Sales of Apple's iPhone 4S top four million in first weekend
The iPhone 4S got off to a record breaking start over the weekend, selling a total of 4 million units in its first three days of availability.
"iPhone 4S is off to a great start with more than four million sold in its first weekend?the most ever for a phone and more than double the iPhone 4 launch during its first three days," said Philip Schiller, Apple?s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "iPhone 4S is a hit with customers around the world, and together with iOS 5 and iCloud, is the best iPhone ever."
Sales of four million iPhone 4S units in three days more than double's the company's previous record of 1.7 million iPhone 4 units sold in the summer of 2010.
Apple also revealed that more than 25 million customers are already using iOS 5, the latest mobile operating system upgrade for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Those 25 million customers have made the upgrade in just five days of availability.
More than 20 million customers have also signed up for iCloud, the set of free cloud-based services offered by Apple for iOS and Mac OS X 10.7 Lion users. iCloud will remotely store users' data and push it to all of their devices, automatically.
The iPhone 4S is currently available in the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the U.K. Apple will launch its new iPhone in 22 more countries on Oct. 28, and it will be available in more than 70 countries by the end of the year.
A week ago, Apple announced that it had sold a million preorders of the iPhone 4S on its first day of availability. That provided the first hint that the iPhone 4S was on pace to have a record-breaking start when it went on sale.
The sale of four million iPhone 4S units at launch exceeds Wall Street expectations, which had called for Apple to sell around three million units over the weekend. Analysts have also called for Apple to sell around 25 million total iPhones this holiday quarter, which concludes in December.
"iPhone 4S is off to a great start with more than four million sold in its first weekend?the most ever for a phone and more than double the iPhone 4 launch during its first three days," said Philip Schiller, Apple?s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "iPhone 4S is a hit with customers around the world, and together with iOS 5 and iCloud, is the best iPhone ever."
Sales of four million iPhone 4S units in three days more than double's the company's previous record of 1.7 million iPhone 4 units sold in the summer of 2010.
Apple also revealed that more than 25 million customers are already using iOS 5, the latest mobile operating system upgrade for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Those 25 million customers have made the upgrade in just five days of availability.
More than 20 million customers have also signed up for iCloud, the set of free cloud-based services offered by Apple for iOS and Mac OS X 10.7 Lion users. iCloud will remotely store users' data and push it to all of their devices, automatically.
The iPhone 4S is currently available in the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the U.K. Apple will launch its new iPhone in 22 more countries on Oct. 28, and it will be available in more than 70 countries by the end of the year.
A week ago, Apple announced that it had sold a million preorders of the iPhone 4S on its first day of availability. That provided the first hint that the iPhone 4S was on pace to have a record-breaking start when it went on sale.
The sale of four million iPhone 4S units at launch exceeds Wall Street expectations, which had called for Apple to sell around three million units over the weekend. Analysts have also called for Apple to sell around 25 million total iPhones this holiday quarter, which concludes in December.
Comments
If Apple had 4 million ready to go at launch, that is awesome!
Lesson learned. NEVER preorder via AT&T. Anyone else have this problem?
btw, I never trust pre-orders and will always prefer to wait in line.
I wonder how many (of which I am included) were duped into preordering from AT&T in store? My phone, which AT&T promised would arrive on 10/14 = 10/15, has not even shipped yet. Yet, I was able to walk into 2 AT&T stores on 10/14 and find that they both had over 300 extra iPhones after the small lines. Heck both stores still had a few iPhone 4S models as of 5PM yesterday. The lines were small because the stores pushed in-store preorders. Of course the store wouldn't allow for cancellation of the preorders so I could pick the phone up on 10/14. Instead I have to wait another 2 weeks for my "preordered" phone. Nice.
Lesson learned. NEVER preorder via AT&T. Anyone else have this problem?
Yup, and I preordered it on the online Apple Store itself within seconds of availability. I should be among the first to have one, but, look at that, I live in Canada, not a hundred miles north of the US and I have to wait 2-3 weeks to get it...
Half way to besting the MS Kinect and so far only 1/20 the time frame. The iPhone 4S is going to be hard to beat, except by other Apple products.
To be fair, I don't think you can compare a phone, a device that most people see as a necessity, to a game accessory, which is the very definition of luxury.
