, no sell-outs, no news stories, nothing special.

Gotta hand it to Apple, they waited until they announced the "sold out in seconds" then now flood the stores with inventory. Pretty shady if you ask me.

iPhone mania: Gold Apple iPhone sells on eBay for $10,100 http://macdailynews.com/2013/09/23/..._campaign=Feed:+wordpress/xhfA+(MacDailyNews)

iSunrise said:

Of course it´s "incredible". If there´s a shortage of 5s devices, what would you expect them to say otherwise.

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according to reports that 'shortage' was 9 million iphones deeps with only about 1/4-1/3 being 5C models.

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Tankmaze said:

Kuo prediction came true then... He said its because the low yield of the fingerprint sensors.

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no facts to back that up. from the talk they sold something like 6-7 million iPhone 5s models over the weekend. That hardly seems like 'low yield' to me. And that's a bit higher than the 5 million unit 'sell out' from last year

9 million includes unsold 5C models

charlituna said:

according to reports that 'shortage' was 9 million iphones deeps with only about 1/4-1/3 being 5C models.

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no facts to back that up. from the talk they sold something like 6-7 million iPhone 5s models over the weekend. That hardly seems like 'low yield' to me. And that's a bit higher than the 5 million unit 'sell out' from last year

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See:

iPhone 5c Channel Fill Helped Apple To Report Nine Million Units Sold

As is well known by now Apple AAPL +4.97% reported that it sold nine million iPhone 5c’s and 5s’ in the first three days it was available. Apple analyst Gene Munster from Piper Jaffray and Keith Bachman from BMO Capital have reports this morning that attribute some if not a large number of the nine million to channel fill of the 5c.

Munster believes that upwards to 3.5 million 5c’s were channel fill which would make the sell-through number around 5.5 million or in-line with Street estimates but still above my 3-4 million projection.

... http://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjo...lped-apple-to-report-nine-million-units-sold/

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