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“AT&T Inc., reported a 61% rise in second-quarter net income amid recent acquisitions and said it activated 146,000 iPhone subscribers the last two days of the quarter, 40% of whom were new AT&T Wireless customers,” Kevin Kingsbury reports for The Wall Street Journal.
Full article here.
Rex Crum reports for MarketWatch, “Apple Inc. (AAPL) saw its shares fall $6.70, or almost 5%, to $137.10, after AT&T Inc. released its iPhone sales figures for its second quarter.
“The numbers are seen as a barometer for measuring total iPhone sales because all iPhones, even those sold in Apple retail outlets, must be activated through AT&T’s wireless network. Many analysts were looking for sales around 200,000, with some projections as high as 500,000 iPhones sold in the last two days of the quarter,” Crum reports.
Full article here.
Notable Calls reports, “CIBC’s Ittai Kidron is out with monster call on Apple saying based on their store checks, they believe that demand for the iPhone has seen a significant decline in the past 10 days. CIBC has noticed decent inventories at stores, and thin demand at best. In fact, most Apple store visitors were not looking at the device and only a very small subset bought it.”
“With the weakness, they wouldn’t be surprised to see AT&T and Apple step up their marketing efforts. Firm’s channel checks suggest Apple is actually looking to introduce a 3G version of the iPhone for the U.S. market in November, ahead of the holiday season and earlier than currently expected,” Notable Calls reports.
“CIBC now believes the ‘improvement’ could come soon,” Notable Calls reports.
Full article here.
TheStreet.com reports at AT&T said “sales of the Apple iPhone ‘have been robust.’ AT&T activated 146,000 iPhone subscribers in the last two days of the quarter. “Sales of the iPhone continue to be strong in July with store traffic above historical levels,” AT&T said.
Full article here.
I think it’s a little premature to say that sales of the iPhone have been disappointing. Many people–myself included–couldn’t purchase their iPhones the first couple of days that they went on sale because we don’t live in large cities with Apple or AT & T stores (that carried the iPhone). Also, I didn’t activate mine for a week because I was waiting for my Verizon contract to expire. We’ll find out soon enough how successful this launch was on Wednesday.
“Now that you state your fallacy more slowly, it’s soooo much more persuasive. So there’s no correlation between activations and sales? You’re obviously a lot smarter than me.
Obviously I am.
1. As MCCFR stated, nobody said there was no correlation between sales and activations. Buy some glasses.
2. AT&T’s activation figures were based on activity on Friday and Saturday or roughly 1 1/2 days of actual sales; the fiscal quarter ended on Saturday. Care to venture a guess how many people activated their iPhones on Sunday?
3. AT&T’s numbers don’t reflect sales of the iPhone during the same period through Apple’s Online Store, who obviously had to wait to get their phone before they could activate it.
4. AT&T already publicly said that initial sales of the iPhone have already topped those of the RAZR in it’s first month, which is the best selling mobile phone in history.
5. One thing you can’t leave out: the number of people who probably didn’t get until much later that you need the latest version of iTunes to even activate the iPhone.
The reality is the actual iPhone sales numbers will be a lot higher than AT&T’s 1 1/2 day activation numbers. If you’re going to troll, practice more beforehand.
146,000 divided by 30 hours
4,866.66 iPhone activations per hour
or 81.11 iPhone activations per minute
As several have pointed out, the quarter didn’t include Sunday, and so we’re leaving out about half of the weekend when comparing against projected figures for weekend sales.
Also, it’s worth mentioning that a lot of people ordered their iPhones online at the Apple Store website. None of these end-of-quarter online sales would show up as ATT end-of-quarter activations.
I think the ATT number is perfectly compatible with 500,000 or more sales in the first weekend.
I think they sold way more than 146K. I bought 2 iPhones didn’t activate one until Monday and gave the other as a gift 2 weeks later. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one. My 2 cents.
Let us not forget:
http://www.blackfriarsinc.com/blog/2007/06/iday1-brings-16000-iphone-buzz-index
money quote
The bottom line: some analysts claimed that the iPhone launch would be a failure if Apple failed to sell 100,000 iPhones during the first weekend.
People, people….
The iPhone went on sale at 18:00 on 6/29. The quarter ended at 23:59 on 6/30. That’s a 30-hour window, rounding up to the nearest minute.
