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

BaldiMac said:
Which would be an important distinction if supplies to carriers and retailers weren't constrained.
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Yeah, last year, initial supplies were constrained due to the production problems with the powder coating, and that artificially held back sales.

This year, that would not be a problem for the 5C (which is no doubt one reason why they went plastic), but perhaps it still holds back 5S production a bit.
 
I seriously didn't expect this. I think the marketing by Apple has lost its momentum, yet the products still fly off the shelves. People actually understand how great Apple products are now.
 
There are some 5S available I am sure.

Apple gets daily shipments.

Heck, the easiest way to get one: Drive to a small town with a "your carrier" store.

You probably are more likely going to get a space gray though.
 
Chupa Chupa said:
Regardless of whether the customer has the phone now or its enroute to them right now, the phone is spoken for and sold. So whether the user has the phone last Friday or tomorrow it's kind of deminimus.
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That was a different line of argument. The original post I responded to discussed the impressiveness of their logistics shipping 9 million phones in 3 days.
 
foodog said:
This is the problem people have with HAVE and WANT. These words are not interchangeable, they have different meanings. No one HAS to buy the iPhone. They may REALLY WANT to but that is not HAVE to. Food, and Shelter are haves... a piece of electronics is a want.
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Even if we disregard any addiction, if an app you NEED is only in iOS, you HAVE to buy a new iPhone when the old one doesn't cut it anymore.
 
sclawis300 said:
I thought phones were counted as a sale when shipped? Is this not correct? So depending on when phones ship from the orders placed on friday the number could be much higher than the $9M. So even when you add in presales from the 5 this release would still have much higher numbers.
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Its counted as a sale when they sell it.... CC charged.
 
Cloudsurfer said:
The only thing that bugs me about hte 5s is the lack of a bigger screen. I hope the iPhone 6 will come in both 4 inch and possibly 4,5 or 5 inch screen sizes, that would really make me upgrade from my 4s
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9 Million people did not care about the screen size..., so I do not think Apple are too worried about you upgrading (or not) right now.
 
Moorepheus said:
Well, just imagine if they had enough stock for those who waited in line only to be told "nope, we don't have any". 9 Million is only about 2.8% of the Entire US Subscribers. When we tack on the rest of the world of subscribers, I would hate to see what that number is. Selling 9 million phones is a lot, but not when you compare it to over 330 Million subscribers alone in the US. I wonder what the number is of people waiting to get phones there were ordered and are not shipping until October?
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Are there even 330 million total people in the U.S.? Let alone cell phone subscribers.

Nope, just checked, only 313 million total people. Numbers are a bit funny there. Unless we are counting all the Obama phones :D
 
kdarling said:
Yeah, last year, initial supplies were constrained due to the production problems with the powder coating, and that artificially held back sales.

This year, that would not be a problem for the 5C (which is no doubt one reason why they went plastic), but perhaps it still holds back 5S production a bit.
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Yep. And to be clear, I did mis-remember Apple's qualifications for launch weekend sales. Thanks for the correction!
 
I guess this magazine cover makes sense now...

dmp6l4.jpg
 
If any of you guys think Apple actually shipped 9 million phones (arriving at their sales number), you know little about manufacturing. The factory doesn't have the capacity to have produced 9 million since they began final production. Nor would it make sense to have that much excess capacity the rest of the year. They'd have to idle huge portions. And storing/insuring 9 million iPhones would be horrendous.

Can you imagine the cost to insure $7.2 billion in idle inventory waiting for launch? (Assuming an average of $800 per phone.) Not to mention you would need what, twenty-five 747s worth of actual idle storage space on shelves? Insane...
 
spazzcat said:
I'm sure this include phones that have been ordered, but not shipped?
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Apple considers an item "sold" when the CC has been swiped. So as long as there is a shipping label on the box its sold. But it doesn't count orders that are still pending since the buyer's CC hasn't been charged yet.
 
Next year i believe apple is gonna blow everyone away since its gonna be the Iphone 6 which will most likely have a bigger display. That Iphone sales is gonna make the sales of the 5s and 5c look like a joke.
 
redhawk87 said:
For starters, that 5 million figure last year was for ONE new phone. This years figure is for TWO new phones. Although, there probably is a slight bit of cannibalization from the 5C, I would expect a better comparison would be 5S sales vs. 5 sales on opening weekend. Another thing to point out: China's opening weekend is factored into these numbers for 5S and 5C, while they were not part of the 5's opening weekend. Wasnt there like 2 million iPhone 5's sold opening weekend in China?
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It doesn’t matter how you split it.

