By Miss PA recent article in
Fortune reminded us that Apple stock began a six month free fall just after Cupertino reported record iPhone 5 sales — 5 million units sold in its first three days. I never thought I’d say this, but I am so glad I didn’t invest in any stock in Apple since then. Yet, who could’ve guessed that five million iPhone 5 units sold in three days would be taken as
bad news by Wall Street?
On the flip side, Samsung, who, up until this point has never even bothered to post sales numbers of this smartphone, is proudly touting the fact that the Samsung Galaxy S4 is poised to hit 10 million in sales after four weeks on the market. And, as Fortune columnist Phillip Elmer-Dewitt points out, “Samsung is talking about sales to carriers, not end users. Not quite the same thing.” And yet Wall Street applauds.
What’s going on here? Read More
T-Mobile’s announcement that they will offer the iPhone 5 starting in mid-April harkens back to Verizon’s 2011 announcement — which could push back the iPhone 5S release date.
Well, T-Mobile customers’ long wait for the iPhone has finally ended. Beginning on April 12th, the company will offer the iPhone 5, which will also benefit from T-Mobile’s newly, hyped LTE network. T-Mobile will also be carrying the iPhone 4S and 4 is select markets as well, giving the carrier the opportunity to compete with the likes of the big three in the U.S..
The T-Mobile announcement to carry the iPhone gives Apple the opportunity to widen its distribution and sales network in the U.S. — a kind of strategic pivot against Samsung, who appears to be slowly encroaching on the iPhone with its Galaxy S as a contender that can take on Apple mano e mano. For their part, T-Mobile’s new marketing pitch to be the “Uncarrier,” with incentives like only having to put up $99 bucks for the iPhone 5, is a way to take on the likes of Sprint as a price leader in the mobile network market. So, everyone is making their play.
This move by Apple to allow T-Mobile to sell the iPhone 5 come April has. other implications, however. Namely, how will it affect the iPhone 5S release date? Read More
Wall Street has wrung its hands over iPhone 5 sales over the past few months. But a new report reveals that the iPhone crushed Samsung’s GS3 in the final quarter of 2012.
New tech financial news broke today, indicating that Apple’s iPhone 5 was by far the best-selling smartphone in the forth quarter of 2012, beating out the GS3 in mano e mano match-ups. And when analysts combine both iPhone 5 and 4S sales, the gap is even wider. According to BizJournals:
Apple sold 27.4 million iPhone 5s and 17.4 million iPhone 4S models in the fourth quarter of 2012. Samsung sold 15.4 million Galaxy S3 models in the quarter, according to the report.
The news concerning iPhone 5 sales has been dizzying for some months now, after Wall Street turned on Apple stock in the wake of several reports concerning the iPhone, most of which began at the start of the forth quarter in 2012. You’ll recall consternation over supply-chain issues, Foxconn’s proclamation that the iPhone 5 is extremely difficult to assemble, that iPhone 5 sales were flagging early, and that Samsung had become the world’s biggest smartphone provider in Q3 of 2012. Read More
The long-awaited jailbreak for the iPhone 5 and iOS 6.1 is now live.
In the precious, confined, walled garden that is Apple’s product ecosphere, serious techies covet nothing more than the elusive jailbreak for their iOS devices. Giving them the ability to trick out all of Apple’s hard work at crafting the user experience (and controlling it in a bid to monetize like crazy), the jailbreak — while perhaps an annoyance to Apple on one hand, must be seen by Cupertino as a necessary evil for iOS users.
Apple, after all, characterizes their customer base as creative, free-spirited individuals, and Apple product help to empower their creativity and individualism. What better than a good jailbreak, then, to allow iPhone users to mold their favorite gadget into their own image and likeness, right?
All of that being said, the iPhone 5 / iOS 6.12 jailbreak is now live. Read More
Sales reports for the iPhone 5 continue to be conflicting, with the smartphone selling #1 in the U.S. but just #7 in the U.K.. If the iPhone is to become a product that sells well only in the U.S., how will that affect Apple’s marketing and R&D strategies?
Since the launch of the iPhone 5 in September of 2012, the sales reports for Apple’s flagship smartphone have been middling at best. After a monumental launch that saw an unprecedented number of sales, news of the iPhone 5′s sales numbers have been up and down, with booming figures being challenged by reports of reduced component orders and lackluster sales in markets outside of the U.S.
