iPhone 5's First Weekend Sales in China Top Two Million

[louis.b]

Originally Posted by Nermal

Interesting. I'd read that only three people queued up for the launch at a Beijing Apple Store and that one of those three was a snowman. The perspective that you get really depends on where you read the news!

I think you miss the points in those articles that the reason why there were so few people lining up was because of Apple's new reservation system.

[califguy]

That 1 guy outside the Apple store bought a whole lotta iPhones

[Michael Scrip]

Originally Posted by SnowLeopard OSX

Keep in mind China has a population of 1.3 billion...

And most of the Chinese population live in conditions like this:



So 2 million the first weekend is fine considering their addressable market.

And don't forget... this was just the first weekend. Apple will keep selling iPhones in China from now on.

China will be a good market for Apple.

[gnasher729]

Originally Posted by Nermal

Interesting. I'd read that only three people queued up for the launch at a Beijing Apple Store and that one of those three was a snowman. The perspective that you get really depends on where you read the news!

Apple's reservation system seems to be working then. To buy a phone, you first have to reserve one. And since they don't let people reserve more phones than they have, Apple can sell two million phones without any queues. Queues are not a sign of high demand, queues are just an indication that an inefficient method is used to match available products with buyers.

Old system: Store has 1000 phones. 2000 scalpers arrive, forming huge queues, fighting starts. 100 of the scalpers buy the 1000 phones and sell them on at a profit (which means genuine customers pay lots more money than Apple gets). The other 1900 scalpers start a riot. New system: Store has 1000 phones. Store gives out 1000 reservations for phones. 1000 customers arrive throughout the day and pickup their phones. No queue. Also, Apple only sells if you enter a phone contract. So no scalpers. Genuine customers pay what Apple charges and no more.

[Rogifan]

God this site is going to the dogs with all the anti-Apple trolls here.

[gnasher729]

Originally Posted by thewink365

iPhone 5 hits China; 23% more expensive than in US｜Economy ...

What are the bets that they compared Chinese price including tax and US price excluding tax? Every time you see US prices advertised, you need to add the appropriate tax. Every time you see European and it seems Chinese prices advertised, significant amounts of tax are included in the price.

[thasan]

Originally Posted by Rogifan

God this site is going to the dogs with all the anti-Apple trolls here.

there are plenty here. and they just get excited posting apple bashing post...dont want to speculate what kind of excitement they get from it
and most signed up in the last two years
of course, you are not one of them

[haruhiko]

Originally Posted by Rogifan

God this site is going to the dogs with all the anti-Apple trolls here.

It's morning in Asia. People just started to work. I didn't imply anything.

[mushroomtip]

Originally Posted by gadget123

And they want to rush out a 5S?

Madness. Iphone 5 is a massive upgrade over the previous Iphones and could easily sell what the Iphone 4 managed.

no mater what the size of the population is , 2 million is 2 million !

[Rogifan]

Originally Posted by mushroomtip

no mater what the size of the population is , 2 million is 2 million !

Well Citigroup downgraded the stock to neutral so I'm sure AAPL stock will take a beating again tomorrow. I hope they have a blow out quarter. I'd love to be able to tell these analysts to shove their FUD up their you know what.

[saxondale.]

I got mine on the release day in China and had no problem getting one. The place i went to had plenty of stock and were charging near enough the RRP (no official apple stores near me).

I thought by being in China, mine would be pretty new from the factory and wouldn't suffer from any scuff marks, but it's got quite a few, especially near the dock.

[Will do good]

Originally Posted by pinwanger

the majority does not pay income tax or capital gain tax, there is no real estate tax either.

Under such condition, a mere restaurant worker can easily afford these gadgets.

A restaurant worker can afford an iPhone5, are you kidding? Have you been to China and see a typical restaurant in small towns and outside of Beijing and Shanghai center? They are lucky to afford a regular smart phone.

----------

Originally Posted by Michael Scrip

And most of the Chinese population live in conditions like this:



So 2 million the first weekend is fine considering their addressable market.

And don't forget... this was just the first weekend. Apple will keep selling iPhones in China from now on.

China will be a good market for Apple.

No use talking to trolls. They won't let facts get in the way.

[iapplelove]

But it's just a taller iPhone 4

[thelookingglass]

Originally Posted by Michael Scrip

And most of the Chinese population live in conditions like this:



So 2 million the first weekend is fine considering their addressable market.

And don't forget... this was just the first weekend. Apple will keep selling iPhones in China from now on.

China will be a good market for Apple.

Have you even BEEN to China? Most of the country most assuredly does not live like that. A lot do, but not most. Even a small city in China has a population over a million.

[winston1236]

Originally Posted by pinwanger

the majority does not pay income tax or capital gain tax, there is no real estate tax either.

Under such condition, a mere restaurant worker can easily afford these gadgets.

Lol what? Like the 70 cent an hour iphone assemblers???

[See Flat]

Originally Posted by nonamelive

Not 1.3b any more. At least 1.7b now.

You must be an analyst to state something so wrong with such an affirmative tone!