I wonder how many (of which I am included) were duped into preordering from AT&T in store? My phone, which AT&T promised would arrive on 10/14 = 10/15, has not even shipped yet. Yet, I was able to walk into 2 AT&T stores on 10/14 and find that they both had over 300 extra iPhones after the small lines. Heck both stores still had a few iPhone 4S models as of 5PM yesterday. The lines were small because the stores pushed in-store preorders. Of course the store wouldn't allow for cancellation of the preorders so I could pick the phone up on 10/14. Instead I have to wait another 2 weeks for my "preordered" phone. Nice.
Lesson learned. NEVER preorder via AT&T. Anyone else have this problem?
I preordered the iPhone 4 through AT&T and was able to pick it up on launch day with almost no wait.
To be fair, I don't think you can compare a phone, a device that most people see as a necessity, to a game accessory, which is the very definition of luxury.
Why not? Microsoft do... you know what they're like for saying "me too!" about every success any other company in the tech field has.
To be fair, I don't think you can compare a phone, a device that most people see as a necessity, to a game accessory, which is the very definition of luxury.
Yes, but nearly every single person who bought an i4S already had a functioning phone. As such, the i4S is NOT a necessity. It is a luxury item.
Apple got 4,000,000+ people to buy an expensive luxury during a huge economic downturn. You've got to hand it to them. They done good. They know the best way to take money out of other people's accounts and to put it into Apple's accounts. They are freaking experts at it!
And their stock price will reflect their wisdom.
Yup, and I preordered it on the online Apple Store itself within seconds of availability. I should be among the first to have one, but, look at that, I live in Canada, not a hundred miles north of the US and I have to wait 2-3 weeks to get it...
I ordered two online at Rogers last Friday morning (so a few hours after initial availability) and one online at Apple.
The Rogers iPhones are being *delivered* now (I presume from a central Rogers depot to the Rogers store I specified). I won't get the one ordered at Apple.ca until Oct 25.
This just proves all the doom and gloom tech prophets right...abject failure! Only 4 million sold in the first 72 hours! What a disaster. Fire Tim Cook immediately and bring back Gil Amelio. I'm selling all my 10,000 shares of Apple immediately and putting a brown paper shopping bag over my head in shame. Bwahahaha!
I wish I had 10 000 shares that I bought when Apple Inc. was 'the beleaguered Apple Computer Inc' and the 4400 had just come out.
This just proves all the doom and gloom tech prophets right...abject failure! Only 4 million sold in the first 72 hours! What a disaster. Fire Tim Cook immediately and bring back Gil Amelio. I'm selling all my 10,000 shares of Apple immediately and putting a brown paper shopping bag over my head in shame. Bwahahaha!
You're totally exaggerating the reaction to the phone - there was no doom and gloom. There were many muted reviews but there were a few really enthusiastic ones too (David Pogue, DaringFireBall, etc., etc.)
But I understand that it's a common practice to pretend to be allied with Apple the underdog. Some underdog.
Yup, and I preordered it on the online Apple Store itself within seconds of availability. I should be among the first to have one, but, look at that, I live in Canada, not a hundred miles north of the US and I have to wait 2-3 weeks to get it...
My 4S is sitting in the truck and will get here this morning. Had I been closer to the warehouse I would have received it on Friday. (Telus)
F me.
^this
To be fair, I don't think you can compare a phone, a device that most people see as a necessity, to a game accessory, which is the very definition of luxury.
1) To be fair, I didn't think an accessory for a primary electronic should be allowed to get "World's Fastest-Selling Consumer Electronics Device" since it can't be used as a stand alone product outside the Xbox 360.
2) An iPhone 4S is not a necessity, it's a luxury device among a category that is still a luxury device in most ?if not all ? markets.
You're totally exaggerating the reaction to the phone - there was no doom and gloom. There were many muted reviews but there were a few really enthusiastic ones too (David Pogue, DaringFireBall, etc., etc.)
But I understand that it's a common practice to pretend to be allied with Apple the underdog. Some underdog.
So the stock sliding to a monthly low of $360 immediately after the announcement isn't doom and gloom?
And the "doom and gloom" has nothing to do with treating Apple as an underdog, but everything to do with analysts not understanding what makes Apple Apple. Still. After over a decade of "research".
1) To be fair, I didn't think an accessory for a primary electronic should be allowed to get "World's Fastest-Selling Consumer Electronics Device" since it can't be used as a stand alone product outside the Xbox 360.
2) An iPhone 4S is not a necessity, it's a luxury device among a category that is still a luxury device in most ?if not all ? markets.
It's definitely a luxury in ALL markets. But it is commonly affordable luxury, which in part explains its popularity.