Re:First Weekend iPhone Sales Top Nine Million, Sets New Record
by giarc on Monday September 23, 2013 @11:41AM
(#6431681)
I would say that there is too much speculation in your comment . You go from 4.5 million devices all the way to 2.25 just because you think 5C's are selling better?
Re:First Weekend iPhone Sales Top Nine Million, Sets New Record
by mladenkovacevic on Monday September 23, 2013 @11:59AM
(#6431842)
Well yes speculating is for humans too. I wasn't entirely speculating though. I had read a headline saying that 5c is 3 times as popular as 5s. So trying to be as just in my speculating as I could, I went for a best-case worst-case range.
But in this instance it reminds me that to err is human as well. Because while trying to find the headline I was thinking of, I realized I'd mixed up my C's and my S's. It's the iPhone 5s that could be 3 times as popular as the 5c (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57604127-37/iphone-5s-acti...).
So here is my new speculation! iPhone 5c sells 2.25 million while iPhone 5s sells 6.75 million units. Indeed that's a little better than last year's 5 million, but my speculative gut is still telling me the 5c to 5s ratio is not quite that high.
Re:First Weekend iPhone Sales Top Nine Million, Sets New Record
by bluepen44 on Monday September 23, 2013 @11:46AM
(#6431726)
The problem is that you can't back out the 5C sales and say you have the 5S number even if you did know it.
They are priced very similarly.. the 5C is probably cannibalizing a significant portion of would-be sales of the 5S.
While I have no doubt that this was overall a record-breaking weekend for Apple, they are likely hoping that this gets interpreted as iPhone 5S sells better than the iPhone 5 did at its opening weekend. I think this is highly unlikely, though, because the 9 million includes both iPhone 5s and iPhone 5C, whereas previous year's record breaking sales number of 5 million included only the iPhone 5.
So how many iPhones 5S did Apple sell compared to iPhone 5 last year? Let's say the 5S and the 5C sold equally well (which is VERY doubtful considering not just price but also availability). This would put both iPhone 5S and 5C at 4.5 million. Both below iPhone 5 sales of 5 million. It is much more likely, however, that the 5C sold many more units than the 5S thus putting the 5S as lower than 4 million units sold, perhaps as low as 2.25 million.
There is no bad news here for Apple as I'm sure their profit margins on the 5C are similar, if not higher than the 5S. But it does indicate the oncoming commodification of smartphones and other personal digital devices. The 5C is definitely holding its own, and Apple's brand is as strong as ever but I just wonder if Apple really wants to get into this kind of competition.