Only 146,000 iPhone activations Opening Weekend

[whatever]

True.

The hype around the iPod happened when you show yours to someone who never saw/used one before. Then, since it still "only" $100/$300 per unit, most of the people who felt in love with it could afford one.

This is clearly not the case with the iPhone. It's way more expensive, not available outside the US and not that useful for Mr. Joe... I mean the cellphone capabilities yes but the email, mms, wifi, web, widgets are probably not, at least not for $500.

Well, actually you're wrong.

The first two generation of iPod, from October 23, 2001 until April 28, 2003, sold at two price points, $399 and $499. The first generation iPhone is $499 and $599 and it does a lot more.

iPod prices did not drop below $299 until January 6, 2004 when the iPod Mini was launched at $249.

The same exact type of peer to peer hype surrounding the first generation iPod is also surrounding the iPhone. People who have one are actually making the sales pitch for Apple to those who do not have them.

 

[danny_w]

The same exact type of peer to peer hype surrounding the first generation iPod is also surrounding the iPhone. People who have one are actually making the sales pitch for Apple to those who do not have them.

Exactly true. I was having an inspection sticker put on a car Saturday and a guy came up showing off his iPhone to me and anybody else who would listen. I finally got up and left, so I don't know how it ended.

 

[Yankees 4 Life]

Apple Store on 5th Avenue had around 5000 units on day one. The reports suggest that many of the stores had hundreds available for launch.

the apple store in the galleria had 2200 iphones and sold out in 13 hours of store operations, they have sold out twice already, and its nearly impossible to get one from an at&t store unless you are in some tiny town

 

[freediverdude]

I agree that this 1.5 day activation number is ridiculous, because it tells us nothing. With all the activation problems, people buying them as gifts and putting them on ebay, etc., that number has no significance at all. AT&T should not have even released an activation number for that short a time period, because of the physical contraints of how many activations can be processed by the servers in that amount of time. AT&T's credit processing servers went down almost immediately that evening when the activations started pouring in, and were down intermittently through that night- they weren't ready. This is irresponsible reporting by AT&T.

 

[caccamolle]

Yea but the whole market this morning is doing poorly so I wouldn't worry too much.

except that AAPL rarely moves "with the market".

 

[macidiot]

From AT&T's quarterly report, detailed here:

* Sales of the Apple iPhone have been robust. The June 29 launch allowed for less than two days of sales and activations before the end of the quarter. In that time, AT&T activated 146,000 iPhone subscribers, more than 40 percent of them new subscribers. Sales of the iPhone continue to be strong in July with store traffic above historical levels.

That's not good...

Wow, surprising numbers there. Count me as one of the people that expected bigger numbers.

Seems to me though, THIS REALLY SHOWS THE STUNNING INCOMPETENCE OF AT&T. My experience purchasing the phone from AT&T was inexcusable given the number of units sold. Not to mention that they had about, oh, SIX MONTHS to prepare.

AT&T:

POS system completely overloaded from selling about 30k units? WTF. It should NOT take 20-30 minutes to run a credit card.

Store managers reserving units for friends and/or personal profit and screwing the people that stood in line?

Instructing store managers to not reveal actual numbers of units in stock to people that stood in line. In other words making some people that would NOT get a phone stand in line.

Activation system that can't even handle volume of 146k?


AT&T=Pathetic.

I hope Apple is raping them with the iPhone.

fyi, I still dig my iPhone. As for AT&T they can go f*ck themselves.

 

[MacTheSpoon]

This number seems so low, it's kind of weird. I wonder if there's more to this. I think there had to have been significantly more sales than this. This doesn't include iPhones ordered online from Apple, for example, which wouldn't have been activated for some time.

 

[inkswamp]

But Apple probably has to get at least 500M-1B in revenue before there's any real profit if you factor in the years of R&D.

Which is oversimplifying the situation. Given that the iPhone runs OS X and that much of the tech in the iPhone is going to spill over (presumably, based on some of the patents we've seen) into other Apple products, then you can't tag the R&D as iPhone-related only. Therefore, the burden of earning back that R&D money is not solely on iPhone profits.

