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iPhone 5 First Weekend Sales Top Five Million
- lwhi 14y agoNo mention of Apple maps? Hmm ...
- theorique 14y agoI think they are focusing on the positive, not the thing everyone's complaining about. Other publications seem to have covered that rather well.
- ubernostrum 14y agoYeah, because what we really need at this point is yet another "LOL APPLE MAPS RITE?" "I NO RITE" "SRSLY GUISE HAVE U HERD ABOUT APPLE MAPS" thread.
- lwhi 14y agoIn my opinion, it seems quite ridiculous to gloss over such a major failing, with so much optimistic hyperbole. Why isn't there a press release apologising to the people who've updated 'more than 100 million devices' to iOS 6? EDIT: It is a major failing.. To understand why, I suggest you search Google, and see just how vocal that '1%' (!) is. Remember, a lot of people don't live in the USA - and many of those who do are still experiencing problems.
- drharris 14y agoIf it were truly a major failing, you'd see a press release. I haven't seen a single problem with it over the southeastern US. I'd expect the only people who know it's broken are those who have an issue nearby their house, or geeks who read articles about people who do. The 99%? Oblivious and happy.
- hahainternet 14y agoIt made front page BBC news for a full day. It has major problems in such unpopulated places as New York, London, Tokyo
- zerohm 14y agoWait, you mean not everything on this very complex device is not absolutely perfect? They said it was going to be perfect. I'm suing.
- praptak 14y agoTolkien's Ents used the whole history of an entity whenever they mentioned it. Human journalists usually don't.
- alayne 14y agoHere's one of your recent comments: "I really hope something awful happens to Apple over the next few years. They deserve it" It's hard for me to think you are interested in any sort of adult conversation here.
- lwhi 14y agoI'm constantly amazed by the lengths people will go to defend Apple. It's astounding. Regardless of what I feel about the company, my point stands. EDIT: To the downvoters - thanks for emphasising my point.
- alayne 14y agoApple already made a statement about maps. This is a press release about sales. There is no reason for them to bring up maps again in this press release since they are not discussing any other software features (other than the availability of iOS6 of course).
- flyinRyan 14y agoAnd color me and others equally amazed at the lengths some people will go to hate a company. Apple makes products. If you don't like them, don't buy them.
- lwhi 14y agoAh, but they don't just make products. They also specialise in litigation ;) I'm sorry for the negativity - but the way Apple is behaving at the moment makes me angry. It was different when Apple was the underdog; I could understand why they were worth supporting. The company, as it currently stands, has completely lost my sympathy.
- flyinRyan 14y agoWhy does Apple make you mad? Most companies do this. Remember when Oracle bought Sun and said "don't worry, Sun's IP is safe with us" and then started suing people for using it? Ellison was on camera saying "I don't know if Java is free". Well you knew when you bought it! MS has some incredibly slimy stuff. And there are companies that don't even make anything, they just sue. I can't imagine a reason to single out Apple for their behavior unless you just came out of stasis within the last few years. And honestly, if I were them I'd be pretty pissed at Samsung as well. Obviously when the iPhone came out it was going to "inspire" other companies to make something similar but they even did their ad photos in a way to make it look like the iPhone. It was blatant. This is what these laws are for and you can bet anyone and everyone would sue Apple if the roles were reversed. Hell, Google doesn't have clean hands in any of this either, their behavior has been arguably worse.
- flyinRyan 14y agoWhy on earth would they mention that? I hope you're not ever looking for work in the PR industry.
- lwhi 14y agoI'm not planning to any time soon ;) [1] [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDW_Hj2K0wo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDW_Hj2K0wo
- mikeash 14y agoThey also didn't mention this week's deals at your local grocery store. Don't be daft.
- pja 14y ago20% more than the iPhone 4S managed. (iPhone 3GS: 1,000,000 orders, iPhone 4: 1.7 million, 4S: 4,000,000 sales (all first 3 days after release)) After filtering out the inevitable Apple PR hyperbole, I can't work out whether this is good (largest iPhone numbers ever in 3 days after release!) or bad (terrible fall off in growth rate of 3-day iPhone sales after release!). Take your pick :)
- kumarm 14y agoRemember projections of worst case scenario being 5Million by analysts? You will see the same analysts saying today Pre Orders blew their mind.
