9 ms·

iPhone 4S First Weekend Sales Top Four Million

111 points by ssclafani 15y ago

ugh 15y ago
Can anyone put that into context?
- walldorf 15y ago
  http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/06/28iPhone-4-Sales-Top-1-7-Million.html http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/06/28iPhone-4-Sales-Top...
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- scrrr 15y ago
  According to http://www.phonearena.com/news/iPhone-4-sales-hit-a-million-units-over-the-first-weekend_id17160 http://www.phonearena.com/news/iPhone-4-sales-hit-a-million-... AT&T sold 1.7 million units on the first weekend. I wonder if Steve Jobs being dead actually is a reason for increased sales. It could be like a singer dying and people buy more of his records. On the other hand it might be just that many people held back buying the iphone 4 and waited for the next one.
  - mcphilip 15y ago
    I too wonder the same thing. Especially with the pre-order record for a phone that seemed to initially miss expectations upon announcement. The articles I've found on the topic are just speculative[1][2]. [1]http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/228095/20111010/iphone-4s-fortunes-linked-to-steve-jobs-untimely-death-loyal-apple-customers-drive-iphone-4s-sales-a.htm http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/228095/20111010/iphone-4s-fo... [2]http://sanfrancisco.ibtimes.com/articles/228902/20111011/iphone-4s-sold-out-pre-order-record-memory-steve-jobs.htm http://sanfrancisco.ibtimes.com/articles/228902/20111011/iph...
    - epo 15y ago
      The missed expectations were held by fanboy contributors to MacRumors and the equally witless anti-fanboys (fandroids for the most part) who chimed in with "Ha! No new case after 18 months? Lame! Fail!" Perhaps the buyers were at the end of a contract, or looking to upgrade, or simply saw the best phone on the market.
      - glhaynes 15y ago
        And tons of guy-on-the-street types (both real and those dreamed up by news media, propagating the meme further) were disappointed, too. But the frame has shifted over the last few days and now everybody's talking about Siri, theoretical teardrop case be damned.
  - technoslut 15y ago
    I don't think there are many people who are going to spend $200+ and a two-year contract on a device just because of Jobs. iOS devices have continually seen 100% year-over-year growth so it's not really a surprise, especially when they're available on more carriers.
  - ap3 15y ago
    I think it's all the people with 3GS's plus new customers jumping on to the iphone and more carriers. Numbers seem to support that. I was on a dumbphone contract on verizon and waited on the iphone 4 until the 4s was released. Personally I wanted an iphone and would have bought on any form factor they released
  - glhaynes 15y ago
    Not sure why this is being downvoted - I mean, it could've probably been phrased more tactfully, but I'm the biggest Jobs (and iPhone) fan in the world and I have to agree they've gotten a ton of publicity and awareness recently. (And I don't think Jobs—who almost seemed to identify more with Apple than with Steve Jobs!—would have been bothered by that in the least.) That leading to some sales isn't surprising. And it's a damn good phone.
  - jeswin 15y ago
    I don't know why you are being down voted. Did you wonder if the increased media exposure for the company may have had an impact on sales? In a thread that otherwise feels like a chatroom, what made the comment particularly unacceptable? Sadly, this is becoming more common on HN. Have seen this in the evolution of /., before it got completely overrun.
  - ethank 15y ago
    Sure, because a 200-800 dollar spend is how we honor fallen CEO's. When a band breaks up or a musician dies, the run on music is to the tune of 9.99, and usually less because they sell them as loss leaders.
- MrFoof 15y ago
  On launch weekend, the iPhone 4 sold 1.7M units in five countries. The iPhone 4S sold > 4.0M units in seven countries (the additions being Canada and Australia). The iPhone 4 launch countries had a combined population of ~644 million. The iPhone 4S launch countries had a combined population of ~700 million -- only an 8.7% increase. So the additional launch countries alone wouldn't explain the vastly increased number of sales (~135% increase). At least from personal experience, most Apple Retail Stores didn't seem to exhaust their supply on Friday the 14th. So having more units on hand (and the usual second round of deliveries on Saturday), plus the pre-order records contributed to breaking this record. Simply having the product available was probably the biggest factor, though pre-orders (confirmation tomorrow) do indicate that demand may have increased over the iPhone 4, although some of that that could be seasonal demand. I'm not sure on carrier counts (iPhone 4 not known, iPhone 4S launched on 22 carriers). In the US, the iPhone 4 only launched on one carrier, whereas the 4S launched on three. That's also going to be a significant contributing factor in increasing its effective availability to buyers.
