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

[andy9l]

Clearly there aren't TONS of people like you since they just sold more iPhones than ever before during a launch.

Did you survey 3 people and when they all said "Meh" you assumed this meant everyone felt that way?

Well, at an average of 12 people per "ton" in the US – his statement could be correct. There could be 24, 36, or even 48 people worldwide who agree with him.

---

Interesting to see combined stats. I called this merge of statistics in a post I made before these stats were announced. It was obvious. Theoretically they should have record profits too. Larger margins on the 5c alongside restricted access to the 5s, should push profits way up.

 

[jrswizzle]

Think of it this way... Imagine how many they would have sold if it had been something a bit more. There are TONS of people like me with a 4S that just went "meh.. I'll wait". People are locked into the eco-system and even if they released the same damn phone in just a different color they would still sell millions just to meet all the contract upgrades. The people that say apple is Doomed are idiots... There are simply WAY too many people locked into iTunes and at this point they could keep selling millions of them by doing pretty much nothing to each new version. I do like the iOS7 though, made my 4S feel like a new phone!!

My point is, they could see insane numbers when they release a phone that makes people say "OMG, I have to have it!!". Not sure if they have anohter one of those phones left in them.

If you don't see the 5S as an upgrade from the 4S, you'll be sitting with that 4S for quite some time......

I've had them all - sold my 5 in preparation for the 5S and was on the 4S for a few weeks leading up to launch. It is a BIG upgrade IMO. It's a good upgrade over the 5 even.

 

[dugbug]

But the old model sees a price drop, which makes the people waiting finally order.

It always skews to top model on launch weekends. 5c vs 5s is no exception:
http://appleinsider.com/articles/13...lar-than-iphone-5c-on-launch-weekend---report

apple's margins are likely much better with the 5c but who cares... a7 for the win.

 

[sransari]

what a reaction by wallstreet...first, a major sell off after the announcements of the 5S and 5C...now, an insane rally after they realized they got it wrong...although, i must admit, i wasn't sure the sales would have been this strong, especially the 5C sales which is just a previous gen iphone in a cheaper frame. could the latest iphone releases be what apple stock needed to ride back up to $700?

even with these great sales, there's no question that an even more dominant sales report would have ensued had there been increases in storage capacity, and a lower price on the 5C (which, again, wasn't anything new, as apple had always been offering previous gen phones for $99).

 

[Adelphos33]

But the old model sees a price drop, which makes the people waiting finally order.

True, so there could be a pick up, but remember the 5C was available in a 32G model as well which was apparently popular

The point is either a 6/3 or 7/2 split indicates growth for both "tiers" of phones and bodes well for future sales of both, especially given supply constrain of 5S and Apple's advertising push for 5C

 

[Mac-Mariachi]

With the state of the world as it is now (Syria, terrorism, earthquakes, floodings, strange noises in the sky, signs in the skies, increased ufo activity, etc...) having the "Going Home" song by Drake as the most listened to in iRadio must ve another sign that the end is near.

 

[Terrin]

I mean, sure they broke a record and all, but they also added several countries for the initial launch. I think that makes a big deal.

No it doesn't. Last year Apple could only build 5 million phones, and it sold all of them, leaving people waiting for more supply. This year Apple build 9 million, and it sold all of them, leaving people waiting for more.

Last year, had Apple added China to the initial line up, it still would have only sold 5 million because that was all the inventory it had.

 

[Popeye206]

Wall street seems to like this news... up $26 this morning.

 

[Patriot24]

It is always amusing to watch people try to explain away the numbers. Most companies would kill to sell 9 million of anything in their portfolio.

At the end of the day, Apple is still the most successful company in the world. It isn't going to change anytime soon. Get over it.

 

[Alumeenium]

the couple Apple stores in my area had about 8 Gold phones over the whole weekend ?
8 as in less than 10, NOT 8 Million

something is drastically wrong with these sales numbers

 

[springsup]

Even more impressive when you consider they're still sold out everywhere in the world, and even the next shipments are sold out.

If the initial production run was bigger, they could have sold even more than 9m.

Getting my 5S on Wednesday

 

[ghost187]

It's Over 9 Million!

 

[tigres]

And Apples up 5% in trading...

I suppose this is related

 

[Terrin]

Surely, if you are going to compare the sales of the 5S and 5C, you should compare it to the last year sales of the 5 AND the 4S (same internal relation as the 5S & 5C have).

