500,000 iPhones sold during opening weekend
34 comments
Filed in Apple, EDGE, Handsets
We know, we know. iPhone news is sooo last week. Even the most synical of you must admit, however, that 500,000 cell phones in roughly 48 hours is a darn impressive feat. Piper Jaffray, reputable analysts that they are, estimate that Apple pushed roughly half a million iPhones between 6:00 PM Friday, and 6:00 PM Sunday. Most companys wouldn’t dream of doing that kind of business in an entire quarter, let alone a single weekend. However the chips fall, Apple deserves some kudos for actually pulling this thing off.
Now you know why the activations had issues…still very impressive with the activation issues.
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As an IT guy who has to tell people nope you’re not gonna get to connect your iphone to the network its kind of scary.
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This is astonishing! I knew that they were selling extremely well, but I did not anticipate this. I was estimating half that. My AT&T store sold out our initial 100 at launch within an hour then we recieved 50 more the next day and they were gone with 3 hours. This is not including the direct fullfilment orders that we took which account for another 100 iPhones. Prior to this, the Razr was(and still is) considered one of the best selling phones ever and how long did it take for them to sell 500,000? I give Apple all the credit in the world for making sure that there was ample supply to feed the demand.
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hes till hs 19.5 million unit to go till 08.
an even then the demand will slump within a month as the shortcommes will be reviewed.
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The iPhone has but two things wrong, the lack of 3G and removable battery. Other than that, this phone is and ideal mass consumer product. After using this phone, I will no longer be using any other general consumer cell phone until I see something better come out; and that probably will not be until iPhone 2.0 (whatever it may be) comes out. As time goes on, you will only see the numbers continue to climb. Not at the pace they did this weekend, but they will continue to climb.
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yeah no remvable battery killis it andt lack of 3g weel thas noth apples an att’s fault.
ATT has yet to upgrade all there towers to hsdpa and umts.
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the initial surge is impressive, but it reminds me of watching a sprint. being explosive off the blocks doesn’t necessarily mean you will continue to pick up momentum as you head down the field.
I will wait to applaud after Q3 results. I believe this surge hit a large chunk of their target market already and is not a foreshadow of their sales to come.
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Truly impressive! I read elsewhere that of those 500,000 almost 50% were from other carriers(not sure if thats true or not). If true, I’d imagine that Sprint/Verizon/T-Mobile execs must be worried. With over 4% of a carriers subscribers coming off a 2-year contract every month, those other carriers are going to have a real problem if they continue to lose subscribers to Apple/AT&T.
Should make for an interesting carrier war.
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i love how you guys are still bashing. hilarious.
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I agree with jack on this one. The iPhone is and will continue to be successful. Give apple credit they do and continue to do products very well . Give it up with the 3g excuse already people it has wifi!!
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Damn, all of my AT&T towers are UMTS & HSDPA ready because I have plenty of both here in NYC (& I use it plenty on my HTC P3600 & Treo 750).
I wonder how the iPhone will sell the rest of the month and year. I see them getting big again around the holidays.
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Im still a year from 3G here and dont really need it as my BB is not good for browsing. 500K is pretty good for this price range, cant imaging another manufacturer of pdas getting these numbers.
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So. For $600 (WITH a 2-year contract!) you get a fingerprint magnet that lets you make phone calls, surf the internet, watch videos, and play music, but only gives you 8GB of non-upgradable storage to play with. If the battery fails, you can’t run out to the store and buy a new one, you have to send the whole frickin’ phone off. I guess they had to set the initial bar pretty low so they can sell people on the v2.0 models in 6 months.
My BlackBerry Curve cost me 1/3 of that, has expandable storage, a removable battery, a REAL stereo headphone jack(!), lets me message with my wife for no extra charge using Blackberry Messenger, lets me finally be logged into Yahoo and MSN IMs and check my Gmail while I’m at work , has the same EDGE internet speed (albeit with no WiFi), has a real keyboard, and does pretty much everything else the iPhone does.
I am pleased, however, that due to so many complaints about the iPhone’s sucky performance over EDGE speeds, AT&Tingular turned on an emergency upgrade of their EDGE network and boosted the speeds nationwide in anticipation of the iPhone release. My Blackberry internet speeds positively rock now. Thank you, iPhone.
