Analyst: Don’t worry about modest lines outside stores, look at Verizon’s record iPhone online sales

“Brian White with Ticonderoga Securities admitted in a note to investors on Friday that trips to various Apple and Verizon stores in Manhattan for Thursday’s launch day confirmed reports that lines were modest, or in some cases nonexistant,” Neil Hughes reports for AppleInsider.

“White said the retail launch was ‘a bit of a yawner’ likely to due to strong pre-orders placed online, allowing customers to stay at work or at home and out of the cold weather,” Hughes reports. “White noted that Apple and Verizon sold out on initial preorders for existing customers in less than 24 hours.”

Hughes reports, “He has estimated that between the initial preorder and general online preorders that began on Wednesday, between 700,000 and a million units may have been sold.”

Read more in the full article here.

10 Comments

  1. Let’s get real here.. in the past Apple has had users queue in June, the weather is nice…

    Is anyone really surprised no-one waited overnight in 20 degree weather in New York? Come on people, let’s get some real expectations!

  2. On a side note, has anyone reported yet on any changes to Verizon’s network capabilities or AT&T’s? I think the big thing will be whether Verizon can weather (how do you like that phrasing?) the rapid increase in traffic on their network? that will the telling point!

  3. My girlfriend went to get her first iPhone (AT&T) at the Apple Store and the clerk said that the response was underwhelming – about 100 preorders and maybe 50 sold by 6:00 pm.

  4. Many Anal-ists assumed that Apple’s holiday sales were lackluster based on perceived light traffic in stores only to find out that they completely ignored and overlooked all the online and other alternative sales…duh.

  5. I called the local Verizon store at 6pm last night, they still had plenty of both models. I went by and picked one up for my wife for Valentine’s day (her “new every two” was up) no lines, no wait.
    I’m staying with my AT&T iPhone 4 till the end of my contract and getting me an iPhone 6.

  6. I watched a few of the YouTube videos where you had like 600 Apple store employees clapping and cheering as the 2 people in line embarrassingly came in to get their phones. It was funny. Every bit as funny as the same scenes we all laughed at when it was the M$ store video.

    However, I think the real story will be in June. Honestly, who in their right mind would pay an ETF to move to a different carrier to get the exact same phone and be locked into a new 2 year contract when a new phone is likely coming in 4 months or so.

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