Analyst Says Perhaps Millions of iPhone 5 Pre-Orders Still in Transit, Not Included in Announced Sales

[kdarling]

Apple counts sales in customer hands, not sitting on retailer shelves.

They count both: sales they have delivered to online buyers or directly in their Apple stores, along with sales to retailers (whether sold to an end user or not).

Fact is, they're sold out everywhere. Seems more a supply chain issue than a problem of low demand.

The forum threads about availability indicate that major stores in large cities are sold out, but stores across the rest of the country generally have plenty.

 

[renai-spirit]

That makes sense. I don't think you can say something has been sold unless you've taken the money for it.

"Smooth".

 

[clibinarius]

Yeah because, you know, portability isn't much of a concern with a PHONE, right?

Seriously man, come off of it.

I would argue that not only is portability a major factor in a phone purchase decision but so is one hand operation...

My director, who tried an SIII for a week before running like a jackrabbit back to an iPhone reported that not only was the battery life on the SIII a major problem for him, but that holding it up to his head to take a call, when he had no headset or handsfree device available was like ironing his head with a clothes iron due to the size of the thing.

Anyway, this is off the rails insofar as the thread topic so now I depart, have fun with your droid phone.

I have an iPhone 5 for the record...and I like bigger screens...but have fun painting me as an Android fanboy for having a legit complaint about it. Notice I said portability. A five inch phone is quite portable IMO, I've never had any problem carrying objects that size around.

But cheers for not understanding the concept of different sizes. I can appreciate bigger and smaller.

Most people I know having Samsung phones are satisfied. Same with iPhones. Stop saying they're all perfect. They all have good points and bad points. The problem with the Samsung phone is the screen burnin, the OS, and you might not like the screen size. That is pretty much all.

 

[Infinitieva]

An interesting tidbit...Apple stores received retail packaged iPhone 5s and also about an equal amount of generic white boxed iPhone 5s to serve as replacements if anything was wrong with the retail version. For the most part the replacement units are being burned through by customers that believe their iPhone is unacceptable do to some scratches and uniformity issues on the chamfer. If these white boxed units were sold as retail versions initial sales numbers would almost double! My source is a friend that works at an Apple store. Also keep in mind that it is possible that not all stores received the same stock of replacement units to retail units.