  - ugh 15y ago
    It would also be interesting to look at the growth of iPhone 4 sales. I know that they were growing like crazy in the quarters after the launch. But it's hard to compare. Sales numbers right after the launch are certainly always an outlier so it might be more reasonable to wait for the following quarterly results.
  - batiudrami 15y ago
    Availability is a big thing, I think. For about 5 months after the iPhone launched in Australia, we couldn't keep enough of them in stock (have a box arrive Friday, all gone by Saturday arvo and none for the rest of the week). With the 4S, we have a hundred of the damn things sitting on our shelves. If it's a similar thing in other countries, then that's probably a large part of why (vodafoneAU staff here).
    - qq66 15y ago
      That's because all the manufacturing tooling for the 4S form factor has had 18 months to scale up since the launch of the 4. That's why Apple changed as little as possible in the physical form factor.
- spicyj 15y ago
  walldorf's link puts iPhone 4 sales over the same period as 1.7 million; that's 2.3x as much.
  - josteink 15y ago
    On three times as many US carriers though. That's quite a bit of a difference, given how carrier-availability seems to dictate phone purchases in the US.
    - martingordon 15y ago
      Your point stands, but three times as many US carriers is really only 2.5x as many subscribers; AT&T and Verizon each have about 100 million subs and Sprint has 51 million. Increases in non-US availability notwithstanding, the 2.5x increase in US availability is close to the 2.3x increase in sales. I would expect AT&T sales to be down from the iPhone 4 and Verizon/Sprint to be up. Sprint likely offered early upgrades to most customers who want an iPhone in order to keep them from going to Verizon or AT&T. There's probably a lot of pent up demand on Verizon from users who skipped the mid-cycle CDMA iPhone 4 in hopes of a newer iPhone a few months later. On the flip side, AT&T has been a lot stricter about early upgrades this year, leaving many who spend less than $100/month without a full subsidy until November. This is different from their past policy, where early adopter of the previous-gen iPhone users were granted early upgrades.
- cubicle67 15y ago
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IPhone_sales_per_quarter.svg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IPhone_sales_per_quarter.s... Microsoft's Kinect currently holds the record for Fastest-Selling Consumer Electronics Device. It sold 8 million in the first 60 days at a rate of about 134,000/day [Edit: source http://community.guinnessworldrecords.com/_Kinect-Confirmed-As-Fastest-Selling-Consumer-Electronics-Device/blog/3376939/7691.html http://community.guinnessworldrecords.com/_Kinect-Confirmed-...]
  - onemoreact 15y ago
    4QFY10 they sold: 14,100,000 unit's which is a little over 4million a month. If apple sells over 2million a month for the next 50 days they will break 8 million in the first 60 days or am I missing something?
- bonzoesc 15y ago
  It's about what Motorola sells in a quarter: http://www.asymco.com/2011/07/31/the-end-of-easy-growth-in-smartphones/ http://www.asymco.com/2011/07/31/the-end-of-easy-growth-in-s... And assuming they're evenly split between 16GB and 32GB (it's not, there's also 64GB models in the mix), it's over a billion dollars in revenue before carrier subsidies.
  - jonknee 15y ago
    > it's over a billion dollars in revenue before carrier subsidies. And considering that Apple doesn't care about the subsidies (they get paid up front), it's a whole lot of revenue.
    - jevinskie 15y ago
      How does ATT get their subsidy then? Apple pays them a cut of the retail price of the iPhone?
      - bonzoesc 15y ago
        AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint pay Apple an undisclosed sum of money for each carrier-locked and two-year-contracted iPhone sold.
      - jonknee 15y ago
