9 Million iPhone Units Sold Over The Weekend
After being quite on the pre order numbers for the iPhone 5C, Apple is finally letting us know the combined number of iPhone 5S and iPhone 5S units. And, as you would expect with an iPhone launch, the numbers are record breaking. As you know, both the cheaper iPhone 5C and the high end iPhone 5S were released four days ago, on September 20th. As everyone expected, sales for the two new iPhone models are strong. In a press release Apple said that the combined number of iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S units sold is 9 million, in the smartphones’ first weekend of sales. It is the biggest number of sales in the history of the iPhone line. 9 million iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S is a lot, so much that it may have sold out Apple’s initial iPhone 5S stock; it would seem that every year Apple ramps up their day one availability but it never seems to be enough as all their stock still sells out day one. Apple did mention however that more iPhone 5S shipments are sent to retail stores.
Tim Cook, Apple CEO, said that “Demand for iPhone 5 has been incredible and we are working hard to get an iPhone 5 into the hands of every customer who wants one as quickly as possible [...] While we have sold out of our initial supply, stores continue to receive iPhone 5 shipments regularly and customers can continue to order online and receive an estimated delivery date. We appreciate everyone’s patience and are working hard to build enough iPhone 5s for everyone”.
Last year, the opening weekend sales for the iPhone 5 totaled five million units and two years ago, the opening weekend sales for the iPhone 4S totaled 4 million units, so this year’s nine million units sold including both the iPhone 5C and the iPhone 5S compares good to past years’ sales. Of course, a side by side comparison with previous years sales cannot be done accurately as launch markets change every year. For example, this year marked Apple’s presence on the Chinese market, the Cupertino based company managing to have both of its new iPhone models available on the Chinese market on day one.
Unfortunately, Apple’s official press release did not specify how much each of the two new iPhone models sold, so we don’t know how many of those 9 million units should be attributed to the iPhone 5S and how many to the iPhone 5C. Localytics suggests that the iPhone 5S sold more than the iPhone 5C with almost three and a half units to one. That would mean that out of the total of 9 million units, Apple sold about 7.65 million iPhone 5S units and 1.35 million iPhone 5C units.
After the sale numbers of the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C, Apple adjusted expectations for its fourth quarter earnings. Apple now hints that it expect earnings that will probably be “near the high end” of the company’s previously estimated range of $34 billion to $37 billion. Apple’s stock increased with over 6% pre market after the sales numbers of the two new iPhone models were announced. It is coming close to a $500 share price. This is very good news for Apple shareholders.
Besides announcing sales numbers for the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 5C, Apple also announced that its iTunes Radio service that was launched at the same time as iOS 7 (on September 18th), has already proven to be successful with over 11 million unique listeners and already more users than Pandora (a similar Internet Radio service); the launch weekend’s most listened song was a new Drake track called “Hold On, We’re Going Home”. Regarding the latest version of iOS, it too was successful as “more than 200 million iOS devices are now running the completely redesigned iOS 7, making it the fastest software upgrade in history”; that’s 200 million iOS devices in less than a week so it’s easy to see how it is the fastest software upgrade adoption. Tim Cook seems pleased, unsurprisingly, of the new iPhone launch commenting that “This is our best iPhone launch yet [...]“.
Regarding Apple’s share price, it opened at $496 on Monday, after clsoing at $467.41 last Friday. Apple’s stock reach a little over $500 a day before unveiling the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 5C, but quickly dropped in the following days. Besides a small increase in Apple stock, last week, yesterday’s opening is quite a high increase.