[xofruitcake]

Originally Posted by eddieaus

the article has failed to mention that both China Telecom and China Unicom were giving away massive discount and expensive gift packs on launch day just to get people to sign their contracts. This has never happened during previous iPhone launch in China. Apple must have given carriers a lot of pressure in order to achieve that 2 million number.

heh heh, are you sure you know what you are talking about? China unicom and China telecom both raise their contract price and contract term for Iphone 5 vs 4s. And the gift pack is basically junk.. No one in this msg board seems to like those gift pack.

http://bbs.weiphone.com/thread-htm-fid-466-page-1.html

[haruhiko]

Originally Posted by winston1236

Lol what? Like the 70 cent an hour iphone assemblers???

The minimum wage in Shenzhen is CNY1,500 per month = USD240.323

Let's assume that they work 8 hours a day over 21 days i.e. Hourly wage is USD1.43

[Michael Scrip]

Originally Posted by thelookingglass

Have you even BEEN to China? Most of the country most assuredly does not live like that. A lot do, but not most. Even a small city in China has a population over a million.

China is richer, but most Chinese are still poor

BTW... you can have a small city with a million people who are still living at or near poverty.

And then there are some people who are making a decent living... but still cannot afford to drop $800 on a cell phone.

My point was... all 1.3 billion people are not future Apple customers. I wouldn't even say half of China's population could afford $800 phones. In other words... most of China is off-limits to Apple.

That's what I meant. I apologize for saying most Chinese people live in impoverished villages.

[tech4all]

Originally Posted by viacavour

Nonsense ! I helped set up a software development center in 2 China cities. And invested in a friend's restaurant there. This is definitely not true even in the richest Chinese cities.

Suuuuuuuuuuure you did.

Originally Posted by Rogifan

God this site is going to the dogs with all the anti-Apple trolls here.

Stating facts that may reveal that Apple or the iPhone isn't the best isn't being anti-Apple; it's being an informed consumer who isn't biased towards the or the robot.

[Rogifan]

Originally Posted by tech4all

Stating facts that may reveal that Apple or the iPhone isn't the best isn't being anti-Apple; it's being an informed consumer who isn't biased towards the or the robot.

Sorry I thought MacRumors would be a site mostly for Apple fans. These days it seems to be a site mostly for Apple haters. Or people who think they're superior to others because they're an "informed consumer" with no biases (yeah right). "Informed consumer" aka anti-Appe pro-anything else.

[xofruitcake]

Originally Posted by thewink365

Not so sure about that massage discount post.....hmmmmmm

iPhone 5 hits China; 23% more expensive than in US｜Economy ...
http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-s....aspx?cid=1102..


Most phones ever in opening w/e and we are trying to spin that negative....

It is neither positive or negative because it is a meaningless number. We don't know the sell through number. Apple account sales different than other manufacturer (much stricter). When they ship an Iphone to a telecom, it is counted as sales since telecom will pay for them and resell them to end user. When Apple ship an Iphone to Apple store, it is not count as a sales until a customer pay for the Iphone. Apple management discussed the policy in either 4Q11 earning call (Jan 12) or 1Q12 earning call (Apr 12). Go back to earning call transcript if one is interested in the full scope.


The 2M number is basically what China Unicom and China telecom ordered in advance for their inventory + first weekend sales by the Apple stores in China (there are only 8 Apple stores in China now). The really interesting number is the sell through number which no one will disclose (China Telecom and China unicom will know this number now since they can count the activated Iphone 5. There are a lot of resellers that work with China Telecom and Chian unicom but not working for them. So counting the activation is the only way to figure out the initial sales number. Apple management may know the number by now but they won't tell. ). It is at best a mix picuture. China Telecom has 200.000 pre-order of 4S but China Unicom has 300,000 for 5.. But China telecom and some reseller has already start discounting.. That means they order way too many Iphone 5 and need to clear them. The total number of 3G subcribers in China is around 200M right now, so 2M is by no mean a big number.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...89S05820121029

China's 3G users make up less than 20 percent of its mobile subscribers, but analysts expect that percentage to leap to nearly 30 percent by the end of 2013, boosting the earnings growth of carriers that have long relied on cheap voice plans.

China Telecom increased its 3G subscriber base by 5.8 percent in September to 59.7 million, while China Unicom expanded by 5.0 percent to 66.9 million and China Mobile by 4.8 percent to 75.6 million, company data showed.

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/750288.shtml

China Unicom, China's second largest telecom operator and Apple's first partner in the mainland from 2009, said Monday that it got 300,000 iPhone pre-sales since it started pre-orders on December 2.

China Telecom reduced the prices for the cheapest model of iPhone 5 by 200 yuan Friday, and D.Phone Group, a mobile phone retailer, offered a further cut of 90 yuan.

[kas23]

Originally Posted by Michael Scrip

And most of the Chinese population live in conditions like this:



So 2 million the first weekend is fine considering their addressable market.

And don't forget... this was just the first weekend. Apple will keep selling iPhones in China from now on.

China will be a good market for Apple.

The first sentence of your post, with the attached photo, combined with your last sentence made me lol! Yeah, it'll be a great market.

[bobob]

Originally Posted by Michael Scrip

And most of the Chinese population live in conditions like this:

Time to update your stereotype.

[kkent25]

I can see the Wall Street headlines tomorrow reading "Apple only sells 2 million iPhones in first weekend in China. Analysts projected sales of 3 million. Apple fails."