“The iPhone 5 hasn’t even hit stores yet and it’s already blowing the doors off the competition. Apple pre-sold 2 million iPhone 5s in one day, setting a new smartphone record,” David Goldman reports for CNNMoney. “Industry analysts widely expect the iPhone 5 to be the bestselling mobile device of all time.Given the way Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) continues winning over consumers around the world, the iPhone 5’s global record will probably last exactly one sales cycle, until the iPhone 6 is released.”
Goldman reports, “In the United States, however, there’s a reasonable chance that the iPhone 5 will hold the nation’s smartphone sales record for much longer — maybe forever. As the smartphone boom comes to an end and carriers make upgrades more expensive and onerous for their customers, the iPhone’s popularity in the U.S. is likely to plateau.”
Most of Apple’s iPhones get sold to brand-new customers. Last year, Apple newbies bought two-thirds of the 30 million iPhones sold in the U.S., Macquarie Securities estimates,” Goldman reports. “Those numbers will start dropping as the pool of untapped iPhone customers willing to splurge on a new iPhone dries up. The iPhone represented 45% of all smartphone sales last year at the ‘Big Three’ national carriers — Verizon, AT&T and Sprint. Analysts at Macquarie, Nomura and other Wall Street firms expect that figure to rise significantly this year — then level off.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Edward W.” for the heads up.]