Apple 'Blown Away' by iPhone 5 Pre-Orders

[Lancer]

Yes another failure that will set sales records!

 

[KnightWRX]

Odd time for Apple to go all Amazon with pre-order #s. If Apple is blown away it should shock & awe us with actual data not gratuitous statements.

There's nothing odd yet. Apple didn't release pre-order numbers on the 7th of October last year either. Check the dates on the articles I posted if you don't believe me.

I have no reason to believe this year's pre-orders beat last year. The inventory was managed in a way it would be, don't worry about that.

 

[iSteve-O]

Tim Cook to Foxconn: "Slaves. We need more slaves!"

 

[JS82712]

During the media event Wednesday, I kept getting '#Don'tWait for the Next Big Thing' promoted tweets by Samsung Mobile USA. Funny how their envy of the Apple customer is reflected.

Well, from their previous commercials that focused on calling apple customers "sheep", It's just obvious that they are a bunch of apple-wanna-be.

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Tim Cook to Foxconn: "Slaves, we need more slaves!"

meanwhile samsung needs more children looking for plastic parts from garbage dumps for their galasy s3.

 

[sinsin07]

Are you kidding? Apple prevents customer frustration by improving ordering infrastructure = lack of demand?
You wanted to wait? You WANTED a repeat of the last years when the preorder and reservation servers DIED and you had to do it numerous times and wait 40 minutes for a confirmation number (before it timed out again)?

Insanity.

Only the official word from Apple will tell.

 

[samcraig]

Well, from their previous commercials that focused on calling apple customers "sheep", It's just obvious that they are a bunch of apple-wanna-be.

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meanwhile samsung needs more children looking for plastic parts from garbage dumps for their galasy s3.

I find comments like this pretty sad. Sorry - but the hatred some people have is just ridiculous. Both companies make excellent phones. No need to HATE either one. Or make fun of the exploitation of children.

 

[clibinarius]

Well, from their previous commercials that focused on calling apple customers "sheep", It's just obvious that they are a bunch of apple-wanna-be.

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meanwhile samsung needs more children looking for plastic parts from garbage dumps for their galasy s3.

Uh, you realize the appropriate response here is that Samsung needs more children to work in the same factories that sometimes build i-Devices?

Oh, you just want to bash a company. My bad. Proceed.

 

[ECUpirate44]

I have to change the billing address on a friends account because im using his upgrade and the address needs to be the same as the shipping address. When I change the billing address on verizon.com, it keeps forgetting the apartment 10 min after I enter and save it! ughhh

 

[mackinmike]

Except when they announce that the initial sales of the iPhone 5 beat the sales of the iPhone 4S by a good margin.

Don't be fooled, the numbers will show they sold more iPhone 5s and did it faster than with the iPhone 4S.

And guess what, next year we get to have this thread again, when Apple is "blown away" by demand for the iPhone 6 and couldn't have possibly predicted, yet again, a surge in sales.

correction. it will be the iphone5s next year.

 

[jarofclay73]

Times like this...times when we Apple Fanboys all marvel at how successful Apple has become since the death throes of the mid-90s, are the times when I'm reminded of stories like this:

Dell: Apple should close shop

or this:

Apple should pull the plug on the iPhone - MarketWatch

Now, Michael Dell has been pretty successful in his lifetime, making crappy and cheap boxes for the Windoze drones and making them think they were getting a quality product for a bargain. Hey, K-Mart used to make a lot of money too. But you can only sell crap for so long before the public starts to catch on.

But John Dvorak? Does anyone seriously listen to anything this dope has to say? Has he ever really achieved anything in his life, or even proven himself capable of understanding the very industry about which he makes a living writing and prognosticating?

I absolutely LOVE that I've been a loyal Apple user since 1987, and I've lived to see the day that all of my old Windows friends would be waiting in lines to buy iPhones, iPads and even Macs. It's so funny to me how quickly they've forgotten all their dumb arguments to me about how I "must love living in a world with no software." Well, now my iMac and MacBook Air have Parallels and Windows 7 installed, I have every piece of software I could ever possibly need, and all of my devices (computers, iPhone, iPad and AppleTV) all interface with each other seamlessly.