- thomholwerda 14y agoNormalised by the number of countries it was available in, it didn't do any better than the 4S (from @asymco). http://twitpic.com/axx0ki http://twitpic.com/axx0ki
- swighton 14y agoThat's not a fair comparison. Its only fair if pre-orders are uniform across countries. Adding a bunch of smaller countries with low volume would drag the number way down. A much more meaningful comparison would be pre-orders in a single major market, e.g. the US.
- lookingsideways 14y agoTalking to some friends who work in phone shops here in the UK it's pretty apparent the stock just isn't available. There haven't been enough phones to cover pre-orders let alone the constant stream of people coming in every day asking if they have any iPhone 5s available.
- barrynolan 14y agoAnd if you want to see what that looks like from a Fedex angle... http://www.cultofmac.com/192038/look-at-all-these-iphone-5s-flooding-fedexs-distribution-center-image/ http://www.cultofmac.com/192038/look-at-all-these-iphone-5s-...
- calinet6 14y agoTurns out people just wanted a more refined iPhone with 4G. Who would have thought? Seriously though, I remember naysayers about the iPod back when it was first released, bemoaning the interface, design, and pointing out dozens of other mp3 players with longer feature lists at better prices. Yet the iPod still won out because it offered a consistent and predictable user experience, from the purchase to the day-to-day use—looking at the quality of experience holistically and end-to-end, including fashion, features, and fun. You could pick up any iPod and know how to use it, and that trend continued throughout new releases and new iPods for years on end, with the only major interface change being the shift to touch, which was (arguably) even easier to use. The tech crowd tends to look at devices as bricks with feature lists attached to them, but consumers don't. And consumers are the ones who buy things and use them, not just us. The iPhone 5 is exactly what people want with just enough "new" to make them want it. It will be moderately successful for a refresh, and most importantly, people will continue to enjoy using their phones and will continue to want to upgrade in the future. Apple nailed it.
- choko 14y agoI think iTunes was probably the bigger motivator for customers purchasing iPods. Before iTunes, there weren't a lot of places to legally purchase digital music, and ripping CDs was kind of cumbersome.
- josephlord 14y agoI don't think you remember that time period very well. The iTunes store wasn't launched until over a year AFTER the iPod! The original iPod, chunky by today's standards was by far the smallest and easiest to use mp3 player that could carry more than a few hundred MB of data. At the time there wasn't any Windows support but I think 3rd party software became available if you had Firewire on your PC. From Wikipedia: iPod "The iPod line was announced by Apple on October 23, 2001, and released on November 10, 2001." From Wikipedia: iTunes Store "It opened on April 28, 2003, as the iTunes Music Store"
- bornhuetter 14y ago
- kumarm 14y agoThis is not a success by the expectations and hype created. Analysts projected 10Million sales and worst case scenario of 6Million sales before launch: http://articles.cnn.com/2012-09-19/tech/tech_mobile_iphone-5-pre-orders_1_iphone-4s-release-apple-stores-16gb http://articles.cnn.com/2012-09-19/tech/tech_mobile_iphone-5...
- uptown 14y agoSo maybe the analysts underperformed.
- josephlord 14y agoSales were limited by supply at least in many places although some carriers at least had some stock in particular models. The only real way to judge the sales success is when supply matches demand
- loceng 14y agoPretty sure Apple controls this to manage the numbers, and have an out if sales don't skyrocket as is/was believed to.
- josephlord 14y agoDoesn't matter, you still can't tell the true demand until there is general availability whatever the cause is. I don't think that they artificially limit supply initially but they almost certainly do launch before they have enough to fully meet demand. If you thought there was demand for 10,000,000 phones would you really wait until you could stockpile $5Billion worth of inventory before you pressed the launch button? And it isn't worth having enough manufacturing capacity to fully support the initial rush when you know it will be underutilised for the rest of the year. I would target sufficient capacity to support expected demand to be satisfied through peak season (probably Christmas-Chinese New Year) based on production start date. It would be good to be able to expand between now and Christmas if demand is higher than anticipated. I would not produce enough for the initial launch for practical reasons but the free marketing would definitely be a bonus.