Also, how many of that 9 million are 5C's and 5S'?

Also, they also introced their products in new markets, so how are the sales compared if you only look at the US?

You can't just blindly look at that 9M number, doesn't represent the evolution of the sales per specific market.

Yes, but last year Apple did not break down sales by model. The iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, and iPhone 4 were all included in the week end sales figure. This year, the iPhone 5S, iPhone 5C, and iPhone 4S are included.

Further, amount of countries available in is irrelevant because last year if Apple added more countries it still would not have sold more than 5 million, as that was all the inventory it had.

 

[2bikes]

Apple quotes actual sales, not units shipped and always has. And the 5s & 5c are both newly released models, whereas only the S4 was a newly released model for Samsung at that time. So either way, it still took Samsung at least 9x longer to sell the same volume of a new device, so my point still stands.

Plus, S4 has variants like Active, Zoom, Google Play etc etc. which is probably included as one bucket.

 

[synyster11]

Clearly there aren't TONS of people like you since they just sold more iPhones than ever before during a launch.

Did you survey 3 people and when they all said "Meh" you assumed this meant everyone felt that way?

No, but when every person I know that has a 4S says it to me that means they are leaving some money on the table and have a large group of people that could be convinced to jump to a S4 or something different. I REALLY doubt there are only a few 4S owners like me out there. I am not an apple hater and have owned one since the first launch, but come on... There are obviously a large group of those people.

 

[BaldiMac]

the couple Apple stores in my area had about 8 Gold phones over the whole weekend ?
8 as in less than 10, NOT 8 Million

something is drastically wrong with these sales numbers

Or.. your anecdotal evidence doesn't mean what you think it means.

 

[sclawis300]

Regarding breakdown. This earlier article at Fortune
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/09/23/apple-iphone-sales-localytics/?source=yahoo_quote

indicated the global ratios of activated iPhones as of last night was ~3.5:1 for the 5S versus 5C.

for 9M phones this translates to 7 Million 5S and 2 Million 5C sold.
So the question of the day is how many 4S phones were sold on the 5 launch weekend?

but most people who ordered their phone online haven't even gotten it yet. So the ratio is probably way off.

 

[VRocker]

When will they be available in other countries?
(Belgium in my case)

 

[Yamcha]

I wonder how many of these buyers are new users, rather then old ones just upgrading?

 

[everything-i]

Didn't they make it available to more countries than ever though?

I'm a kill-joy I know.

I think broadly, on a country by country basis, the increases in sales for the release week will be up by a modest amount over last years release but the real growth is being driven by increasing the number of territories where devices are available on launch day as you point out. That said increasing territories is reducing the quantities available on launch day in each territory as there seems to be a ceiling on the numbers Apple can get to market for launch. All in all if they had made double the number available at launch they probably would have sold at least another 5 million units especially in Japan where they sold out very quickly and in Europe where there didn't actually seem to any available on the Apple web site from launch.

 

[the8thark]

This shows you how wrong the WS analysts could be, on almost everything regarding Apple. The average prediction was 5 to 6 million for the first three days.

WS and the WSJ are always just saying what they think about Apple. Sometimes they get it right, sometimes they do not. The sad thing is people (like the MR articles) take what WS and the WSJ say as official confirmed fact.

This just proves beyond a doubt that the WS/WSJ are just guessing based on the rumours going round at the time.

 

[Terrin]

considering this year Apple made the initial release available in more countries (11 this year vs 9 last year), you would expect them to sell more phones.

I don't get this thinking. The amount of countries involved in the initial roll out is dictated by the inventory Apple has available. So, last year Apple had 5 million iPhones available. This year it had 9 million. It sold them all both times with people waiting. Considering before the weekend was up, Apple's inventory was depleted, do you honestly believe if China was excluded from this year's initial line up of countries, Apple would not have sold all the phones it had?

 

[dugbug]

Think of it this way... Imagine how many they would have sold if it had been something a bit more. There are TONS of people like me with a 4S that just went "meh.. I'll wait"

what are you waiting for, anti-gravity? The performance leap is staggering.

 

[blhoward2]

No it doesn't. Last year Apple could only build 5 million phones, and it sold all of them, leaving people waiting for more supply. This year Apple build 9 million, and it sold all of them, leaving people waiting for more.

Last year, had Apple added China to the initial line up, it still would have only sold 5 million because that was all the inventory it had.

Except that the numbers count units sold, not units shipped. Whether they are built now or in a month they count.