Over 10 Million iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus Units Sold During First Weekend, Apple Announces

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
Apple announced on Monday that it has sold more than 10 million units of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, making it the biggest launch weekend for a new smartphone in the company’s history.
In a statement, Apple chief executive Tim Cook said that sales had “exceeded our expectations for the launch weekend, and we couldn’t be happier,” though he did not indicate individual figures for each phone.
The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus went on sale in 10 regions on Friday, and the company had previously announced that it had received a record-setting four million preorders during the first 24 hours.
Michael Calia of the Wall Street Journal reports that it was not clear if those preorders were included in the weekend totals, but noted that the smartphone was not yet available in China.
Beyond the sales figures, Apple “didn’t give many other details, which means we don’t know how many people opted to buy the larger iPhone 6 Plus or how much storage they bought,” explained Bloomberg Businessweek’s Joshua Brustein.
Those figures are important, Brustein explained, because phones with more memory result in a larger profit margin for the company. In addition, another unanswered question was which wireless carriers new iPhone 6 owners selected, and whether or not they were able to use the devices to lure away customers from their rivals.
In comparison, Calia said that Apple reported selling nine million iPhones during the first weekend that its 5S and 5C models were available, while in 2012, it sold more than 5 million iPhone 5 devices. However, he added that, unlike the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, the iPhone 5, 5S and 5C were also available in China during the first weekend.
“Apple’s shares were little changed at $100.98 in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq on Monday,” said Reuters reporter Soham Chatterjee, adding that analysts are predicting “the company’s first-quarter revenue is likely to be 9 percent higher than Wall Street estimates, based on reported sales and projected demand for the new iPhones.”
“While Apple’s opening weekends for iPhones get lots of attention, the sales number isn’t just a measure of how popular the phones are going to be,” Brustein explained. “Comparing this year’s launch to last year’s isn’t straightforward because the circumstances are different. That said, the company sold more more-expensive phones this year (no analogue to the inexpensive 5C), and it did so without launching in China (as it did last year).”
“We’ll learn more in the weeks and months ahead,” he said, adding that the devices will launch in over 20 additional countries this Friday and will be available in 115 countries by the end of the year. While quarterly sales figures will allow for “a more straightforward comparison,” he said that “by announcing a number that was pretty much right in the center of analyst expectations, Apple is showing that nothing particularly unusual happened over the weekend.”