Now, let’s assume that all Apple and AT&T stores stayed open until midnight on Friday, and opened at 08:00 on Saturday (which, of course, most didn’t, but this is a “worst case” scenario.) So, that’s 8 hours out of our 30-hour sales window.
The upshot is that Apple & AT&T sold AT LEAST 146,000 phones in 22 hours of sales. By any measure, that’s remarkable. If we extend that to the whole weekend, it’s no inconceivable that they hit well over a quarter-million sold on the weekend alone.
I’d say that’s pretty darned good for a first showing from a newcomer to the phone business.
MW: “least”, as in “T-Mobile is suddenly the least of Verizon’s problems”
nice…. You seem to have a difficult time following the action, my mentally challenged compadre. What I was disputing was the claim that “fanboys” have been going around claiming sales figures of 500k, when in fact it has been analysts making such claims.
I never said the “fanboys” weren’t going around making bold claims, merely that specific sales estimate numbers have been exclusive to analysts.
And yes, I am well aware that activations do not equal sales, nor did I ever claim they did. It is amazing we continue to function when so many people have such a non-ability to pay attention to detail.
You sadden me
i bought my iphone online that first weekend and just received it and activated it yesterday. There’s gotta be a lot of people like me. The only reason i had to buy online was because all of the apple stores and at&t stores in austin were already sold out by saturday afternoon.
146 K iPhones activated in 2 days.
? iPhones bought but not activated
? iPhones bought ONLINE and not even delivered yet.
For comparison:
Rim sold 2.4 million Blackberrys in their last quarter.
That’s 52.7 K in two days. WORLDWIDE
Palm sold 0.75 million Treos
That’s 16.5 K in two days. WORLDWIDE
Those against Apple will take this or anything else as bad regardless, but the facts are:
ATT earnings are up 61%
ATT is also stated: “Sales of the iPhone continue to be strong in July with store traffic above historical levels”
and most importantly, we do not have final sales figures from Apple. In any case the stock is coming back up so…
Reality check time, folks.
Some random thoughts on the “bombshell” from AT&T. And no matter how we try to spin this, these figures, if they turn out to be the actual sales figures, will be a major disappointment.
In cold hard stats, 146,000 in sales is not bad at all for the first two days of any product. But with the hype that was generated, the lines that were formed outside stores, the amount of ink and airtime the iPhone got, this would be a major letdown.
Perception is, unfortunately, often reality. A movie that makes $90 million has every right to be considered a roaring success. But the perception is that any movie that does not cross the $100 million mark is considered a failure these days.
And I would put the blame squarely at the door of Apple and, to a lesser extent, AT&T for not moving quickly and in a timely fashion to dispel what may turn out to be overblown speculation about how many units were actually sold at launch.
If the 146,000 figure turns out to be the sales figure, then these companies should have quickly dampened the 500,000 and over sales speculation that became accepted as fact, in large part because Apple and AT&T did not deny it.
They were not obligated to do so, but if this sales figure holds true during Apple’s quarterly call tomorrow, the damage to the company’s reputation as the highest high-flyer may be more than passing.
If nothing else, the aura of invincibility will be shattered.
The iPhone is not, and will not, become a failure. It is too good a product to not eventually become a roaring success. But if the initial sales are equal to the announced activations, it will leave a lingering bad taste, and perennial suspicion about how future offerings will actually fare.
I don’t even want to speculate on what the Balmers, Enderles, Dvoraks and Lauras of the world are going to do. They must be gleefully practising their dance steps.
I still harbor the suspicion that the AT&T announcement is meant to be a tricky teaser before Apple lifts the gloom tomorrow with an astounding sales figure, but I also have a nagging feeling that that’s a long shot.
Now I see why AT&T had server and activation problems (pushing A LOT of people to Monday). 150,000 activations in two days is brutal to the system, regardless what major Telecom company you are.
That’s a huge bump in 52 new activations pre minute….with weekends staffing….
Ahh anywise, I think next quarter will set the record straight.
@ Doubletrouble
I sense that the iPhone’s software is not yet ready for prime time. Where’s the update, already. Even a useful user manual would be helpful.
You sense? Alright Obi-Wan, good luck with that. For those of us with an iPhone it’s clear as day that the software rules.
