Apple: 1 million iPhones sold
It seems like only yesterday that Apple had sold its first 270,000 iPhones--not a bad tally for just a little bit more than the first day on the market.
(Credit: Apple)Monday morning, a little more than two months after the much-lusted-after gadget went on sale, Apple said in a brief press release that it had sold its 1 millionth iPhone.
"One million iPhones in 74 days," Apple CEO Steve Jobs exulted in a press release. "It took almost two years to achieve this milestone with iPod."
Last week, Jobs unveiled the new iPod Touch, which mimics the look and behavior of the iPhone. He also ran into a buzzsaw of criticism by cutting the price of the iPhone by $200 so soon after long lines of early adopters plopped down a big chunk of change to be the first on the block with the gadget.
The price cut--the 8GB model now costs $399--is intended to boost sales of the iPhone during the upcoming holiday sales season. Two days after announcing the new pricing, Jobs offered an apology to the first wave of buyers, along with a $100 store credit.
"We can't wait to get this revolutionary product into the hands of even more customers this holiday season," Jobs said in Monday's press release.
Just how many hands the iPhone actually is in at this point is a little unclear, Apple's ballyhooing of 1 million sold notwithstanding. If Apple sold 270,000 or so in the waning hours of June, as it claimed, and then 220,000 in July, as market research iSuppli reported last week, that's 490,000 units. Which means the company would have needed a sales surge of more than a half-million iPhones in the six weeks or so since August 1.
Jonathan Skillings is managing editor of CNET News, based in the Boston bureau. He's been with CNET since 2000, after a decade in tech journalism at the IDG News Service, PC Week, and an AS/400 magazine. He's also been a soldier and a schoolteacher. E-mail Jon.
"[i]Apple said in a brief press release that it had sold its 1
millionth iPhone.[/i]"
Considering the word "sold" is the only descriptor throughout, I
suspect we can safely assume that (unless CNET screwed up)
Apple has sold 1m of the critters.
/P
Two points to keep in mind:
1) Apple is NOT known for "stuffing" the channel (a la Microsoft-- check out the stocks of {dust-covered} Zunes anywhere you like).
2) Industry analysts constantly report that Apple tends to project conservatively.
will actually ship in six months, or something like that, so that
Apple's figure is somehow not 'the truth?' Perhaps you haven't
heard, but if you order an iPhone today from apple.com, you could
have it in your hands within a week.
quarter.
I know it'll sound weird, but I wonder how many Motorola Razr's
had sold during it's first 90 days, when they were selling at
about the same price ($500 or so?) and contract snag?
/P
Of course, how many phones were activated? Unless there are 1 million active in use phones as of now, then those numbers are meaningless. You could just as easily say that while Apple sold 1 million phones, X number of hundreds of thousands of people didn't want them.
See what I mean? Number sold is useless. Number in service is all that matters. Apple can easily ship or sell millions to stores, but unless end users actually use them, then those numbers are utterly useless.
Apple sold 270K in the last two days of 2Q07. That figure is reliable.
The 220K from iSuppli is a prediction, and we have NO idea what the variability is in that estimate. The actual number could be as high as 400K in July. Most iPhone prognostications have been way off, from what I've seen.
The $200 price cut probably cause a spike over the last weekend. And back-to-school/college season was last month. These were probably a good last six weeks for Apple / ATT.
1M in 74 days? Absolutely...and Kudos to Apple.
doubting comments.
You're such a knowledgeable man, I am in wonder!!!
How many Zunes were sold EVEN in the same time frame? How
many high end mobile of the same serie? Are you going to
question them all?
What's you agenda?
Apple has a history of counting units sent to stores for inventory as 'sold'. It's true- you go to a Fry's store and their Apple inventory is already paid for by Fry's. Apple can count that as a sale.
Now what happens if Fry's doesn't sell the units or they sit on the shelf? If AT&T takes in a big shipment but hasn't sold the units yet, can you really honestly call that a sale?
For me, it only matters how many units make it into the hands of consumers and are actually in use. That is the definition of success to me. Unsold inventory doesn't count in my opinion.
I might believe 1 million phones shipped, but somehow I doubt they sold 600,000 phones in less than a week.
Would Apple please pick one set of numbers and stick to it? Their press releases are at odds with even their business partner AT&T and come nowhere near iSuppli's numbers.
Pick one set of numbers!
numbers are coming from. Apple reported 270,000 iPhones
sold in their last quarter (basically June 29 and 30th) financial
reports. AT&T reported 225,000 (or thereabouts) for the same
period, but those were *activated* phones, not simply sold.