Its global sales of iPhone.

Not sure it can be any simpler.

Even if they introduced 17 phones they still sold 9 million – (truth be told there were 5 different 5c models and 3 5s’s up from just black and white to black, white and gold)

When iPhone was first introduced it was US only. Then 3G was only US, UK, Germany, France and Australia.

They’ve been getting better and better and a global launch.

Next time around they’ll add more countries at launch.
 
+1...One can argue about iOS 7 icons or not liking plastic phones, but Cook is a genius at distribution and logistics.

Part of any great launch is product availability. Having the sheer number of iPhones available launching on the same weekend in multiple countries, is nothing short of brilliant. And running out of supply is a better situation than having stock sit in warehouses.


thekingofnerds said:
That's a rather mind bogglingly large number. Love Apple or hate Apple - you gotta respect them when you think about the raw logistics behind this.
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cube said:
Even if we disregard any addiction, if an app you NEED is only in iOS, you HAVE to buy a new iPhone when the old one doesn't cut it anymore.
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Still a want.... Something you must have (the synonym of a need) would be something required to support life. Everything else is a want.
 
foodog said:
Still a want.... Something you must have (the synonym of a need) would be something required to support life. Everything else is a want.
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Something that you need for work is supporting life.

Something that you need for moral reasons is also not a want.
 
blhoward2 said:
If any of you guys think Apple actually shipped 9 million phones (arriving at their sales number), you know little about manufacturing. The factory doesn't have the capacity to have produced 9 million since they began final production. Nor would it make sense to have that much excess capacity the rest of the year. They'd have to idle huge portions. And storing/insuring 9 million iPhones would be horrendous.

Can you imagine the cost to insure $7.2 billion in idle inventory waiting for launch? (Assuming an average of $800 per phone.) Not to mention you would need what, twenty-five 747s worth of actual idle storage space on shelves? Insane...
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Knowing Apple, yes they did. The 5C and 5S are made in different factories, and yes they probably kept stock of these. If there is one company that WOULD do it, it's Apple.

You're not talking about a single warehouse of stock for one country. This was launched in several countries world wide and hyped to death.
 
So the analysts last week saying Apple hadn't released iPhone 5c numbers because they were bad were wrong, the analysts who said the iPhone 5c would be a cheap model were wrong and the constant press about how truly bad iOS7 is and how it would be an epic fail were also totally wide of the mark.

Two more good phones, two more good, high margin phones selling like hot apple pies, large iOS7 adoption rates with some complaints but not too many. Looks like Apple stayed right in their gamezone again and did what they do best .. make products which make money.
 
digitalrampage said:
"The iPhone 5 sold 6M units over its first 10 days last year - a number Bachman doesn't think Apple will be able to match with this year's launch thanks to the lack of enthusiasm for the 5C and fewer selling days until a press release. He sees downside risk to his September quarter estimate of 31M units sold."

Wonder how many they would have sold without the constraints of Silver and Gold.

Need bronze iPhones next year. :p
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Metallic Red
 
blhoward2 said:
If any of you guys think Apple actually shipped 9 million phones (arriving at their sales number), you know little about manufacturing. The factory doesn't have the capacity to have produced 9 million since they began final production. Nor would it make sense to have that much excess capacity the rest of the year. They'd have to idle huge portions. And storing/insuring 9 million iPhones would be horrendous.

Can you imagine the cost to insure $7.2 billion in idle inventory waiting for launch? (Assuming an average of $800 per phone.) Not to mention you would need what, twenty-five 747s worth of actual idle storage space on shelves? Insane...
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Again, you are wrong. 9 million iPhones is considerably less than 4 weeks of manufacturing capacity - hardly out of the question for a launch.

Again, Apple counts units shipped to carriers/retailers and units delivered to end users for direct sales.
 
cjmillsnun said:
Knowing Apple, yes they did. The 5C and 5S are made in different factories, and yes they probably kept stock of these. If there is one company that WOULD do it, it's Apple.

You're not talking about a single warehouse of stock for one country. This was launched in several countries world wide and hyped to death.
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It just wouldn't make sense, even to Apple. Nor does it line up with the production estimates provided to investors. They only started producing them in mid-July at the earliest.
 
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