For all of you Apple haters out there, enjoy your hodgepodge of incompatible hardware and software, frequent crashes, viruses, trojan horses and generalized malaise associated with using junk. Meanwhile, the rest of us will enjoy watch Apple's stock shoot up over $700 per share after the iPhone 5 sales figures come out and then watching the likes of John C. Dvorak try to explain how we're all just too dumb to understand why Apple is inferior.

Nice find by Dvorak. He's a kinda grumpy old man and kind of wallows in that.

 

[jimi78]

for those lining up, this may be worse than the iphone 4 launch. They had some crazy 4 hour lines.

I wish my line was only 4 hours. I had a reservation and showed around 7-8 and I still waited close to 6 hours that day. I am so glad I took the day off because originally I was just going to pop over there during my lunch break.

GOod luck to those out there this year. At least it is NOT in June like the 4 launch date was.

 

[Zaft]

I find comments like this pretty sad. Sorry - but the hatred some people have is just ridiculous. Both companies make excellent phones. No need to HATE either one. Or make fun of the exploitation of children.

exactly. the GS3 is a GREAT phone and so is iphone.

 

[pragmatous]

Don't forget about people dumping android for iPhone.

Do you guys think it's crazy to dump 800 bucks for the iPhone 5?

I have Verizon. I can't subsidize because if I do I lose my unlimited data plan and I have to go with their family shared plan which is 25 more a month for 1GB of data.

800 because the phone I want is the 32GB for 750+ tax. I don't think 16GB would be enough between apps, music, and the apps I make/test. What do you think?

 

[mackinmike]

Probably true, though it may have been that there were enough available via the other two sources that the production rate wasn't impacted. Probably won't ever know.

perhaps... who knows. from a production line point of view, there's only a certain amount you can crank out. the other two manufacturers were probably at capacity..

in any case, i'm getting my on the 28th from big red. i'm just not falling for the "blown away" crap we see every year.

 

[KnightWRX]

correction. it will be the iphone5s next year.

Nah, it's going to be iPhone 7 silly, it's going to be the 7th iPhone!

 

[lockerc18]

I don't think the phrase "blown away" necessarily has all of the connotations you guys are reading into it. Let me offer an example.

Have you ever had sex?

Whoa, Nicky! Hey, let me know when your book comes out, would you? Man, I gotta read THAT.

OK, uncle. I concede. How can I compete with that? Sheesh, you win. Wow.

 

[towg]

F it. I just sold my 4S and bought a Samsung S3. So far I'm impressed and content its going to be better than the 5.

I've bought Apple since I was 20 (i'm 39 now) and bought the first iPhone the day it came out but I think they've dropped the ball with this one.

 

[Ochyandkaren]

BBC and The Guardian and Al Jazeera English tech editors are pissed for sure.

Grat news for Apple simpatizers.

 

[Flux.Capacitor]

They will end up selling all they make. Spreading out the sales on purpose over the first few weeks to create a rarity and thus some launch hype/media attention isn't anything that's going to drive away the sales. At the end of the quarter, they'll have sold as much as they would have had they not held back and as a bonus, they will have gotten tons of free PR from the media/press.

Win/Win.

Is it possible hat the manufacturers peak out at XX number of units from the time they get the green light till launch? You can't just make an unlimited number of units and sell as needed. I mean, without getting into further trouble for slave labor.

 

[smallnshort247]

I love reading MR comments..

 

[stevo505]

LoL. They must be hating it. Coincidentally, this is one their promoted tweets of today:

Apple sued the pants off of them AND will outsell them! Someone's jealous.

 

[mackinmike]

Nah, it's going to be iPhone 7 silly, it's going to be the 7th iPhone!

that will confused too many iphone users that their head might explode.

 

[cameronjpu]

Ah nice, someone other than me picked up on it. I too thought the whole situation waaaaayyy too familiar. That's why I bothered to dig up last year's news of the 4S launch.

Same "carrier reservation system" problems. Same "pre-orders selling out quickly", heck same "Blown away" quote from spokespeople at Apple.

Seriously folks, it's ingenuous. Apple has iPhone launches down. They know how to engineer shortages while still maintaining record numbers by manipulating the channels to provide just barely enough inventory, controlling how fast the pre-orders sell out, and making sure locations that are covered by the media show line-ups and little disappointed faces for the camera while still providing those folks with a handset quickly enough to keep them coming back.

