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Apple to Reach 5 Million iPhones Sold by Macworld?

two of my coworkers just bought iPhones today after getting their bonuses. i think the demand is still there - most people just need the extra money to fork over for one.

meanwhile people i know with a blackberry or treo or either waiting for iPhone to get on 3G, waiting for at&t to get as good as verizon or for the vaporware phone (android). so you either have people waiting it out or getting the money together. that being said, i think that getting to 10 mil by 08 is possible. especially if they update to 3G and/or add GPS. then i'll be using my bonus to replace my iPhone with iPhone2 as well!
 
psychofreak said:
Doesn't look like the AppleTV has hit targets...
Click to expand...

I don't recall Apple stating any sales targets for it either so I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. Likewise, there wasn't massive advertising and hype for the AppleTV like the iPhone. I think Apple sees the AppleTV as a foot-in-the-water kind of product that is there in the event they see a sudden need for something in the entertainment/media center market.

However, having said that and sounding like an Apple apologist, I think it's a badly conceived product. Not because of what it does (which I hear it does very well) but rather because of the obvious omissions. For example, I might have considered buying one if it just had a freakin' DVD slot. With that, Apple could position it not only as a digital movie device, but also as a DVD/CD player replacement. That seems like a no-brainer.
 
inkswamp said:
I don't recall Apple stating any sales targets for it either so I'm not sure what point you're trying to make.
Click to expand...
They clearly had internal targets, and it doesn't look like the product has done nearly as well as Apple hoped...
 
matthewHUB said:
they may easily reach 20 million by the end of 2008, especially if they introduce iphone 2. then they'll have 2% of the cellphone market. If iPhone catches on for businesses too, their sales will skyrocket.
Click to expand...

20 m is pretty aggressive. But then again, I know a lot of people, like myself, are waiting for the 2nd generation to take the plunge... especially if Apple comes out with 3rd party apps, larger storage, and 3g compatibility.
 
psychofreak said:
They clearly had internal targets, and it doesn't look like the product has done nearly as well as Apple hoped...
Click to expand...

It is a "hobby" project. At least this hobby saw the light of day unlike the Pippin (remember that?).

Apple need to get into bed with Nintendo on this. OR backtrack on the downloading model and include twin DVR tuners (which would be different in each territory...ie. tricky).

Neither is especially likely however. Which is a shame.

...back to the topic. Maybe Apple think that the new firmware to drop in Feb alongside the SDK is compelling enough to drive sales to those levels. It's not impossible that the new firmware is that good (sandboxing, signing, a2dp, notes and todos have all appeared in OSX with Leopard, maybe this will come to mobile OSX too?)

Imagine a YouTube app (video recording), MMS, Stereo bluetooth headphones, cut and paste, notes and todo syncing, improved mail, 3rd party apps from some big names, a couple of games. All announced at the same time....and maybe a price cut. Now watch sales (in the UK at least) pick up then.

Particularly if O2 get on with EDGE roll out and publish that coverage map they've been promising forever.
 
9to5 sources

Juan Moro said:
Ahem... You forget the surprising accuracy of 9to5mac... They have clearly an insider on their payroll...
Click to expand...
I would still take this with a grain of salt.

9to5Mac has only shown that they have a traitor at one of the assembling factories in China that is on their payroll. They have given no indication that they actually have any real sources inside Apple itself.

The reports 9to5 has been 100% accurate on (both of them :p ), were clearly based on (and mentioned as such by 9to5 themselves), ... someone at a factory in China telling them what they saw on the assembly line.

This story is something else again, (probably just an estimate based on already released figures) and is probably not related to the traitor at the factory, unless Apple shares its sales figures with the manufacturing plant.

Sadly, "made up stuff" and the leaks of paid informants are the only kind of rumour we have to look forward to nowadays. The original rumour sites like "Mac OS Rumors" and "Think Secret" were based on some cool person who had other cool friends that worked at Apple who were willing to drop a few cool (and obscure), hints without (mostly) violating their disclosure agreements.

Through a lot of casual "geek talk" with friends at Apple, many things could be discerned that did not really do any harm to Apple itself. The presenters of the early rumour sites, being geeks themselves, then filled things in with a bit of intelligent speculation and guesswork.

None of these "leakers" at Apple would have anything to do with today's more juvenile money-oriented rumour sites like 9to5Mac, and Gizmodo. They just aren't professional enough (or dare I say it "cool" enough), to have those kinds of connections.

Today's sites have to rely on less moral avenues of information to get anywhere at all, but IMO they are hampered by the fact that they are neither smart enough, nor experienced enough to figure out anything they are not explicitly being told by their "sources." This makes them on the one hand more accurate (they are simply passing on "real" stolen information), but on the other hand both less interesting and more damaging to Apple than the leakers that preceded them.
 
FightTheFuture said:
two of my coworkers just bought iPhones today after getting their bonuses. i think the demand is still there - most people just need the extra money to fork over for one.

meanwhile people i know with a blackberry or treo or either waiting for iPhone to get on 3G, waiting for at&t to get as good as verizon or for the vaporware phone (android). so you either have people waiting it out or getting the money together. that being said, i think that getting to 10 mil by 08 is possible. especially if they update to 3G and/or add GPS. then i'll be using my bonus to replace my iPhone with iPhone2 as well!
Click to expand...

Heck I have already bought double digit count of iPhones already =p
 
Virgil-TB2 said:
I would still take this with a grain of salt.

9to5Mac has only shown that they have a traitor at one of the assembling factories in China that is on their payroll. They have given no indication that they actually have any real sources inside Apple itself.