        It's AT&T's subsidy. They pay retail (or very close to it) for the phones. They a $199 iPhone, but pay $649 for it. Apple books revenues for sales over time so they may not get it all up front (they're at least not realizing all the revenue up front), but the sale is worth the $649 value regardless of whether it was sold off contract or not.
  - culturestate 15y ago
    It's actually in the neighborhood of $2.8 billion in revenue. (2000000 * 649)+(2000000 * 749) = 2,796,000,000
    - 15y ago
- niklas_a 15y ago
  Imagine that Timmy and Jimmy are selling lemonade on the street outside of their parents´ houses. Timmy and Jimmy are both selling three to four cups of lemonade every day. Every few days they increase the amount of sugar in their lemonade and put up signs that they now are selling a new type of lemonade. This usually brings in lots of new people, but some are starting to get confused as both Timmy and Jimmy are selling so many different brands of lemonade. Now Lisa moves into the block. She spends some time in her garage trying different lemonade flavors until she finds one she really likes herself. Then she goes out on the street to sell the lemonade. People really like Lisa's lemonade. Its taste is distinctly different from Timmy's and Jimmy's. People start telling their friends about Lisa's lemonade! Soon people from the other block are starting to take the two minute bicycle ride just to get Lisa's lemonade! When Lisa after a few weeks introduces a slightly refined version of her new lemonade she sells as much lemonade in an afternoon as Timmy and Jimmy together sell in a month! After a while Timmy and Jimmy get angry. One night Timmy sneaks over and steals some of Lisa's lemonade. He moves his stand right next to Lisa's and even put up a sign saying "Lisa's lemonade" on his stand. The next day he shows up wearing Lisa's clothes. Some of the customers get confused and accidentally but Timmy's lemonade instead of Lisa's. Lisa goes home and cries to mommy. The parents get together and decide to ban Timmy from selling lemonade out on the street. How's that for context?
  - superchink 15y ago
    Fantastic. Thank you for that unexpectedly wonderful metaphor. I especially like the part about Sam—er, Timmy getting told on by Lisa. She's so crafty. :)
  - cooldeal 15y ago
    So Samsung steals iPhone and iPad stock from the factories (since they make some of the parts) and slaps a Samsung sticker on them and sells them. I get it now.
walldorf 15y ago
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/06/28iPhone-4-Sales-Top-1-7-Million.html http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/06/28iPhone-4-Sales-Top...
dr_ 15y ago
The launch "delay" probably had something to do with this as well. Anticipation was already high. Plus perhaps it allowed them to launch in more countries simultaneously. Product delays are not always because of manufacturing issues. Sometimes it can be a business decision.
- coob 15y ago
  It makes more sense to me that the delay was down to iOS 5/iCloud and the surrounding infrastructure. 20 million iOS 5 users in 2 days is a very quick ramp up.
  - protomyth 15y ago
    I would imagine you are on the right track about needing iOS 5/iCloud ready first. I would also add that Apple probably needs to replace the fall music event with an annual iPhone event since, although still high, iPods don't net the press of a new iPhone.
schiptsov 15y ago
and you know why..
swombat 15y ago
Oh yeah, the iPhone 4S is such a flop. Obviously, the lack of a new teardrop form factor is totally sales and Apple should recant from their heathen ways and do the smart thing, like the other mobile phone manufacturers. One wonders where Technology mags find all these seemingly countless analysts who deride every iPhone (or at least are unimpressed)...
- nextparadigms 15y ago
  Even if the iPhone 4S would've been a worse phone than iPhone 4, they would've still sold at least a million units in first weekend. I think everyone knows that. But this sales boost will confirm to Apple that it's ok for them to just release the same phone for 2 years with some spec upgrades in the 2nd year.
  - danilocampos 15y ago
    > But this sales boost will confirm to Apple that it's ok for them to just release the same phone for 2 years with some spec upgrades in the 2nd year. The 3GS was already persuasive evidence of this pattern, though.
  - talmand 15y ago
    Apple's been doing that for a while now. In fact, that's a common release pattern for several companies in the electronics industry. In a way, you could say the iPhone 4S is just an original iPhone with some spec upgrades.
  - johnthedebs 15y ago
