Preorders of Apple's iPhone 4 break Verizon sales record in 2 hours
Verizon on Friday declared that presales of the iPhone 4 exceeded any other launch in the company's history in just the first two hours, though the carrier declined to provide actual sales figures.
"This was an exciting day," said Dan Mead, president and chief executive officer for Verizon Wireless. "In just our first two hours, we had already sold more phones than any first day launch in our history.
"And, when you consider these initial orders were placed between the hours of 3 a.m. and 5 a.m., it is an incredible success story. It is gratifying to know that our customers responded so enthusiastically to this exclusive offer -- designed to reward them for their loyalty."
Though Verizon didn't provide any specific sales figures, analyst Mike Abramsky with RBC Capital Markets issued a brief note to investors in which he said the "limited" pre-order availability was likely restricted to less than 100,000. For comparison, the Motorola Droid, when it launched in 2009, was estimated to have sold 100,000 in its first weekend, while the GSM iPhone 4 sold 1.7 million in its first three days of availability last June.
Verizon and Apple stopped taking preorders at 8:10 p.m. on Thursday, just over 17 hours after existing Verizon customers were first able to place an order. It marked the most successful sales day in the company's history.
"I am proud of our employees who worked tirelessly to strengthen and scale our systems, enabling unprecedented customer orders through our website," Mead said. "Overall, it was a very good day."
He also reminded customers that they will have another opportunity to order the CDMA iPhone 4 when it launches on Feb. 10 at 7 a.m. local time in Apple's U.S. retail stores and more than 2,000 Verizon Wireless Communication Stores. On Feb. 9, all qualified customers will be able to order a Verizon iPhone 4 through the Apple online store for delivery or in-store pick-up beginning Feb. 10.
"Yesterday's launch set the pace for next week when we open up sales to everyone across America," Mead said.
"This was an exciting day," said Dan Mead, president and chief executive officer for Verizon Wireless. "In just our first two hours, we had already sold more phones than any first day launch in our history.
"And, when you consider these initial orders were placed between the hours of 3 a.m. and 5 a.m., it is an incredible success story. It is gratifying to know that our customers responded so enthusiastically to this exclusive offer -- designed to reward them for their loyalty."
Though Verizon didn't provide any specific sales figures, analyst Mike Abramsky with RBC Capital Markets issued a brief note to investors in which he said the "limited" pre-order availability was likely restricted to less than 100,000. For comparison, the Motorola Droid, when it launched in 2009, was estimated to have sold 100,000 in its first weekend, while the GSM iPhone 4 sold 1.7 million in its first three days of availability last June.
Verizon and Apple stopped taking preorders at 8:10 p.m. on Thursday, just over 17 hours after existing Verizon customers were first able to place an order. It marked the most successful sales day in the company's history.
"I am proud of our employees who worked tirelessly to strengthen and scale our systems, enabling unprecedented customer orders through our website," Mead said. "Overall, it was a very good day."
He also reminded customers that they will have another opportunity to order the CDMA iPhone 4 when it launches on Feb. 10 at 7 a.m. local time in Apple's U.S. retail stores and more than 2,000 Verizon Wireless Communication Stores. On Feb. 9, all qualified customers will be able to order a Verizon iPhone 4 through the Apple online store for delivery or in-store pick-up beginning Feb. 10.
"Yesterday's launch set the pace for next week when we open up sales to everyone across America," Mead said.
Comments
My order was #304, and I read that other people had 1,200,000 and who knows how many after, so thats just order #, not quantity (i.e. I ordered 2), so my guess is over 3 mil, easy.
Were these all from Verizon, or mixed Verizon and Apple?
"In just our first two hours, we had already sold more phones than any first day launch in our history.
I suspect we will have a lower bound really soon. There has to be announced first day sales data for other Verizon phones out there. I suspect some entrepid reporter will backtrack and find that data in the next few hours. A CEO making a statement like that will get some attention.
The number sounds way north of 100k unless the CEO completely mispoke, which I imagine will be clarified later, if that is the case.
I suspect we will have a lower bound really soon. There has to be announced first day sales data for other Verizon phones out there. I suspect some entrepid reporter will backtrack and find that data in the next few hours. A CEO making a statement like that will get some attention.
The number sounds way north of 100,000k unless the CEO completely mispoke, which I imagine will be clarified later, if that is the case.
100,000 was a number from an analyst. 100,000k = 100,000,000 seems like A LOT! lol
I'm guessing the analyst left a 0 off his number so it should be closer to a million
I doubt there were only 100,000 pre-orders available if they went 17 hours before going out of stock. My guess would be more like 500,000.
Yeah that RBC guy is a complete moron. If that's his professional assessment RBC should fire his ass for incompetence. First off, and most obvious this isn't just any phone. 2) There's 4 years of pent up demand 3) Apple has become a MASTER at inventory control and anticipation with Tim Cook they've sold out every iPhone launch but not until they've sold MILLIONS 4) The original Droid was way before Android-mania took off (if anything it was the pre-cursor) and 5) Android-mania is partly if not mostly because of a lack of a VZW iPhone till now.
I can't see the initial pre-sales alotment being anything less than 1-2 M phones.
While that appears to be amazing; they still haven't been in on the launch of a new iPhone. When iPhone5 is released then they will have an idea what this is all about. The numbers (whatever they are) they are seeing from this 2 hour sale will be blown out of the water.
Pretty soon people will realize that there is no physical keyboard on the iPhone and they will stop buying these things.
Yours truly,
Steve Ballmer
Stock split anyone?
How about stock implosion...For RIM. They won't release the numbers of sales because
that would allow analysts to deduce how much BB and Android sales will have fallen off.
It's like Consumer Reports editors cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced....
I got an issue yesterday with a blurb about "hot new smartphones" on the front... A quick scan showed no mention of the iPhone on Verizon. What did I expect?
Blah, blah, blah, Android, blah, blah, iPhone killer.
Blah, blah, blah, iphone numbers means its best, blah, blah, McDonald's cheese burgers.
Pretty soon people will realize that there is no physical keyboard on the iPhone and they will stop buying these things.
Yours truly,
Steve Ballmer
And yet despite his completely cluelessness (or egocentrism/egomania re Microsoft) he still managed to get a huge bonus this year.