“Apple announced that it sold more than 2 million iPhone 5s in mainland China last weekend, beating its previous Chinese iPhone releases — including the iPhone 4S that triggered launch-day riots last January,” Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports for Fortune.
With the Chinese New Year beginning on February 10 and shopping season starting in January, Apple has the two hottest products (i.e., iPhone 5 and iPad mini) in the world available for the Chinese consumers… – Topeka’s Brian White
We view this as a very strong launch, particularly in light of a relatively limited 3G subscriber base in China… – ISI’s Brian White
Much more in the full article, including a chart from Asymco’s Horace Dediu that shows iPhone 5 performance versus other iPhone and iPad model lauches, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Morgan Stanley survey shows strong Apple iPhone, iPad demand – December 17, 2012
Apple sells over two million iPhone 5 units in first weekend in China – December 17, 2012
Apple stock falls as some misinterpret demand for iPhone 5 in China – December 14, 2012
Survey: 53% of smartphone buyers plan to buy an iPhone 5, only 35% plan to settle for Android – December 14, 2012
Despite frigid temps, Apple’s iPhone 5 launches to enthusiastic reception in South Korea – December 7, 2012
Top-selling iPhone 5 flanked by strong iPhone 4/4S sales – December 3, 2012
Apple: iPhone 5 arrives in South Korea and over 50 additional countries in December – December 3, 2012
Where did all those 200,000 numbers come from? They were just estimates? Yet Apple announces 2 million? How can there be such a discrepancy?
The discrepancy because generally analysts don’t know what they’re talking about.
Apple stores sold 200,000. The 2 China carriers sold the rest (while the “analysts” watched the stores).
They were quoting “pre sales” at the “carriers” not at Apple.
Crap for analysis. Analysts look at the stores and don’t see lines and write their ridiculous “analysis” based what they didn’t see. How unbelievable is that. There is no investigation or deep thinking regarding the issue, just a simple, look, no lines, demand for product is down.
If you are going to be an Apple analyst, then you need to look more deeply and do your homework. After the carnage surrounding the last product launch in China, I am not in the least surprised that Apple changed how they introduce products into that market.
+1 for the implied sardonic call.
AAPL should just close it’s doors @ this point. What a total abject failure.
You forgot to end your post with /s
=:~)
The discrepancy comes from the differential between online reservations and online sales. The reservations for pick-up may have been limited to 200,000 but the online sales were probably (obviously) huge. Not everyone lives near a store.
Just to put the numbers into perspective. In the first weekend of the iPhone 5 launch, Apple made it available in 15 countries: USA, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Hong Kong, Spain, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Spain, Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland.
Apple sold 5 million units in the first weekend. 15 countries with 5 million sales. This is just China alone, one country, with 2 million sales in the first weekend. And this comes after the China market has been receiving black market phones sold from Hong Kong and the US. Imagine what the demand would have been if Apple had made it available on the first day of sale.
Blowout numbers no matter how you look at it.
As a shareholder, what pains me most is how smooth Google and Amazon are sailing with their shareholders feeling no pain at all while Apple has to take all the heat. The market appears just too irrational for my liking. What scares me more than anything is how a company’s share price can be manipulated to such a degree. I understand the capital gains tax situation for Apple, but I’m not clear why it’s not affecting Amazon or Priceline which have had greater gains than Apple.
Apple’s P/E is all out of whack historically considering Apple’s business hasn’t changed how it operates for years. It’s definitely puzzling. Both Google and Amazon’s P/E continue to grow while Apple’s continues to shrink year after year and that just doesn’t make any sense to me.
Theses shareholders don’t have any capital agains.
Well, because Apple didn’t sell 100 MILLION iPhones on Saturday and CitiCorp downgraded Apple to Neutral, the stock will probably be down like 200 points to day….
Anal-ists are STUPID! Everything they say is WRONG!
That’s how they make the money. They are not stupid. Corrupt? Yes!
Never, ever, believe ‘ANYTHING’ a Wall Street analyst has to say about Apple Inc!
I hope the analysts are all shorting Apple when it turns up today.
Loose a fortune you idiots….