Apple warns investors it won't announce iPhone 7 opening weekend sales
Apple will break tradition and won't announce launch sales of the upcoming iPhone 7, the company announced on Thursday, due to demand for the next-generation handset outstripping supply.
"In years past, we've announced how many new iPhones had been sold as of the first weekend following launch," Apple said in a statement to CNBC "But as we have expanded our distribution through carriers and resellers to hundreds of thousands of locations around the world, we are now at a point where we know before taking the first customer pre-order that we will sell out of iPhone 7.
"These initial sales will be governed by supply, not demand, and we have decided that it is no longer a representative metric for our investors and customers. Therefore we won't be releasing a first-weekend number any longer. We are reiterating the financial guidance September quarter that we provided on July 26."
Last year, the launch of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus moved a record 13 million units in their first three days. The iPhone 6s series went on to provide Apple its best-ever quarter in the holiday 2015 season, before sales began to cool off in 2016 and led to the first-ever year-over-year decline in iPhone sales.
When new iPhones launch, officials at Apple are usually quick to point out that they are selling as many handsets as they can make, with demand greatly outstripping supply. Apple's comments on Thursday make it clear that it expects the pattern to continue with this year's iPhone 7 launch.
Preorders for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus begin Friday at 12:01 a.m. Pacific, 3:01 a.m. Eastern. The device will find its way into the hands of consumers a week later, on Sept. 16.
For more, see AppleInsider's hands-on look at the iPhone 7 from this week's media briefing in San Francisco.
"In years past, we've announced how many new iPhones had been sold as of the first weekend following launch," Apple said in a statement to CNBC "But as we have expanded our distribution through carriers and resellers to hundreds of thousands of locations around the world, we are now at a point where we know before taking the first customer pre-order that we will sell out of iPhone 7.
"These initial sales will be governed by supply, not demand, and we have decided that it is no longer a representative metric for our investors and customers. Therefore we won't be releasing a first-weekend number any longer. We are reiterating the financial guidance September quarter that we provided on July 26."
Last year, the launch of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus moved a record 13 million units in their first three days. The iPhone 6s series went on to provide Apple its best-ever quarter in the holiday 2015 season, before sales began to cool off in 2016 and led to the first-ever year-over-year decline in iPhone sales.
When new iPhones launch, officials at Apple are usually quick to point out that they are selling as many handsets as they can make, with demand greatly outstripping supply. Apple's comments on Thursday make it clear that it expects the pattern to continue with this year's iPhone 7 launch.
Preorders for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus begin Friday at 12:01 a.m. Pacific, 3:01 a.m. Eastern. The device will find its way into the hands of consumers a week later, on Sept. 16.
For more, see AppleInsider's hands-on look at the iPhone 7 from this week's media briefing in San Francisco.
Comments
partnerships with IBM, Cisco, and SAP,
and recent hints dropped by Cook about Entering the AR segment
Oh and doom articles incoming even though no other company shares sales numbers.
About every four years Apple has a fiscal Q1 that contains 14 weeks rather than 13, providing a quarter that's 7.69% longer than the usual 13 week holiday quarter. And as it happens, this is one of those years. Happy Holidays, Apple longs!
I've mentioned before I don't invest in anything that doesn't make sense. The stock market is one of those things.
"Starting September 9 at 12:01am PT, all new and current T-Mobile customers can pre-order a new iPhone 7 from T-Mobile and get up to $650 in monthly bill credits over 24 months when they trade-in their iPhone 6 or newer model. Want a different model or more memory? Just pay a little more upfront."
i recently read a survey that concluded the majority of day traders lose money, which makes sense.
Or in other instances they'll say.. Apple beat its own guidance, but they wildly missed MY PERSONAL prediction (which was a zillion). So the headline can be... Apple FAILS!
It's all about getting clicks, and negative, sensationalistic stories about Apple make money for people.
So why feed that machine if you're Apple? Just keep 'em guessing and reveal sales/profit only on quarterly calls (if then).
Makes sense to me personally...
Generally speaking, if they can't make enough to satisfy demand for launch weekend, it makes no sense to publish "this is what we sold", as its not indicative of what they could have sold. The results have always been posted as "this is what we sold" and thats how they are taken. When it comes to sales, there is no "but it could have been more". Numbers are the numbers. So if you know the numbers don't represent demand, don't publish them as such.
It is entirely possible that if Apple were able to produce and fulfill 20 million iPhones this launch, they'd have 20 million and sold and reportable. Numbers breaking their own records by almost double. But if they can only fulfill 10 or 12 million, it pushes back the numbers into the next week, but those wouldn't be "sold" launch weekend. Doesn't make sense to shoot themselves in the foot like that.