    Even if the iPhone 4S would've been a worse phone than iPhone 4, they would've still sold at least a million units in first weekend. I think everyone knows that. No, I don't think everyone knows that. If we learned anything from the past few Apple product launches, it's that customers aren't shy about complaining even if they aren't completely sure what they're complaining about. But this sales boost will confirm to Apple that it's ok for them to just release the same phone for 2 years with some spec upgrades in the 2nd year. It is okay. The economics behind producing this many millions of a devices doesn't allow them to change the design every single year without jacking up the price. And for what? A "tick tock" schedule, like the one Intel has adopted, makes tons of sense for Apple too. You just can't completely rethink a product design every year once it's matured.
ajays 15y ago
Being a 3GS owner, I feel like an ugly stepchild. Should I upgrade to 4S, and then watch (once again, as in the case of iphone 4) as the iphone 5 rolls out early next year? If the i5 comes out in Feb, it might be worth the wait. If June... I'm not so sure. First-world problems.... ;-)
- joezydeco 15y ago
  Don't feel bad. My work-supplied 3G still has 6 months left on contract. No iOS updates and crazy slow speed.
  - sevenproxies 15y ago
    >crazy slow speed What is wrong with the iphone 3G?
    - danilocampos 15y ago
      Beyond it being crazy slow?
    - joezydeco 15y ago
      iOS4 and iOS4-compatible apps run very slow on my 3G, even with Spotlight turned off. Apps crash all the time including Safari. I've lost calls because of the phone bogging down at various times. That's just the top of my list.
      - yardie 15y ago
        Is it jailbroken? I have a 3G as well. Upgrading to 4.2.1 I enabled the multitasking switch but it made the phone unusable and unstable. Disabling multitasking got the phone back on track (I did lose Airprint). But the phone only occasionally bogs down and never drops a call (I know, hard to believe for an iPhone).
        joezydeco 15y ago
ryandvm 15y ago
This is not about the general public being utterly amazed with the iPhone 4S. This is what happens when there is an 18 month period between product refreshes of a popular phone. It turns out that several million people have been holding out for "the next iPhone" for the last several months. Is this surprising anyone?
- glhaynes 15y ago
  Seems like a statement in need of support. Certainly that's a factor, but it seems like a ton of people [including non-Apple-geeks] are interested in and talking about the phone (especially Siri but also the camera) and saying they're "utterly amazed".
  - ajross 15y ago
    If the previous statement is in need of support, surely you have a cite for that ton of non-Apple-geeks saying they're "utterly amazed" by Siri and the camera, right?
    - glhaynes 15y ago
      Of course I don't have a formal citation, but I was only countering the earlier poster's firm pronouncement of why they had sold so many with a note that his/her statement was just conjecture. As I said, certainly that conjecture plays some part, but it doesn't seem valid to me to state that it's "the reason" for these sales in opposition to other reasons that customers (on Twitter, Facebook, the nightly news, etc) are (yes, anecdotally) giving.
    - froo 15y ago
      http://twitter.com/search?q=siri http://twitter.com/search?q=siri or for something more visual http://trendistic.indextank.com/siri http://trendistic.indextank.com/siri People are talking more about Siri since the release date (on average) and for more dramatic effect, look at the results over a 30 day timeframe - not bad considering that Siri is essentially 2 year old technology. Yeah, people are impressed by Siri, even if they just want to make fun of it (in Australia we call that Tall Poppy Syndrome)
saturdaysaint 15y ago
The biggest factor here is that this is the first U.S. iPhone launch on multiple carriers. That's more than double the addressable market, and I'd imagine that the effect on purchasing decisions goes well beyond that. In short, forcing users on one carrier made the iPhone something of a niche product, but now it's mainstream.
- chugger 15y ago
  I'm also curious how many $99 iPhone 4s and free 3GS Apple sold over the weekend.
podperson 15y ago
It seems like the "Apple is going bankrupt" stories have finally disappeared. Looking back I wonder when that happened. Now we're down to "Apple's new iPhone might not sell quite as fast as some other guy thinks it will".
schnaars 15y ago
I wonder what a warehouse with 4M iPhones in it looks like. That is a huge stack o'phones.