Apple are truely brilliant.

All of those things may be true, but Apple can still be surprised by the demand and truly incapable of building enough to supply it. That's where you differ with the majority here. You think they're making it all up. Every year, Apple sells a HUGE percentage MORE phones than they did last year, so they're not faking these sales and this explosive growth in demand.

 

[tito2020]

Supply and demand that's there model supply they have demand they don't

 

[KPOM]

Not 6 years in a row. Please.

No. Apple calculated all of this. The "pre-order" units were calculated in a way to have them "run-out" in an hour. The rest of the units were distributed to carriers/retail locations for launch day line-ups.

And they will have launch day "shortages" in strategic markets with mass media presence. It will look like a completely unplanned, "blown away by demand" scenario. In the meantime, stock will trickle out slowly of other, more obscure locations that secured "more supply" than they should have. Don't get me wrong, they will eventually sell out too.

Apple ships simulataneously to more countries and carriers each year. They weren't "Blown away". This is all strategically calculated and analysed. Their launch day numbers will both be phenomenal and yet they will have On-camera line-ups and shortages to show for it. It's all going according to plan.

Anyone who thinks otherwise doesn't give Apple enough credit. Apple is much smarter than they let on and it's working as evidenced by the mass of people here who refuse to believe Apple anticipated all of this.

Or are you saying I'm giving them too much credit for thinking all of this through and managing inventory in a way to make it seem like there's shortages while still getting everyone a handset in the first few weeks to have a blow out quarter ?

Yes, I think you are thinking about this too much. Apple has nothing to "prove" anymore. They are the top smartphone maker in terms of profits and the top in terms of market share in the US. They don't need gimmicks to sell phones. They need to release up-to-date phones and not be caught flat-footed by newcomers.

Nokia's self-inflicted collapse and Samsung's meteoric rise over the past 2 years are not things that Apple could have easily predicted. Symbian was slowly declining and Nokia was already a non-factor in the US, but until Elop's disastrous strategy of Osborning his existing lineup last year it was a relatively slow and predictable decline. The sudden collapse after Q1-11 opened the door in Europe and Asia to Android and iOS, as well as even RIM. Samsung took full advantage of it. I'm sure Apple had projections of market share (or at least targets), but consumers can be fickle, as can carriers. I don't think Apple or any company can predict with the level of precision that you think they can.

As for pre-orders, it is in Apple's interest to have pre-orders sell out that same day (they do need some stock for the stores), but not within 1 hour in the middle of a weeknight in its biggest market. MacRumors reported earlier this week that they had beefed up staff from 6am EDT today in anticipation of the rush. Well by 6am the phone had sold out at Apple.com. I don't think that was planned for a minute.

The pre-orders are the best way for "ordinary" people to get the iPhone close to launch day. Most people have better things to do than wait in line next Friday for hours on end. But "ordinary" people woke up and saw 2 week shipping times this morning. The "fanboys" are the ones in line on launch day. They would be in line as long as there is a sellout sometime today. "Ordinary" people aren't going to wait in line the first day. They may get in line over the weekend, but more likely will let the first wave subside and take advantage of any reservation system that Apple sets up. Others may just pre-order, but a 3-4 week shipment time can be a turnoff. 1-2 weeks is more "reasonable."

As for the PR piece, sure, its basic points were written in advance from a template, but nonetheless, I doubt that Apple really expected that by 4am a pre-sale that began at 3am would have exhausted its initial allocation. This wasn't a Black Friday door buster. Maybe by noon or even 9am or 10am, but not 4am.

Apple ships to more and more countries every year because more and more carriers give in and agree to deals. It's an expensive proposition for them. Just ask Sprint. The biggest jewel left for next year is China Mobile, with NTTI Docomo a close second. After that the real test may begin for Apple since they'll be on nearly every major network. But in the meantime, each of these new sign-ons brings more uncertainty to the process. Again, Apple can estimate how many will sell, but they really don't know until it actually goes on sale. They aren't always right. Look at Ping, or even the G4 Cube and original MacBook Air.