 

[kdarling]

Something else to keep in mind:

There's a potential set of buyers that comes into existence once a month, because their current contract with "fill-in-the-blank" carrier is over with, so no early termination fees.

It's a unique situation all around.

 

[michelle21]

This number seems so low, it's kind of weird. I wonder if there's more to this. I think there had to have been significantly more sales than this. This doesn't include iPhones ordered online from Apple, for example, which wouldn't have been activated for some time.

Maybe its a female thing, but somehow the first thing I didn't think of doing when I purchased my iphone, was going home and activating it.

Maybe it was because I had heard about the activation nightmare... but after purchasing it at the applestore, I went next door , bath and body had a big sale. And than I think we went out and ate.

Actually it was a couple days later that I activated it. Took a whole 10 minutes... it was fast I did it about 6:00 am in the morning.

wonder how may other folks like me didn't activate the moment they got it.

 

[citi]

I assume you haven't been into an Apple store in the last day or two and seen the action around the iPhone... some 3 weeks later. It is still amazing to see.

I was in the apple store Sunday and there was one person looking at an iphone. Me showing my wife. The funny thing is I love the phone (not the ATT service) but my wife's opinion kinda shocked me. "It's a cool phone, but I don't think I would want one." she said. Then it dawned on me, for most people, this phone is way too technical. It cost too much money, and there are no buttons. To alot of people, this is a BIG deal. It's really like any other smartphone in the sense that most people don't need email and date syncs on their phone. Back when the Treo was the "it" phone, you still couldn't get people, besides business and tech people to use them. Same argument, too expensive, too big, and I don't need to check my emails. Now you see more people using them, like moms and kids but still, not that many. Most people just want to pick up their cell phone and call their friends.

Also 40% of their sales were transfers from other cell carriers is rather small. This is where ATT was hoping to recoup some of their Apple "Faust" losses. On a national level 60,000 is a very small amount.

Having said all of that...Apple will do just fine and this phone will blow up even more by the time we hit the holidays. This is a summer release, no kids to show off their new toy in school. Give it time.

 

[George Bailey]

aapl moves

i'm jealous, i shouldve done the same, especially when the stock was down 5.60 this morning....

It was *really* hard to get myself to sell half yesterday. But it had grown so much that it was by then just too big a percentage of my portfolio, and so I forced myself. This morning I bought down $5+, sold it back a couple of points higher, then just now bought it back again at down $5.

 

[inkswamp]

This number seems so low, it's kind of weird. I wonder if there's more to this. I think there had to have been significantly more sales than this. This doesn't include iPhones ordered online from Apple, for example, which wouldn't have been activated for some time.

You're looking at it from the point of view of the hype which was approaching 7-digit figures in unit sales. That's crazy. Look at it this way.

Apple went from 0 iPhones sold to >146,000 sold in two days. That's pretty freakin' amazing, no matter how you look at it.

And I can guarantee you that the sales for the first two days is not the be-all end-all of iPhone sales figures. I know many people who had a strong interest, but were not at all interested in the initial rush and waited until a week after or longer. Further, I know lots of people who, now that they've been exposed via the media since the iPhone's release, have an interest in it.

I really don't think it's time for people to start crying in their beer over iPhone sales.

 

[macidiot]

Ummm.....no. Analysts cannot profit (own shares) from companies on which they report.

True. But the companies they work for do make money from buy recommendations. Usually in the form of investment banking business. It is highly unethical, but since when was Wall St. ethical? See: Henry Blodget and Grubman (an "analyst" that "covered" AT&T).

 

[izzle22]

Maybe its a female thing, but somehow the first thing I didn't think of doing when I purchased my iphone, was going home and activating it.

Maybe it was because I had heard about the activation nightmare... but after purchasing it at the applestore, I went next door , bath and body had a big sale. And than I think we went out and ate.

Actually it was a couple days later that I activated it. Took a whole 10 minutes... it was fast I did it about 6:00 am in the morning.

wonder how may other folks like me didn't activate the moment they got it.