The reports 9to5 has been 100% accurate on (both of them :p ), were clearly based on (and mentioned as such by 9to5 themselves), ... someone at a factory in China telling them what they saw on the assembly line.
Click to expand...

Yup agreed that everyone should be cautious of the number, but the best case scenario is maybe the person on the assembly line has been counting iPhones non-stop since day 1. ;)
 
I would love to know how many of those are on ATT and how many aren't. Honestly I have an allergic reaction to ATT....my fingers are now itchy from just typing the word out. Hate, despise, loath...there is no word in the English language that denotes the complete and utter contempt I have for that company. I was with Crapular for 6 months with a company I was working at...I would have never thought such a reaction could be formed in a 6 month period but it can..The games that were played on my corp account....defied belief if not the law. In retrospect I should have probably written something up to the BBB but meh *shrugs*.


lazyrighteye said:
Aapl + 6.70
Click to expand...

*stiff breeze* AAPL + 2

What's new here? Apple and buzz are invariably tied to one another.
 
wow it seems just like yesterday I ripped open the package to my iPhone in excitement... 5 million already... compare that to the original iPod 1 million sold... sheesh Apple is on a roll.
 
MacRumors said:


9to5mac claims that Apple will reach approximately 5 million in iPhone sales by Macworld San Francisco in January 2008 which would bring them half way to their goal of 10 million iPhones sold by the end of 2008.

According to 9to5mac's sources, approximately 1 million of these sales are through Europe, despite reports of sluggish sales. The news comes shortly after reports that iPhone's sales have exceeded Windows mobile marketshare by capturing approximately 27% of the smartphone market this past quarter.

These rumored sales numbers are difficult to verify, but would represent a significant acceleration of sales since their one millionth sale, which took place in September. Apple's iPhone sales, however, may have been spurred by the $200 price drop that also took place in September. If these numbers are true, Steve Jobs will likely announce them during the Macworld Expo Keynote on January 15th.

Article Link
Click to expand...

To Arn and everybody else who has posted so far, this was NOT their goal! It is a very common misconception! The goal, as clearly stated by SJ at MWSF 2007 was to sell 10 million IN calendar year 2008! This would give Apple approx. 1% of CY 2008 total cellphones sold.
 
I believe it. Almost every single one of my friends has an iPhone, and most of my professional colleagues have them as well.

It's kind of wild.
 
Mike Teezie said:
I believe it. Almost every single one of my friends has an iPhone, and most of my professional colleagues have them as well.

It's kind of wild.
Click to expand...

where do you live? I still don't see many people in Georgia with iPhones... :/ I'm sure the numbers are growing, or I'm just blind.
 
That number seems high. It took them from June to September to sell 1 million... 4 million in October/November seems hard. I'd believe 3-4 million. I'd think consumer's existing phone contracts would prevent a massive buying spree.
 
Talk about a blindness hiccup - I thought it said 5 million iPods sold and thought to myself "hey that's a lot of iPods!"

Silly me. They've likely sold 5 billion iPods after all :eek:
 
Virgil-TB2 said:
The reports 9to5 has been 100% accurate on (both of them :p ), were clearly based on (and mentioned as such by 9to5 themselves), ... someone at a factory in China telling them what they saw on the assembly line.
Click to expand...

I disagree. the iPod Nano photo was clearly not a photo from the factory line. It appeared to be promotional photos.

They also had early photos of the iPhone before they were publicly released, as well as a release date for the new iMac which was accurate.

9to5mac clearly has some inside sources that arn't simply sitting on the factory line in China, and I trust their judgement when posting items.

arn
 
raggedjimmi said:
Silly me. They've likely sold 5 billion iPods after all :eek:
Click to expand...

They've sold 120million in 6 years, with the rate of sales greatly increased in the past 2 years or so...it won't be that surprising if they eventually get 5 billion...if you include products that will inevitably be spin-offs, like the iPhone...
 
Im guessing 5million isnt a whole lot to the phone market, I still have not seen any iphones in public. The only iPhone Ive seen in my whole life has been in an ATT display.

They seem to only be popular in certain markets like the big cities, or the ones where ATT has huge marketshare. In my kind of small city of 45k I have yet to see one, by around this time when the RAZR came out I had already seen a handful, then when the black RAZR came out it just exploded and almost everyone I saw on the phone had a black RAZR. It could also be related to the fact that not a lot of people have ATT here since Cingular was the last one to setup service, by far most have Sprint.
 
inkswamp said:
I don't recall Apple stating any sales targets for it either so I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. Likewise, there wasn't massive advertising and hype for the AppleTV like the iPhone. I think Apple sees the AppleTV as a foot-in-the-water kind of product that is there in the event they see a sudden need for something in the entertainment/media center market.

However, having said that and sounding like an Apple apologist, I think it's a badly conceived product. Not because of what it does (which I hear it does very well) but rather because of the obvious omissions. For example, I might have considered buying one if it just had a freakin' DVD slot. With that, Apple could position it not only as a digital movie device, but also as a DVD/CD player replacement. That seems like a no-brainer.
Click to expand...

I think we all can easily see apple tv is a dud, no matter what market target apple original had.
 
I sure wish some other company besides att had access to this phone. I'd have one now. but, ATT/Cingular is on my list of companies I will no longer do business with.
 
Great news, but not surprising. It seems that everyone has one and the satisfaction numbers are the best ever for Apple. Word of mouth is very strong and there is nothing out there to compete with the iPhone.
:apple:
 
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