Apple Inc. (AAPL) said pre-orders of its iPhone 5 topped 2 million units in one day, more than double the sales record set by the previous model of the device.
Because demand for the iPhone 5 exceeds the initial supply, some pre-orders will be delivered to customers in October, rather than September as previously planned, Cupertino, California-based Apple said today in a statement. Most orders will be delivered on Sept. 21, Apple said.
“Clearly it’s a blowout,” said
Brian White, an analyst at Topeka Capital Markets in
New York. White said he had anticipated sales of 1.3 million to 1.5 million units.
Apple gained 1.1 percent to $698.62 at 9:30 a.m. on the stock exchange in New York, surpassing a record close on Sept. 14.
The iPhone is Apple’s best-selling product, making up about two-thirds of profit. The company’s entry into the smartphone market in 2007 has resulted in sales of 244 million iPhone units and helped Apple become the world’s most valuable company.
“IPhone 5 pre-orders have shattered the previous record held by the iPhone 4S and the customer response to the iPhone 5 has been phenomenal,” said
Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of global marketing, in the statement.
AT&T Inc. (T), the largest U.S. phone company, said its customers ordered a record number of the iPhone 5.
AT&T subscribers ordered more of the new smartphone model than any previous iPhone both on its first day of preorders and during the weekend, the carrier said in a statement today, without providing details.
The real question is, why are so many people wanting this phone when other phones already exist that have had the "new innovative features" taunted by the Iphone5? The Samsung Galaxy S3 already has a much larger screen at 4.6" which Samsung in a childish fit decided to taunt in it's new smear ads. These are similar to the Windows ads and later Mac Vs PC ads run my Microsoft and Apple Computers. And it is said that Samsung has new TV ads coming as well.
The iPhone was innovative when it first came out and changed the cell phone industry for good. At that point Apple snatched a huge chunk of the cell phone market and as Microsoft found out Once people go MAC most of them never go back. Logically most people that had an iPhone were happy to stay on that platform having already garnered a collection of favorite apps rather than move to a new platform and have to start all over again. So when a new version of what you have comes out that promises to be faster sleeker and better people that already have the older model are naturally going to want it. The iPhone has been wildly popular and has many loyal and happy fans that consistently tell their non iPhone totting friends "you really should get an iPhone" so the brand is constantly garnering new fans as well.
In a few later releases Innovation was replaced with just making things faster bigger and cleaner looking. The follow up of the android market in response and the android market's more open platform led to a ton of innovation and fierce competition between cell phone manufacturers leading to yet more innovations and a ton of copy cats. Many designs still end up mimicking each other and at some point many of the phones looked like copy cats of the iPhone and of other smart phones that had established a strong hold in the market. The constant upgrades and innovations in the android market and the fact that many apps on the android market are free allowed Android phones to snatch up a fair share of the smartphone market.
Apple however has always had a small problem in that it is really an entity in and of itself. It always had it's own operating system and own platforms both in the Computer world and in the Cell Phone market. But this has also been it's strength, in that customers have become loyal to the brand. So despite the iPhone 5 changing only in speed, looks, size and operating system people are still willing to shell out a good $200-$600 for the new iPhone5.
With the iPhone 5 Apple proudly touted major new software "Innovations" like turn by turn navigation and better photo sharing w facebook... but obviously many android phones already had these features for years and had even pointed this out in previous commercials. So at this point who is copying who.
Apple's strength is with it's ability to integrate all it's products together, from iTunes, laptops, iPads, iPhones and desktop computers to it's cloud and more everything just integrates better with one another than say do a PC made by Dell or HP and a phone made by Samsung or Motorola that have nothing to do with each other and have totally alien software and operating systems from one another. The ease of integration and not dealing with the frustration of trying to get your windows 7 or windows 8 to properly install and read your phone is part of the major attraction to Apple and it's products that keep their customers loyal and growing.
Personally I'm torn between the iPhone5 and the Galaxy S3. Either phone would be a welcome upgrade but I must say I'm a big fan of slide out keyboards, I hate trying to type on the screen of a phone so I'll wait to see if either brand comes out withe the slide out version of their popular phones (I won't hold my breath on the iPhone since non of the previous models have ever had one, but I did hear a rumor one might be in the works as is the Galaxy S3 slide) Also there were a ton of problems with cracked screens on previous iPhone models and also on a few android models so it would be wise for me to wait and see how the new models fair and also see side by side comparisons of both brands of phones once the first batches of iPhone 5 are released. It would be great to have both phones and test them out myself, especially testing each with the same applications like say Foursquare, Twitter and Facebook on each phone to see which performs better and more accurately. Only time will tell which is really better, but it won't matter, because fans will always side with their phone! LOL