111 points by ssclafani 15y ago

ugh 15y ago

Can anyone put that into context?

walldorf 15y ago
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/06/28iPhone-4-Sales-Top-1-7-Million.html http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/06/28iPhone-4-Sales-Top...
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
scrrr 15y ago
According to http://www.phonearena.com/news/iPhone-4-sales-hit-a-million-units-over-the-first-weekend_id17160 http://www.phonearena.com/news/iPhone-4-sales-hit-a-million-... AT&T sold 1.7 million units on the first weekend. I wonder if Steve Jobs being dead actually is a reason for increased sales. It could be like a singer dying and people buy more of his records. On the other hand it might be just that many people held back buying the iphone 4 and waited for the next one.
- mcphilip 15y ago
  I too wonder the same thing. Especially with the pre-order record for a phone that seemed to initially miss expectations upon announcement. The articles I've found on the topic are just speculative[1][2]. [1]http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/228095/20111010/iphone-4s-fortunes-linked-to-steve-jobs-untimely-death-loyal-apple-customers-drive-iphone-4s-sales-a.htm http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/228095/20111010/iphone-4s-fo... [2]http://sanfrancisco.ibtimes.com/articles/228902/20111011/iphone-4s-sold-out-pre-order-record-memory-steve-jobs.htm http://sanfrancisco.ibtimes.com/articles/228902/20111011/iph...
  - epo 15y ago
    The missed expectations were held by fanboy contributors to MacRumors and the equally witless anti-fanboys (fandroids for the most part) who chimed in with "Ha! No new case after 18 months? Lame! Fail!" Perhaps the buyers were at the end of a contract, or looking to upgrade, or simply saw the best phone on the market.
    - glhaynes 15y ago
      And tons of guy-on-the-street types (both real and those dreamed up by news media, propagating the meme further) were disappointed, too. But the frame has shifted over the last few days and now everybody's talking about Siri, theoretical teardrop case be damned.
- technoslut 15y ago
  I don't think there are many people who are going to spend $200+ and a two-year contract on a device just because of Jobs. iOS devices have continually seen 100% year-over-year growth so it's not really a surprise, especially when they're available on more carriers.
- ap3 15y ago
  I think it's all the people with 3GS's plus new customers jumping on to the iphone and more carriers. Numbers seem to support that. I was on a dumbphone contract on verizon and waited on the iphone 4 until the 4s was released. Personally I wanted an iphone and would have bought on any form factor they released
- glhaynes 15y ago
  Not sure why this is being downvoted - I mean, it could've probably been phrased more tactfully, but I'm the biggest Jobs (and iPhone) fan in the world and I have to agree they've gotten a ton of publicity and awareness recently. (And I don't think Jobs—who almost seemed to identify more with Apple than with Steve Jobs!—would have been bothered by that in the least.) That leading to some sales isn't surprising. And it's a damn good phone.
- jeswin 15y ago
  I don't know why you are being down voted. Did you wonder if the increased media exposure for the company may have had an impact on sales? In a thread that otherwise feels like a chatroom, what made the comment particularly unacceptable? Sadly, this is becoming more common on HN. Have seen this in the evolution of /., before it got completely overrun.
- ethank 15y ago
  Sure, because a 200-800 dollar spend is how we honor fallen CEO's. When a band breaks up or a musician dies, the run on music is to the tune of 9.99, and usually less because they sell them as loss leaders.
MrFoof 15y ago
On launch weekend, the iPhone 4 sold 1.7M units in five countries. The iPhone 4S sold > 4.0M units in seven countries (the additions being Canada and Australia). The iPhone 4 launch countries had a combined population of ~644 million. The iPhone 4S launch countries had a combined population of ~700 million -- only an 8.7% increase. So the additional launch countries alone wouldn't explain the vastly increased number of sales (~135% increase). At least from personal experience, most Apple Retail Stores didn't seem to exhaust their supply on Friday the 14th. So having more units on hand (and the usual second round of deliveries on Saturday), plus the pre-order records contributed to breaking this record. Simply having the product available was probably the biggest factor, though pre-orders (confirmation tomorrow) do indicate that demand may have increased over the iPhone 4, although some of that that could be seasonal demand. I'm not sure on carrier counts (iPhone 4 not known, iPhone 4S launched on 22 carriers). In the US, the iPhone 4 only launched on one carrier, whereas the 4S launched on three. That's also going to be a significant contributing factor in increasing its effective availability to buyers.
- ugh 15y ago
  It would also be interesting to look at the growth of iPhone 4 sales. I know that they were growing like crazy in the quarters after the launch. But it's hard to compare. Sales numbers right after the launch are certainly always an outlier so it might be more reasonable to wait for the following quarterly results.
- batiudrami 15y ago
  Availability is a big thing, I think. For about 5 months after the iPhone launched in Australia, we couldn't keep enough of them in stock (have a box arrive Friday, all gone by Saturday arvo and none for the rest of the week). With the 4S, we have a hundred of the damn things sitting on our shelves. If it's a similar thing in other countries, then that's probably a large part of why (vodafoneAU staff here).