Ahhhhhhh...Probabally not very many people just sat around and looked at a $500 or $600 phone for two or three days without activating it, male or female.

 

[Peace]

You're looking at it from the point of view of the hype which was approaching 7-digit figures in unit sales. That's crazy. Look at it this way.

Apple went from 0 iPhones sold to >146,000 sold in two days. That's pretty freakin' amazing, no matter how you look at it.

And I can guarantee you that the sales for the first two days is not the be-all end-all of iPhone sales figures. I know many people who had a strong interest, but were not at all interested in the initial rush and waited until a week after or longer. Further, I know lots of people who, now that they've been exposed via the media since the iPhone's release, have an interest in it.

I really don't think it's time for people to start crying in their beer over iPhone sales.

The figures released by AT&T ARE NOT SALES FIGURES.

For the last time people stop referring a screwed up activation process to actual sales.

 

[killerrobot]

Wow, that's a far cry from all the 500-750 thousand everyone claimed they sold the first weekend, even assuming they doubled the sales on Sunday.

As far as Apple stocks, everyone's been warning that it's been inflated for quite some time. No surprise it's falling.

 

[macidiot]

It was *really* hard to get myself to sell half yesterday. But it had grown so much that it was by then just too big a percentage of my portfolio, and so I forced myself. This morning I bought down $5+, sold it back a couple of points higher, then just now bought it back again at down $5.

Since I believe Apple is going to 200, I could give a rats ass about day to day movements. The best way to invest is buy and hold. Unless your a genius with insider information, or incredibly lucky, you'll end up losing trading in and out of a stock. Or making less than if you just sat on it.

Apple stock is down 5 today. I bought it at 17. Like I care that it is "down" to 139.

 

[inkswamp]

"It's a cool phone, but I don't think I would want one." she said. Then it dawned on me, for most people, this phone is way too technical. It cost too much money, and there are no buttons. To alot of people, this is a BIG deal.

People had similar reactions to the Mac when it first came out, the whole mouse-and-GUI thing caused "real" techies to scoff or turn away from it and go back to pecking away at their IBM PCs. It's hard to see how anyone can look at an iPhone and not see that this is the way it's all going to go, starting now. But then, it's hard to believe that people were carping about GUIs being a fad back in 1990 (and they were, trust me.)

 

[inkswamp]

The figures released by AT&T ARE NOT SALES FIGURES.

For the last time people stop referring a screwed up activation process to actual sales.

Deep breath, my friend. Calm. I didn't say they were sales figures. Notice that I said ">146,000," implying that the activations are not the whole story.

 

[Peace]

Deep breath, my friend. Calm. I didn't say they were sales figures. Notice that I said ">146,000," implying that the activations are not the whole story.

I am calm
however if you read your own post you will see you are talking pure sales with no mention of activation.Which happens to be the thread subject.

 

[kdarling]

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.

So basically, Apple decided to take the subsidy for themselves.

$200 bounty per phone plus another $200+ over the 24 month contract = ~$400 phone discount that the customer usually would get.

 

[inkswamp]

I am calm
however if you read your own post you will see you are talking pure sales with no mention of activation.Which happens to be the thread subject.

But I'm clearly speaking to the topic from the point of view of someone assuming activations = unit sales, not voicing my own viewpoint on it. If you note second-to-last paragraph, I make the case for why activations aren't the whole story.

So anyway, now that that's cleared up, let's argue multiple mouse buttons--pro or con?

 

[bigmc6000]

I'd like to point something out here... Even tho I activated my phone within 30 mins of buying it it didn't show up on my cingular.com account as having the iPhone for at least 5 days...

Maybe that's a different server, maybe it's not. I'm just saying that at least SOME part of ATT's network didn't realize I had an iPhone...

 

[Peace]

But I'm clearly speaking to the topic from the point of view of someone assuming activations = unit sales, not voicing my own viewpoint on it. If you note second-to-last paragraph, I make the case for why activations aren't the whole story.

So anyway, now that that's cleared up, let's argue multiple mouse buttons--pro or con?

See now?

Multi-Touch meese