Also, there is a 90+ page user manual that you can download at Apple.com, so maybe check your facts next time, or, I dunno, ask.
Finally, when the first software update comes out it will add functionality. Apple is waiting until the roar from the unveiling dies down so they can ride another wave of, “Amazing!”
Don’t forget, any Windows users who bought iPhones had to wait for Windows to boot up before they could activate their iPhones.
Cheap shot, I know, but I thought the tone of this discussion was becoming too reasonable and civilized.
Yeah, Apple is big enough that when their stock falls, the index falls! They went up $25 in a month, then when it falls $6 based on partial information, everybody goes nuts. It will come back up tomorrow when Apple tells their side of the story.
Microsoft went down a greater percentage of value in the last two or three days, and it’s not even news. Go figure!
Stupid AT&T! They should have stated the conditions of their number. In the end, I’ll bet this inadvertant FUD will be a tempest in a teapot.
I bet Apple will not even reveal the total number of iPhone sales beyond the 2 days remaining in that quarter. So we still will not know how well the iPhone has done in the first near month of sales.
While the number of activations seems low…. it still is a ton of units. iPhone is a rev 1 device that many are waiting until rev 2 comes out… it is Apples first run at a cell phone making some even more anxious about buying rev 1. So, while these numbers are lower then the pie in the sky numbers people shot out after opening weekend… they are still not bad.
I will admit that I had the knee jerk reaction that the number of activations was low, after thinking about it I came to my senses and realized, that is a lot of phone activations for 2 days.. and if my math is correct, and low-ball assuming only 500.00 per phone… that is 73 MILLION dollars is sales for 2 days (based off activations).
The Dude abides.
The Dude…
If only your numbers were valid, but – under the 24-month accounting process that AAPL is adopting for TV and iPhone – they will (if I understood the statement correctly) either realise only 1/8th of the 73 million or (even worse) 1/24th which probably equates to a figure of around either $10.5 million or $3.5 million.
Personally, I was only ever expecting a realisation of $12 million based on the 1/8th model – because I was working on the basis that Apple were prepared to release only about 800,000 units for the first weekend and hold back more stock so there’d be availability during the July 4th holiday week – so I don’t see how a $1.5 million shortfall justifies the ridiculous over-reaction of a $7.6 billion drop in market cap.
That said, a lot of people took a bath today – including Research In Motion – and all things are cyclical; the stock will still be at $160 by the end of the year and that’s the only thing that matters.
magic word : “growth”
Like “R” said:”Key word: activated.” Besides, is there another smart phone that sold 146,000 units in 2 days?
You can bet At&T looked for the best number possible and would have counted everyone in the system who had an activation in progress.
“Early adopters would be too excited to postpone activation.”
Correct, there’s no way any significant number of people who waited in line for hours for an iPhone didn’t try to activate it that day.
” wouldn’t activate it until I’d given it my first charge – because I don’t trust anyone or anything”
And you’d put it on charge and within minutes you’d see it was fully charged. Then activate it, right?
“The true measure would be how many iphones were sold.”
Yet when it comes to Vista, apaprently MDN readers think the true measue would be the number activated. Get some consistency!
“In other words, they are doled out small quantities of iPhones every day, to create the illusion of more demand than supply.”
Not likely. Check the availability tonight. What you will see is a situation which indicates that almost all Apple stores have the phones in stock and if you could look back at it, you’d see they have for some time. That points to one thing, an excess of supply over demand.
These activations go on credit cards right? Buy something on Saturday afternoon and it goes on your account when? I have a feeling those 146,000 were the phones activated Friday night, with may a few from Saturday morning.
Stock falls–greedy bastards–lettem I’ll take the money. “gee we were looking for 200,000–200.000?!?!?!? in 48 hours?!?!?!?! how greedy and unrealistic can you get?! I guess all you analysts need another speed boat to water ski behind?!?huh?!?? I can’t stand these guys, they make nothing, they create nothing, the sit on their fat (very fat) asses and chide anybody who doesn’t “measure up” or “disappoints” you people suck
BTW 146,000X600 = $87,600,000 gee I guess if I only produced that for my boss in 48 hours I would probably get fired
“I guess if I only produced that for my boss in 48 hours I would probably get fired”
Except that that 146k units represents not “2 days of sales” but 6 months of pent up fanboy demand.