  - qq66 15y ago
    That's because all the manufacturing tooling for the 4S form factor has had 18 months to scale up since the launch of the 4. That's why Apple changed as little as possible in the physical form factor.
spicyj 15y ago
walldorf's link puts iPhone 4 sales over the same period as 1.7 million; that's 2.3x as much.
- josteink 15y ago
  On three times as many US carriers though. That's quite a bit of a difference, given how carrier-availability seems to dictate phone purchases in the US.
  - martingordon 15y ago
    Your point stands, but three times as many US carriers is really only 2.5x as many subscribers; AT&T and Verizon each have about 100 million subs and Sprint has 51 million. Increases in non-US availability notwithstanding, the 2.5x increase in US availability is close to the 2.3x increase in sales. I would expect AT&T sales to be down from the iPhone 4 and Verizon/Sprint to be up. Sprint likely offered early upgrades to most customers who want an iPhone in order to keep them from going to Verizon or AT&T. There's probably a lot of pent up demand on Verizon from users who skipped the mid-cycle CDMA iPhone 4 in hopes of a newer iPhone a few months later. On the flip side, AT&T has been a lot stricter about early upgrades this year, leaving many who spend less than $100/month without a full subsidy until November. This is different from their past policy, where early adopter of the previous-gen iPhone users were granted early upgrades.
cubicle67 15y ago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IPhone_sales_per_quarter.svg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IPhone_sales_per_quarter.s... Microsoft's Kinect currently holds the record for Fastest-Selling Consumer Electronics Device. It sold 8 million in the first 60 days at a rate of about 134,000/day [Edit: source http://community.guinnessworldrecords.com/_Kinect-Confirmed-As-Fastest-Selling-Consumer-Electronics-Device/blog/3376939/7691.html http://community.guinnessworldrecords.com/_Kinect-Confirmed-...]
- onemoreact 15y ago
  4QFY10 they sold: 14,100,000 unit's which is a little over 4million a month. If apple sells over 2million a month for the next 50 days they will break 8 million in the first 60 days or am I missing something?
bonzoesc 15y ago
It's about what Motorola sells in a quarter: http://www.asymco.com/2011/07/31/the-end-of-easy-growth-in-smartphones/ http://www.asymco.com/2011/07/31/the-end-of-easy-growth-in-s... And assuming they're evenly split between 16GB and 32GB (it's not, there's also 64GB models in the mix), it's over a billion dollars in revenue before carrier subsidies.
- jonknee 15y ago
  > it's over a billion dollars in revenue before carrier subsidies. And considering that Apple doesn't care about the subsidies (they get paid up front), it's a whole lot of revenue.
  - jevinskie 15y ago
    How does ATT get their subsidy then? Apple pays them a cut of the retail price of the iPhone?
    - bonzoesc 15y ago
      AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint pay Apple an undisclosed sum of money for each carrier-locked and two-year-contracted iPhone sold.
    - jonknee 15y ago
      It's AT&T's subsidy. They pay retail (or very close to it) for the phones. They a $199 iPhone, but pay $649 for it. Apple books revenues for sales over time so they may not get it all up front (they're at least not realizing all the revenue up front), but the sale is worth the $649 value regardless of whether it was sold off contract or not.
- culturestate 15y ago
  It's actually in the neighborhood of $2.8 billion in revenue. (2000000 * 649)+(2000000 * 749) = 2,796,000,000
  - 15y ago
niklas_a 15y ago
Imagine that Timmy and Jimmy are selling lemonade on the street outside of their parents´ houses. Timmy and Jimmy are both selling three to four cups of lemonade every day. Every few days they increase the amount of sugar in their lemonade and put up signs that they now are selling a new type of lemonade. This usually brings in lots of new people, but some are starting to get confused as both Timmy and Jimmy are selling so many different brands of lemonade. Now Lisa moves into the block. She spends some time in her garage trying different lemonade flavors until she finds one she really likes herself. Then she goes out on the street to sell the lemonade. People really like Lisa's lemonade. Its taste is distinctly different from Timmy's and Jimmy's. People start telling their friends about Lisa's lemonade! Soon people from the other block are starting to take the two minute bicycle ride just to get Lisa's lemonade! When Lisa after a few weeks introduces a slightly refined version of her new lemonade she sells as much lemonade in an afternoon as Timmy and Jimmy together sell in a month! After a while Timmy and Jimmy get angry. One night Timmy sneaks over and steals some of Lisa's lemonade. He moves his stand right next to Lisa's and even put up a sign saying "Lisa's lemonade" on his stand. The next day he shows up wearing Lisa's clothes. Some of the customers get confused and accidentally but Timmy's lemonade instead of Lisa's. Lisa goes home and cries to mommy. The parents get together and decide to ban Timmy from selling lemonade out on the street. How's that for context?
- superchink 15y ago
  Fantastic. Thank you for that unexpectedly wonderful metaphor. I especially like the part about Sam—er, Timmy getting told on by Lisa. She's so crafty. :)
- cooldeal 15y ago
  So Samsung steals iPhone and iPad stock from the factories (since they make some of the parts) and slaps a Samsung sticker on them and sells them. I get it now.