The iPhone is the trophy wife of the cellular world. It’s gorgeous to look at, interesting and amusing at parties, but at the end of the day it’s going to fark your gardener, take your money, and leave you unfulfilled.
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Stupid apple website. Shows stores to have stock. Drive to store. No stock.
If they are going to offer this service at least be accurate. Idiots..
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rrebo, pretty defensive? its a phone dude get over it.
plus, who doesnt want a trophy wife? I know i do.
Also, being overly defensive really makes you look like your overcompensating for something.
BTW, browsing is still not good on BB even with the speed bump - 8800 owner.
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rrrbo i bet you think ferrari’s suck too don’t you?
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Well, yeah ferrari’s do suck when after you buy it you find out you cant drive it most of the time because it is always in the shop. (Not that I know ferrari’s really are like that just extending the metaphor.) The point is Iphone is awesome functionality (though I am waiting to see how if it can be as good as enterprise blackberry benefits). I still maintain though when it comes time to get a new batter this time next year there will be 500,000 curses at AT&T and Apple, both notorius for post purchase service.
By the way, know this about AT&T service. They lie. They tell you wrong stuff sometimes because of lies, sometimes because of ignorance. If you get a wrong answer you can ask for a supervisor who may know more but if he/she is a jerk the you are SOL, because unlike other companies, you ussually have recourse to someone higher up let say a coporate office. At AT&T they tell you tough luck letrally. Oh and I have had AT&T people call me a liar too(multiple times for different problems) even after I get supporting documentation in writing and other companies service reps to confirm from their side everything is done. So if you can avoid AT&T do so, but sometimes you have no choice so I am just saying prepare yourself for a fight and hope everything goes well.
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Umm, defensive about what? Nobody was taking aim at me. What am I being defensive about?
No, I merely think that trendy, over-priced, overly-hyped, under-performing products are ridiculous. I will admit that Apple makes a good product, but not necessarily on the first try. The iPhone is damned sexy, ahead of the game in several ways, but severely crippled in others. I was starting to want one until I found out about all the things it doesn’t do. I think this product, thus far, is more flash than function, at least for what I’d use it for, and I stated my opinion in that regard. I’m pretty darned happy with my Curve, too, so I mentioned the pros associated with it vs the iPhone. Again, my opinion.
bye_bye_jack, Ferrari’s a good comparison. Way out of my price range, doesn’t do everything I need a vehicle to do, but damned sexy and fantastic at what it DOES do. I LOVE Ferraris. Would I buy one? If I had the money, yes. But I’d probably have a BMW sedan or something more practical for day-to-day use.
My comment was meant to be a semi-humorous, semi-serious comparison, from my opinionated point of view. Sorry it didn’t elicit the type of response I expected.
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Dammit I wish there was a way to edit you posts. I always have some lame typos get through. Or atleast a spell check. LOL
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It is apples enginius marketing campaing that deserves the pat on the back. They (apple as a whole) managed to keep lots of the information hidden and well this is just what you would expect when the hype of a product is only surpassed by the products demand. Congrats on apple, now if they make or release a 3G soon you will not see those kinds of sales, but then again look at the ipod and its selling speed.
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$300,000,000 in 48 hours…not bad.
Sadly, Bill Gates makes that much while brushing his teeth.
In all seriousness, I love my iPhone!
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it’s especially impressive because previously that price point only catered to niche markets. The whole game is going to change now that manufacturers see people WILL spend that much for something they see enough value in. That’s good from an offering perspective. That’s bad from what it may potentially do to price points for other multifunction phones.
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rrebo if that was meant to be a semi-funny and not defensive post then you failed at both.
Its a phone, get over it. I am, actually i’m off in my ferrari to go find my trophy wife and take some pix of her with my shiny new iphone…
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I’m not impressed by the release. In the end, I see it performing worse than the PS3.
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lb, you could be right but that would still be a success for apple. Sony sold 5.5 million PS3 in the first year, if you use your comparison then Apple would be doing pretty well towards their 10 million goal.
people please think before using horrible analogies.
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