“Apple Inc. may have sold as many as 450,000 iPhones in their first two days on sale, according to RBC Capital Markets, which said AT&T Inc.’s activation figures may not reflect shipments,” Allen Wan reports for Bloomberg.
MacDailyNews Take: Gee, ya think? There’s no “may” about it: AT&T’s activation figures for the first 30 hours do not “reflect” iPhone shipments.
Wan continues, “AT&T said yesterday that it activated 146,000 of the phones in the first two days of the sales agreement.”
MacDailyNews Notee: AT&T’s activation figure was actually for the first 30 hours, not the first two days, of iPhone availability.
Wan continues, “‘AT&T excludes iPhone buyers who experienced activation delays, as well as additional units sold but not activated until after the weekend, as well as those purchased for gifts, and non- U.S. buyers,’ analyst Mike Abramsky said in a report. ‘Incorporating these factors suggests Apple may have sold’ 350,000 to 450,000 phones in the first weekend.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Hi, Mike, how ya doin’? Thanks for visiting yesterday. 
That’s better. And more rational.
I don’t think non-US buyers are gonna alter the numbers too much.
Can apple count online sales? I don’t know if they can count them until they ship or not? Does anyone have an info on this?
today apple will announce they sold over 1 million iphone
Thank goodness we only have had to put up with 24 hours of such “massive disappointments” they have all got so worked up about.
I wish I had recognised the stupidity of the market because if I had I would have sold at 143 and re-bought at 137.
Can’t wait to see the real figures…
I wish I had recognised the stupidity of the market because if I had I would have sold at 143 and re-bought at 137.
😀 I did.
In all fairness, there really is no need for MDN to keep insisting that it’s 30 hours instead of two days..
Yes, we all know that iPhone went on sale at 6pm on Friday, but despite the hours of operation, these reports are accounting for the activations on Friday and Saturday, which are in fact the first “two days” of iPhone availability.
One class of buyer not specifically mentioned are the people that bought from Apple’s online store starting at 9PM (EDT) on 7/29. He did say “…additional units sold but not activated until after the weekend…”, but I would suspect Apple’s online store did some pretty brisk business and should be mentioned explicitly. In fact, when I was in line to get my iP, I talked to quite a few people that were going to get their one iP (I was in an AT&T store line) and then run off and order more online. I know one guy at my place of work that bought 5 of them … one for each member of his family!
I am still flabbergasted that people keep equating the 30 hours of Friday and Saturday with anal-yst projections for “the first weekend”. I know that Sunday is officially the start of the new week, but I still consider Sunday to be the weekend, as I assume most people would. What happened to that extra 24 hours???
“What happened to that extra 24 hours??”
Sunday’s sales and activations will be accounted for in the next quarter, not this one. That’s why there is such a focus on the first “two days.”
@Tom, when you are just counting activations, 30 hours rather than 48 hours IS a big deal and worth mentioning, not to mention AT&T’s not being able to handle the volume with activation delays.
The iPhone, for a version 1 poduct, is as near perfect as any other device released ever, yet is surrounded by AT$T’s blunders in PR and network volume preparation. UGH!
Tom,
It’ because of the delay between purchase and activation. A purchase made on Saturday (especially if bought in the afternoon) stands little chance of being activated before the 30 hours are up, which means it would be counted in the next quarter. Add to that the many attempts at activation from Friday that were delayed beyond the 30 hours and it’s easy to see how the numbers are skewed. No doubt there were many who got home and after reading about the delays decided to wait a bit before making their attempt.
The point is that the time frame reported on is far too short to provide any meaningful information. All we really know is that some number greater than 146,000 were sold between Friday and Saturday.
Plus all the online orders through the Apple store. Let’s not forget to throw those in there. And let’s not forget, I am the one that threw out the 30 hours of actual sales (at most). I also and the one that mentioned the online sales first.
Hell, I should be an anal syst as well, I am fairly good at this figurin’ thingy.
Poor AT&T. The company is accustomed to only having their stock move when they buy someone or get bought out. Providing barely mediocre services and run-of -yhe mill instruments to customers for years hasn’t prepared them for the limelight. Now every single time some moron spokeshole opens her mouth, some of the gold in Fort Knox vanishes.
And let’s hope Apple actually gets around to making the iPhone a real “smart phone.” The only thing this gimp phone has going for it is an Apple logo on the back and cute scrolling. Otherwise it’s a poor substitute for any of the Windows Mobile or Nokia Smartphones.
Well I’ve got mine in a glass box atop a gleaming well lit pedestal waiting for the first software updates. In the meantime I’ll keep using my Nokia N95.
@Fake MDN
If you’re not full of cr*p re your dissatisfaction with the iPhone, you are one unusual dude. Just about everyone else finds that the iPhone EXCEEDED their expectations. Ah, you’re probably just full of cr*p.
30 hours from the 6 o’clock release time is actually the first two days of availability, MDN.
@loki – MDN is picking nits – if you want to look at it another way, 30 hours is exactly 1.25 days. Technically, 30 hours must include parts of 2 days, but it is clearly NOT two entire days – that other 18 hours before the end of the quarter could probably have boosted sales significantly for that reporting period, but that’s not how Apple operates – they wanted something to show for the quarter, but then they’ll have a full three months before the next report. Nice bit of strategic financial planning, I think.
I’d bet that AT&T reported this sloppy number since everyone knew they had to say something but it is Apple’s news and thunder to announce how the iPhone has sold. AT&T reported overwhelming satisfaction with how high the numbers have been while stating 146k activations prior to the qtr ending. Apple may not even breakout a seemingly low number of sales in the qtr and share that sales have been great, maybe even 1 million to date. Corporate Qtr’s end typically with close of business day and end of business week. So they may have no sales at all in the 2nd Qtr. The idea is when could you record the transaction of the revenue activity. It could be thru midnight on the last day but I’ll be none to surprised to find out they sold no phones last Qtr.