AT&T have not stated any numbers since. iSuppli has no hard
numbers, they glean information from polls and interpolate. As
well, I believe they do not account for on-line sales (i.e. through
Apple's online Apple Store). I'd be inclined to believe Apple's
number, for the simple reason they have to be accountable for
them in their next financial filings (I believe they are separating
iPhone and iPod revenue, so it would be easy to tell if they are
cooking the books). I'm also inclined to believe these are
actually *sold* iPhones, not simply shipped, I'd think the
numbers would actually be larger if that were the case - they
could just flood their own stores, which, once again, one could
easily tell by looking at the financial results for their stores.
the site that shows that statement, otherwise you are just talking
gibberish. 1,000,000 phones sold by the end of September was
one of the well publicised goals from the start.
If i was an Apple stockholder i would be worried. Have these 1million units been paid for? i guess thats what sold means in this day and age right? Or can i just make a load of product and put it in a shop and say they are sold to keep my investors happy? Surely if i did, my ruse would soon come out. Unless of course i dropped the price and they eventually did sell before i had to report my figures!
I can only assume that Apple are selling units to AT&T.
they have here, but I'd bet they did). That being said, AT&T stores
don't generally keep huge stocks on hand - they'll keep enough on
hand to wait for the next shipment, and that's all, if they can help
it. Apple CANNOT count shipments to its own stores (or online
stores) as sales. So yes, the 1m figure is probably higher than the
actual sales figure, but it probably is not grossly out of line with it.
If it's 900k iPhones actually sold, that's still a lot.
Jobs said 1 million "sold". The only number that matters must be based off GAAP - Generally Accepted Accounting Principals.
Due to Sarbanes-Oxley laws, if the CEO of a public company reports "sold" publicly, that number must conform to GAAP or the CEO is subject to fines, prison or both.
Apple didn't state how many were activated or in consumer hands, just "sold." Once they're invoiced and shipped, they're "sold" - whether it's Best Buy, AT&T or shipped by the Apple on-line store. Sending them to sit on the shelves of a company-owned Apple Store doesn't count under GAAP until they're sold to a consumer.
(Yes, there could be later returns by AT&T, Best Buy and others, but if huge numbers came back, Jobs would have legal issues.)
Well, Apple sells iPhone at Apple online store, Apple store, and AT&T stores. So, IF Apple were to stuff the channel, AT&T stores are the only ones they could stuff.
There are about 1800 AT&T stores. Let's say the 1M "sold" number include 21 per AT&T store as inventory (1 week supply as specified in the iSuppli report), that's what, about 38000 units?
Big deal. 3.8% of the 1M number, which would be erased in 3 days with the sales rate BEFORE the price cut.
iSuppli is rumors and conjecture. An estimate at best. And AT&T's numbers will always trail Apples due to delayed activations, reselling, and hacking of iPhones
imho
Everybody that touches this device has fallen in love with it and
1,000,000 sold in less than three months shows just how
popular it has become in such a short time. Now with the price
drop and a whole new line of iPods just in time for the Christmas
rush, this is going to be the biggest season Apple has ever had.
Those of you still upset over the price drop should sell your
iPhone. There are plenty of buyers out there. You could get a
good deal on the Zune or a Razor. I would rather you go to
those chat sites to whine about things so I don't have put up with
it.
MAY BE. Apple says sold. I believe them. If you think that there may be 20,000 - 30,000 units on shelves, then just wait a day. BINGO another 27,000 go out the door.
We are talking a million units in 74 days and that was before the price cut (mostly). BIG time sales. I believe that palm only sold 2.7 million all year. Apple iPhone and iPod touch, boy these are going to be big. And I mean big. :-)
en
look for the articles about "iPhone killers" to start to emerge.
iPhones than they have personally seen (generally using ranging
from 2 to 100). There is also a report of one such person doubting
that apple has sold ANY songs on iTunes because, well, Apple's the
only one with the numbers so they are obviously lying.
(Please note the sarcastic undertone ;) )
button!
- Um....
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by ScaryMonkey69
September 16, 2007 12:29 AM PDT
- So does this mean there are 1 Million people in the world with $500 to blow on a cell phone thats just a glorified Ipod with a crappy Phone Network Carrier?
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Reply to this comment
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(58 Comments)Other than the touch screen, I cant see any need for an Iphone other than bragging to poor people.