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I wonder how many of the phones purchased that first weekend were never activated and returned by scalpers hoping to sell it on ebay? I have ehard that those numbers are quite high. That could account for at least some of the difference (4-500,000 estimated vs. 146,000 activations).

EDIT: Here is the MR front page article that suggested 250,000 in the first 2 days and 500,000 over the weekend:

https://www.macrumors.com/2007/07/02/iphone-sales-estimates-250000-525000/
 
It does appear that the iPhone is going to a major flop. Apple's greed for not going with Verizon and 3G is going to cost them big. Yeah Apple got a percentage of the monthly bill with At&t, but this decision is going to cost Apple billions.

That's what happens when you get greedy folks!!

:rolleyes: Please. I absolutely loathe Verizon. Worst provider ever. Although I do wish Apple wouldn't have went exclusive with AT&T, either.
 
Huh? I think you misread his statement.

No, the reality is that this reflects (as the report mentions) less than 2 days of activations.

It doesn't accurately reflect total sales.

My earlier statement reflected my suspicion that AT&T would find a way to latch onto sales and reflect them in their quarterly report as activations, even if it's not a 100% legit "activation."
 
When I stood in line for the iPhone, I noticed at least 40% of people buying 2 iPhones. It's quite obvious they were meant to be sold on ebay. So probably add another 40% to that figure ;)
 
lmao, me???!!

its freaking mr's frontpage news.
...again you (and others) believe those speculative numbers? Also total weekend numbers includes another day of sales from Apple stores (may AT&T stores... not sure if the later happened to be open on Sunday).
 
No, the reality is that this reflects (as the report mentions) less than 2 days of activations.

It doesn't accurately reflect total sales.

My earlier statement reflected my suspicion that AT&T would find a way to latch onto sales and reflect them in their quarterly report as activations, even if it's not a 100% legit "activation."

Agreed. Also, I keep seeing the 30 hours worth of sales stat thrown around but that would only be the case if they opened at 6pm on Friday and didn't close any stores at all until midnight the next day. Almost all stores (except 5th ave.) were only opened until midnight on Friday so that is only 6 hours of selling. I mean, you can only sell so many items in so many hours. I'll hold my judgment until Apple's 4th quarter call.
 
Think long term, not one weekend

These are short-term worries. The iPhone is, well, I hate to quote the ad copy, but it is a breakthrough device, and the first-gen iPhone is just the thin end of a wedge. The iPhone will improve, variations will come out, costs will go down, and competitors will come out with crap imitations that only spotlight the appeal of the Apple brand.
 
However these numbers are interpreted I believe it's going to force Apple to give out specific sales numbers for the iPhone.Instead of saying how many were sold over the week-end I believe Apple will give out a total # sold up till now figure tomorrow.
 
iPhone home

AT&T's subscription number is not the right barometer for how many iPhones have been purchased.

you have to consider following things among many:

1. activation difficulties people were having. Especially in case of those who were porting numbers, I heard most of them were having problems.
2. people bought it to sell on eBay or on their store/websites
3. people who just didn't activate

I think this is a good time to buy AAPL.

I wonder if Piper will cut the price target back to $160 or something. some so called analysts make such a knee-jerk reactions it looks so noob.

You bring up an excellent point about Ebay speculators. A lot of phones were purchased the first day just for this reason. I saw some guy at the store I was at walk out with 8 of them having brought his kids to purchase the other 6.

The real issue here is how well the iPhone continues to sell. This story gives credence to the rumor that Apple will release a less expensive phone this year. Not everyone needs or wants such a large multi-functional phone. In my opinion the phone that will put Apple on the map is not the iPhone, but a phone they have yet to release.
 
As far as profit goes, sales are only part of it.

It's been estimated that for each iPhone, Apple gets $3 a month in AT&T royalties for existing customers, $8 a month for new subscribers. Let's just say an average $5.

So even if just a million were ever sold in the US, that's $60 million a year.

PS. Yes, it's just an estimate. Don't like it? Make your own!
 
Deep breath everyone...

1st, the number we have is ACTIVATIONS, not sales

Apple sold a bunch of iPhone on their website to the people who didn't want to wait in line. Those sales are not in these numbers. Also delays in activations my boost the 164K number a bit.

Then the first weekend also includes Sunday, which the numbers don't reflect. But now onto THE REAL NUMBERS, and the reason that AAPL bounce off of a low of down $7.

Lost in all the frenzy was a report that AAPL gets $9/month out of each ATT iPhone subscriber. More importantly, in addition to the profit for the phone, Apple gets a "Bounty" from ATT of $200 for each iPhone sold. That's the reason that Verizon said, "No thanks" This kickback is the reason that AAPL didn't get slaughtered this morning.

Maybe all this news today, Tuesday will take a bit out of the expectations for Apple's earning tomorrow after the close. If so, the numbers are still likely to be very impressive since the iPhone revenue was to be spread out over 2 years in either case.

The real important FACT is that Apple makes $500 on each iPhone sold, PLUS $9/month on subscribers going forward (with zero cost for this income that is pure profit). With a $500 profit margin there is LOTS of room for a Pre-Christmas price drop. Or perhaps a subsidy for people to pay the cancellation fee on other cell phone telcos.

Once Apple drops the price a bit, the sales will definitely increase. Everyone loves the iPhone, but they don't necessarily like the $500-$600 price tag. But if it had a $350-450 price target??? or $250-350. Then you have a mass market hit. And Apple still gets the $9/month/subscriber. And that you gotta love...
 