Just today, two articles about iPhone 5 sales bear out starkly different views of how the smartphone is performing. According to Forbes, the iPhone 5 is clearly #1 in smartphone sales in the U.S., cutting into all market segments and demographics. I found this quote from the article particularly interesting, in light of my piece on the Blackberry Z10 and its play for business users against the iPhone 5:
Apple continues to report widespread and eager adoption of the iPhone among the Fortune 500, while simultaneously expanding the number of countries in which its hot-selling iPhone is available, signing up more carriers, and broadening its retail presence across the globe.
For as much as the Z10 would appear to be well-positioned to reassert Blackberry among business users, the Forbes article clearly counts business professionals as just one of many segments in the U.S. where the iPhone 5 has pushed to the top of the hill in terms of sales.
And yet, in another article, we hear the exact opposite. Read More
A recent update to iOS 6 was meant to target wi-fi issues experienced with the iPhone 5. The new patch, however, may have afflicted the new iPhone with iPhone 4S-esque battery drain issues.
It’s deja vu all over again with respect to battery drain and the iPhone 5. After the iPhone 4S release was tarnished in 2011 with widespread battery drain complaints — and initial grumblings from early iPhone 5 adopters that Apple had not done enough to improve battery life on the new iPhone — now, the new iOS 6 patch appears to have negatively impacted battery life. Read More
Like Best Buy, Walmart is offering deep discounts on the iPhone 5, selling it for $72 less than Apple themselves. Is this iPhone 5 sell-off because of a bad economy, bad iPhone 5 sales, or a hint an early-released iPhone 5S or 6?
As we reported last week, Best Buy made headlines by cutting prices on the iPhone 5 just three months after its release. The move by Best Buy raised eyebrows in the tech media, since typically we do not see sales on current iPhones unless the release of a new model is imminent — or at least on the horizon. With recent rumors that Apple has already begun to put the iPhone 5S into “pre-production,” some believe that a big sale from a major U.S. retailer like Best Buy could be the harbinger of a new iPhone as early as the first quarter of 2013.
Now, Walmart has followed suit in offering a stunning discount on the iPhone 5, undercutting Apple’s own price by $72! Read More
iPhone markdowns usually come on the heels of a new release. But the new sale on the iPhone 5 — just 3 months after its official release.
If you’re looking for a great deal on an iPhone just in time for Christmas, there’s some good news: you don’t have to settle on the legacy iPhone 4 or even the 2011 iPhone 4S. Now, Best Buy is offering the brand-new iPhone 5 at a discount. Their new promotion reduces the iPhone 5′s price by $50, and the promotion will continue though until January 5th. It goes without saying that a sale like this is unprecedented for the iPhone: typically, new iPhone models do not go on sale until they are approaching the end of their premium lifecycle. The fact that Best Buy is already putting the iPhone 5 on sale is raising eyebrows.
Does this early iPhone 5 sale indicate that the 5S or 6 could in fact show up sooner rather than later in 2013? Read More
In spite of reports that shipping times are improving for the iPhone 5 in the U.S., sales remain brisk. But reports suggests that Apple’s new iPhone hasn’t sold quite as well worldwide.
Tracking the shipping wait times for the iPhone 5 in the U.S. continues to be a pastime, and I’d argue a not-very-interesting Apple story line. It’s clear that the tech media needs to talk about something between now and the next wave of actionable reports about the iPhone 5S, iOS 7, etc., and the low-hanging fruit is to simply log on to Apple.com and report on how long the wait will be before your get your beloved iPhone 5. Nothing to see here.
But iPhone 5 sales reports — both in the U.S. and beyond — make for an interesting story to cover, since there seems to be a mixed bag of success for Apple’s most anticipated iPhone. Considering how long the world waited for the iPhone 5, one would have thought that, pound for pound, sales strength would be consistent throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia. However, that doesn’t appear to be the case. Read More
Just in time for the holidays, Cupertino has managed to get supply and demand for the iPhone 5 balanced. Will it be a banner Christmas for Apple?
One of the big stories coming out of the long-awaited iPhone 5 release has been the crushing sales and ensuring supply shortage. The tech media has grappled with the story, and on what’s causing it — robust sales that took Apple by surprise, or the complexity of assembling the new iPhone 5, which Foxconn has admitted is the most difficult to assemble smartphone yet. It appears that the answer has been a combination of both factors, and that combination has spooked Wall Street, with Apple shares falling off sharply after amazing growth for most of 2012.
But Apple appears to getting some great news heading into the Christmas shopping rush — supply and demand are finally getting into balance for the iPhone 5. Read More
