Report Suggests iPhone 5S Is In High Demand
Four days ago, Apple officially released the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 5C and yesterday the Cupertino based company announced sales numbers via a press release. As we reported, the combined sales of both the iPhone 5C and the iPhone 5S are 9 million units, in the opening weekend. However, the official press release did not specify how much each of the two new iPhone models sold; then again Apple never mentions these kind of details. Because of this, many people have wondered how many of those 9 million units sold were iPhone 5S units and how many were iPhone 5C units. This led to speculation regarding the gold iPhone 5S’ lack of availability: some speculate it has to do with low supply while other think its simply due to very high demand.
As we already said, is not into the habit of disclosing individual iPhone sales, so you can stop waiting for official numbers regarding how much the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 5C sold. However, research firm Localytis tracked more than 20 million unique iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C activations since their release last Friday. Three days after the new iPhone models were released, Localytes discovered that it was not the United States that had the highest share of iPhone 5S versus iPhone 5C sales; it was the Chinese market.
It seems that world wide, about 78 percent of the 9 million iPhone units sold were iPhone 5S models. On the Chinese market, iPhone 5S models make about 91 percent of all iPhone units sold. This is unexpected because most analysts suggested the cheaper iPhone 5C will be very successful on the Chinese market (and on other emerging markets). However, the report indicates the contrary: the high end iPhone 5s was adopted by the Chinese market in an overwhelming proportion. The report suggests that gold being a very popular color in China, contributed decisively to the high demand that the iPhone 5S enjoys on the Chinese market. For comparison, in the United States, 76 percent of the new iPhones sold were iPhone 5S while the United Kingdom seems to be the market with the highest percentage of iPhone 5C units sold, as it is “the only country that didn’t have at least a 3 to 1 ratio of 5s to 5c activations”.
Lcoalytics also mentions that right now “the U.S. accounts for 68% of all active iPhone 5s and 5c devices worldwide, with Japan in second place with 13% of 5s and 5c’s“. Before the September 20th release date, it was speculated that there will be very limited supply of gold and white iPhone 5S models at both US retailers and carriers. It seems the rumors were true also for many Apple world wide retail stores as on September 20th, gold and white iPhone 5S supplies were low.
In the all the initial launch markets (including the United States), iPhone 5C shipping times improved to “within 24 hours” on Apple’s own website; the iPhone 5s on the other hand will ship by October (all models) in Apple stores and retail partners.