...again you (and others) believe those speculative numbers? Also total weekend numbers includes another day of sales from Apple stores (may AT&T stores... not sure if the later happened to be open on Sunday).

oh well, so many hide and seeks, how about just give us a guess, what do you think apple's # will be?

Lost in all the frenzy was a report that AAPL gets $9/month out of each ATT iPhone subscriber. More importantly, in addition to the profit for the phone, Apple gets a "Bounty" from ATT of $200 for each iPhone sold. That's the reason that Verizon said, "No thanks" This kickback is the reason that AAPL didn't get slaughtered this morning.
I think its $300/each.
 
Lost in all the frenzy was a report that AAPL gets $9/month out of each ATT iPhone subscriber. More importantly, in addition to the profit for the phone, Apple gets a "Bounty" from ATT of $200 for each iPhone sold. That's the reason that Verizon said, "No thanks" This kickback is the reason that AAPL didn't get slaughtered this morning.

Also lost in the frenzy is the news that sales and interest have dropped significantly. That's what's really driving the stock price down.

But that's to be expected. You always skim the cream of the buyers first, just like all of us who bought the first VCRs for $1200, or the first microwave, etc.

Then you start dropping prices to drive more sales ;)
 
Crazy People

I dont even like apple but a friend of mine iPhones including 2 or 3 of his friends iphones didnt activate until sunday morning. Didn't their quarter end Saturday. If so what are people going crazy over. Those numbers dont tell how many was sold and dont accurately tell how many was activated that entire weekend. People people calm down.
 
oh well, so many hide and seeks, how about just give us a guess, what do you think apple's # will be?
Not sure why you spin this on me having to provide numbers ... I was more pointing out the difficulty in selling that many of anything during that window of time, especially a product of this type and price.

I would conservatively say in the ballpark of 200k to 300k over the full weekend with a backlog of orders in the ballpark of 100k to 200k (lot of Apple online store orders and AT&T "fulfillment" orders taken during that time that don't count as a sale until a good week later). Since then I believe the iPhone has continued to sell well given the "word of mouth" effect I see taking place around me.

I have a gut feeling that iPhone sales accelerated during the second week (ignoring initial burst) thanks to word of mouth... hard to guess at current rates however.

Personally I think focusing on the first weekend sales (let alone end of quarter window) is a bad way to judge how well the iPhone is doing (especially without any context of other phone launches to compare against).
 
Also lost in the frenzy is the news that sales and interest have dropped significantly. That's what's really driving the stock price down.

why do you say that? according to the apple site stock is unavailble at stores, have to check back tomorrow.

and if you track trends via google, interest in the iphone is increasing.
 
Errr, 80 units per apple store? I was in line for 2 hours and when I got my two they had drawer after drawer full, and there were 40+ units per drawer! The AT&T stores got very few units. The Apple stores got hundreds or even thousands (given they still had stock all night and the next day and a half before running dry.)

So the number posted is a little lower, but remember, these are quarterly. If they weren't requested or activated in June then they aren't counted, so you're not seeing the Sunday (July 1st) or the following week in these numbers.

I would doubt they did a million in the first week, but I'm sure they did more than 250K based on the Fri/Sat numbers AT&T posted.

Either way, name the last cell phone to sell in those numbers?

be well

t

I would think that they're counting the initial activation requests, not when they actually got done.

The initial guesses at 500,000 sold over the weekend just never made sense. Figure 160 Apple stores. Even if each had 80 units a day (and many didn't), that's still only ~13,000 sales each day for them. Ditto for the 1600 AT&T stores, who probably only had 40 units each, for 64,000 sold a day.

So that would be 26,000 + 128,000 = 154,000 if all had max number of units. Much more in line with what was available for sale and activation.

I suspect that it'll also be revealed that 10-15% were returned within the grace period. Volume issues, poor cell coverage, and buyer remorse (kids who spent their allowance) will be the main reasons.

Still, not a bad sales amount by any count.

In any case, it just proves that most Wall Street analysts are not to be believed. They're in it to make money, and loved having Apple stock soar at first.
 
I dont even like apple but a friend of mine iPhones including 2 or 3 of his friends iphones didnt activate until sunday morning. Didn't their quarter end Saturday. If so what are people going crazy over. Those numbers dont tell how many was sold and dont accurately tell how many was activated that entire weekend. People people calm down.

Not that your opinion doesn't matter but if you don't like Apple, why are you here? Just curuious.
 
Some of the posts quoting numbers from Apple Store sales are way low.

I know one store personally, that sold 750 the first night, and hundreds the next day. This jives with the shipment numbers passed around on the 29th of perhaps 1000/store. We know some stores got more, some less.

Say each store got maybe 625, that's 100,000 the first night. Then, 500 the next day - that's another 80,000. Add 40/day for AT&T - 128,000. So, conservatively, that's over 300,000. Just for Friday night and Saturday.

I would easily agree the activation number doesn't relate to number of units purchased.
 
Everyone's Missing the Point!

The point that should be taken home here is this:

Apple is selling a $600 phone with a $500 profit margin (including the $200 kickback). As Apple lowers the price, sales go up. Heck they could give them away in order to get the $9/month/subscriber.

Ask yourself this question: "How well would an 8GB $100-200 iPhone sell in the general cell phone marketplace?"

You know the answer to that question. It's not about profit on the phone, it's about the $9 in pure profit that comes in each month. That's the way bankers get rich, a little bit at a time, multiplied out into the millions.
 
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