Apple announces record sales of 10 million iPhone 6 & iPhone 6 Plus units in first 3 days

Posted:
in iPhone edited September 2014
The launch weekend for Apple's new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus was the strongest start yet for the company's smartphone lineup, reaching 10 million units sold in the first three days of availability, and topping last year's previous best of 9 million.



"Sales for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus exceeded our expectations for the launch weekend, and we couldn't be happier," said Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook. "We would like to thank all of our customers for making this our best launch ever, shattering all previous sell-through records by a large margin. While our team managed the manufacturing ramp better than ever before, we could have sold many more iPhones with greater supply and we are working hard to fill orders as quickly as possible."

Both the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus went on sale last Friday in the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the U.K. It is scheduled to go on sale in 20 additional countries this Friday, Sept. 26, which would be before the end of the company's September quarter.

Apple is planning its fastest iPhone roll-out ever, with the latest models becoming available in a total of 115 countries by the end of 2014.

iPhone 6, 6+


The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus had already gotten off to a record start prior to launch, reaching 4 million preorders in the first 24 hours of availability.

Last year, Apple achieved what was then its strongest iPhone launch with sales of 9 million iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c units. But while last year the new iPhone 5c was the company's mid-range handset, this year the company introduced two top-tier models, including the jumbo-sized 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus with a starting price of $299 with a new two-year carrier contract subsidy.

Demand for the new iPhones has created a backlog, particularly for the iPhone 6 Plus, which is currently advertised to ship from Apple's online store in three to four weeks. New iPhone 6 orders ship in seven to ten business days.

Investors have particularly high hopes for this year's iPhone lineup, predicting that the new, larger screen sizes offered by Apple could be a strong selling point for prospective Android switchers. Some analysts on Wall Street believe the company is on track to sell a record 60 million iPhones in a blockbuster holiday 2014 quarter.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 178
    YES!

    Samsung is toast.
  • Reply 2 of 178
    I guess 1 million more is pretty good...
  • Reply 3 of 178
    gtrgtr Posts: 3,231member
    And without China.

    What would that number have been with that tiny little country included...
  • Reply 4 of 178
    Thats great!
  • Reply 5 of 178
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    I noticed in the press release Cook used the words "sell through". Any significance to this? I don't remember Apple using that phrase before in press releases.
  • Reply 6 of 178
    saareksaarek Posts: 1,523member

    Had thought that it'd be higher, assuming the figure was due to lack of stock as opposed to lack of demand.

     

    Beat most "expert" expectations.

  • Reply 7 of 178
    aplnubaplnub Posts: 2,605member
    interdyne wrote: »
    I guess 1 million more is pretty good...

    Without China. So yeah, not bad. ;)
  • Reply 8 of 178
    P
    gtr wrote: »
    And without China.

    What would that number have been with that tiny little country included...
    Not to mention all the people that preordered and then got shipping dates in November. I'm sure those numbers were excluded contrary to others' opinions. I wonder how many more would have sold and been preordered if Apple's own site and the carrier sites weren't crashing like mad on preorder day.
  • Reply 9 of 178
    pazuzupazuzu Posts: 1,728member
    A job well done. Congratulations.
  • Reply 10 of 178
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    interdyne wrote: »
    I guess 1 million more is pretty good...

    Last year included China on launch weekend. This year not so. Also the press release indicated Apple could have sold more if they had the supply.
  • Reply 11 of 178
    rob53rob53 Posts: 3,251member

    Pre-market activity made up for the huge last minute drop on Friday so maybe the analysts will treat this as good news. Wait, most analysts want to short the stock so who knows what will happen.

  • Reply 12 of 178

    China isn't a little country by any measure.

  • Reply 13 of 178
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by rob53 View Post

     

    Pre-market activity made up for the huge last minute drop on Friday so maybe the analysts will treat this as good news. Wait, most analysts want to short the stock so who knows what will happen.


    what else would you like to do with stock if it is on the top? if you are on the top there is only one possible direction :-)

  • Reply 14 of 178
    rogifan wrote: »
    I noticed in the press release Cook used the words "sell through". Any significance to this? I don't remember Apple using that phrase before in press releases.

    That means they sold them to customers, since all Plus units are selling out and most 6 units too. It's hard to find one (supposedly 128GB units of the 6 are about all that's left). In the past they may have sold 9 million but had had 12 ready to sell. This time, they had 10 and likely had about 10 to sell.
  • Reply 15 of 178
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    P
    Not to mention all the people that preordered and then got shipping dates in November. I sure those numbers were excluded contrary to others' opinions. I wonder how many more would have sold and been preordered if Apple's own site and the carrier sites weren't crashing like mad on preorder day.

    And of course CNBC throws up that clown Gene Munster who's still prattering on about 5c channel fill and then claims Apple didn't annonce ios 8 upgrade figures because the changes this year were "modest". :no:
  • Reply 16 of 178
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,727member
    rogifan wrote: »
    Last year included China on launch weekend. This year not so. Also the press release indicated Apple could have sold more if they had the supply.

    Obviously Apple priced them far too low and is doomed ... /s :D
  • Reply 17 of 178
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by GTR View Post



    And without China.



    What would that number have been with that tiny little country included...

    China is include, it is call black market, It appears that a significant number of the 10M are making their way into China, at 2 to 3x the selling price, you got any friends in China who wish to buy an iphone 6

  • Reply 18 of 178

    I wonder if Gene Munster will balk at the sales number this year as he did last year? Gene? Gene?

     

    On a more relevant note, as Rogifan noticed, Tim Cook mentioned "sell-through" with this year's announcement. I wonder if the SEC had to be informed of a larger than anticipated  change in quarterly earnings this year or if Apple had already informed the SEC of a large quarterly earnings due to the iPhone 6/Plus.

     

    Back on a humorous note, will the iPhone 6 be considered a failure versus the iPhone 6 Plus or will the iPhone 6 Plus be considered a failure versus the iPhone 6? Analysts? Analysts?

  • Reply 19 of 178
    Wow, 10 million in a week!? That's impressive, but would have been much stronger if supply wasn't so constrained. I didn't pre-order, but had hoped to snag one anyway (without luck). iPhoneInventory.com still shows supply is ridiculously tight. Not much available in any store unless you have Sprint or want to pay a bundle.
  • Reply 20 of 178
    I was at an Apple Store in Columbus Ohio. Got my reservation for my phone by getting there at 5am. iPhone 6+ sold out by 7am. I left the line around 8:30 after securing my reservation for my phone. I came back at 4:20 and 2 gals were coming across the parking lot with phone bags in their hands. I was surprised they still had inventory. When the girls got closer I recognized them from the line at 5am. They were behind me by about 15 people. They told me that they were just leaving. So it took them from 5 am to 4:20pm to get through the line. I counted the people in line when I arrived early and there were about 200 people ahead of me. Now they did have 2 lines that were feeding into the store. One for people like me and one for preorder in store pickup. So stock was still available because the checkout process was painfully slow. When I came back at 4:20 there were about 50 people ahead of me. It took 4 hours to get in the door.

    My whole point is that they could have sold many, many more phones if they could have sped up the checkout process. It was painful. But the Apple Store employees were on point and energetic and did a fantastic job working to make each customer feel special.
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