walldorf 15y ago

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/06/28iPhone-4-Sales-Top-1-7-Million.html http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/06/28iPhone-4-Sales-Top...

dr_ 15y ago

The launch "delay" probably had something to do with this as well. Anticipation was already high. Plus perhaps it allowed them to launch in more countries simultaneously. Product delays are not always because of manufacturing issues. Sometimes it can be a business decision.

coob 15y ago
It makes more sense to me that the delay was down to iOS 5/iCloud and the surrounding infrastructure. 20 million iOS 5 users in 2 days is a very quick ramp up.
- protomyth 15y ago
  I would imagine you are on the right track about needing iOS 5/iCloud ready first. I would also add that Apple probably needs to replace the fall music event with an annual iPhone event since, although still high, iPods don't net the press of a new iPhone.

schiptsov 15y ago

and you know why..

swombat 15y ago

Oh yeah, the iPhone 4S is such a flop. Obviously, the lack of a new teardrop form factor is totally sales and Apple should recant from their heathen ways and do the smart thing, like the other mobile phone manufacturers. One wonders where Technology mags find all these seemingly countless analysts who deride every iPhone (or at least are unimpressed)...

nextparadigms 15y ago
Even if the iPhone 4S would've been a worse phone than iPhone 4, they would've still sold at least a million units in first weekend. I think everyone knows that. But this sales boost will confirm to Apple that it's ok for them to just release the same phone for 2 years with some spec upgrades in the 2nd year.
- danilocampos 15y ago
  > But this sales boost will confirm to Apple that it's ok for them to just release the same phone for 2 years with some spec upgrades in the 2nd year. The 3GS was already persuasive evidence of this pattern, though.
- talmand 15y ago
  Apple's been doing that for a while now. In fact, that's a common release pattern for several companies in the electronics industry. In a way, you could say the iPhone 4S is just an original iPhone with some spec upgrades.
- johnthedebs 15y ago
  Even if the iPhone 4S would've been a worse phone than iPhone 4, they would've still sold at least a million units in first weekend. I think everyone knows that. No, I don't think everyone knows that. If we learned anything from the past few Apple product launches, it's that customers aren't shy about complaining even if they aren't completely sure what they're complaining about. But this sales boost will confirm to Apple that it's ok for them to just release the same phone for 2 years with some spec upgrades in the 2nd year. It is okay. The economics behind producing this many millions of a devices doesn't allow them to change the design every single year without jacking up the price. And for what? A "tick tock" schedule, like the one Intel has adopted, makes tons of sense for Apple too. You just can't completely rethink a product design every year once it's matured.