- OhArgh 14y ago"the world’s most advanced mobile operating system" I feel this needs to be quantified. How is it more "advanced" than the latest version of Android?
- OhArgh 14y agoOr even what defines a mobile operating system. Curiosity is technically mobile and has an operating system...
- seiji 14y agoPerfect scrolling, your applications can't spy on you, iTunes integration, and you don't constantly need to play whack-an-app to preserve battery life.
- Tichy 14y agoHow do they manage the "applications can't spy on you" part? (Not counting the WhatsApp debacle). Also: iTunes???
- seiji 14y agoMillions of people have a significant investment in iTunes media. They don't understand DRM-vs-not. They don't understand sideloading or frontloading or rearloading. They just want to plug-n-go. Pick some well off high school nearby and ask kids how often they buy something on iTunes. You'll cry when a large portion of them say multiple times per week. You'll go catatonic when they mention regularly spending over $100 per month. We are not the target demo for these devices--normal people are.
- mtgx 14y agoIt's actually worse than the worst case scenario predicted by analysts: http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-5-opening-weekend-sales-prediction-2012-9 http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-5-opening-weekend-sale...
- drharris 14y agoI love my iPhone 5, and think it's the most solid piece of electronics I've ever owned. Almost hate to put the thing in a case. As good as it is, there's a point everyone is overlooking when talking about the 5... the earpods. I've tried over 20 sets of earbuds to fit my weird ears, and all of them cause pain after half an hour or more of wear. I've been able to listen 4 hours straight on these earpods with no ill effects, and they sound amazing. For me, this was a definite value-add, and if the phone wasn't already enough to justify it, the included earpods sell it for sure.
- seiji 14y agoI think putting an iPhone in a case is like leaving a plastic cover on a $3,000 couch. They are made to feel nice when your skin meets their design. Life happens. Enjoy things that won't harm you without the rubberized prophylaxis.
- bbgm 14y agoI have never put any iPhone in a case, even the iPhone 4 (my current phone). Seems to defeat the purpose. Although being a klutz, I am astonished that I have not even scratched it in 2 years.
- swombat 14y agoCompromise: use some kind of pouch/sleeve. Then, while you're using it, the iPhone is as God/Jobs intended... and while it's in your pocket or on a table, it's safely wrapped in a layer of material that can take the damage.
- drharris 14y agoAgreed, and it pains me. But, I have a toddler, and while he's good with devices, he sometimes does drop them. So, a case is a necessary thing for now.
- RegEx 14y agoNot all of us can afford for life to just "happen" and grab another iPhone.
- neel8986 14y agoTo these number in perspective the most successful android phone ever "Galaxy S III" sold 20 million in 100 days!!! Some people even said that Galaxy sIII is replacing iphone as the most coveted smartphone Now looking at these numbers it is clear that iphone 5 is oing to touch the 100 million mark well within 50 days about half the time taken my sIII
- bornhuetter 14y agoIt's very difficult to take much from these numbers - you can't strip out factors such as an increase or decrease in the number of people going for pre-orders (potentially a big factor given how much Apple push the whole announcement/pre-order thing) I think first month sales are going to be a much better indicator of initial demand, and it's going to take about 3 months before we get a clear picture.
- glhaynes 14y agoIMO, far more interesting than the 5 million figure (because of supply constraint, potential that that number excludes in-transit devices, etc) is the 100 million iOS 6 upgrades that have been done. That's a huge portion of the devices that are capable of running it; and it's in the midst of Mapsgate, the biggest reason people are mentioning for not upgrading in major-iOS-upgrade history.
- jacob2dot0 14y agoI wondering if this is based of sales from Apple stores, Apple Stores and wireless carriers. Or if they are just counting shipments to wireless carriers as sales. I am having a hard time believing that a company can get sale numbers out of carriers within a week.