ajays 15y ago

Being a 3GS owner, I feel like an ugly stepchild. Should I upgrade to 4S, and then watch (once again, as in the case of iphone 4) as the iphone 5 rolls out early next year? If the i5 comes out in Feb, it might be worth the wait. If June... I'm not so sure. First-world problems.... ;-)

joezydeco 15y ago
Don't feel bad. My work-supplied 3G still has 6 months left on contract. No iOS updates and crazy slow speed.
- sevenproxies 15y ago
  >crazy slow speed What is wrong with the iphone 3G?
  - danilocampos 15y ago
    Beyond it being crazy slow?
  - joezydeco 15y ago
    iOS4 and iOS4-compatible apps run very slow on my 3G, even with Spotlight turned off. Apps crash all the time including Safari. I've lost calls because of the phone bogging down at various times. That's just the top of my list.
    - yardie 15y ago
      Is it jailbroken? I have a 3G as well. Upgrading to 4.2.1 I enabled the multitasking switch but it made the phone unusable and unstable. Disabling multitasking got the phone back on track (I did lose Airprint). But the phone only occasionally bogs down and never drops a call (I know, hard to believe for an iPhone).
      - joezydeco 15y ago

ryandvm 15y ago

This is not about the general public being utterly amazed with the iPhone 4S. This is what happens when there is an 18 month period between product refreshes of a popular phone. It turns out that several million people have been holding out for "the next iPhone" for the last several months. Is this surprising anyone?

glhaynes 15y ago
Seems like a statement in need of support. Certainly that's a factor, but it seems like a ton of people [including non-Apple-geeks] are interested in and talking about the phone (especially Siri but also the camera) and saying they're "utterly amazed".
- ajross 15y ago
  If the previous statement is in need of support, surely you have a cite for that ton of non-Apple-geeks saying they're "utterly amazed" by Siri and the camera, right?
  - glhaynes 15y ago
    Of course I don't have a formal citation, but I was only countering the earlier poster's firm pronouncement of why they had sold so many with a note that his/her statement was just conjecture. As I said, certainly that conjecture plays some part, but it doesn't seem valid to me to state that it's "the reason" for these sales in opposition to other reasons that customers (on Twitter, Facebook, the nightly news, etc) are (yes, anecdotally) giving.
  - froo 15y ago
    http://twitter.com/search?q=siri http://twitter.com/search?q=siri or for something more visual http://trendistic.indextank.com/siri http://trendistic.indextank.com/siri People are talking more about Siri since the release date (on average) and for more dramatic effect, look at the results over a 30 day timeframe - not bad considering that Siri is essentially 2 year old technology. Yeah, people are impressed by Siri, even if they just want to make fun of it (in Australia we call that Tall Poppy Syndrome)

saturdaysaint 15y ago

The biggest factor here is that this is the first U.S. iPhone launch on multiple carriers. That's more than double the addressable market, and I'd imagine that the effect on purchasing decisions goes well beyond that. In short, forcing users on one carrier made the iPhone something of a niche product, but now it's mainstream.

chugger 15y ago
I'm also curious how many $99 iPhone 4s and free 3GS Apple sold over the weekend.

podperson 15y ago

It seems like the "Apple is going bankrupt" stories have finally disappeared. Looking back I wonder when that happened. Now we're down to "Apple's new iPhone might not sell quite as fast as some other guy thinks it will".

schnaars 15y ago

I wonder what a warehouse with 4M iPhones in it looks like. That is a huge stack o'phones.