Apple iPhone 5S and 5C critics who believed the latest iPhone event would be dull was in for a surprise on Friday. The crowd lining up at the Apple stores and even at Apple's carrier partners were huge which proves that the new Apple iPhone is able to draw more crowd than before.
Tech site CNET was able to interview analysts who predicted that based on the long line of crowd outside the stores, it may possibly break records of previously held iPhone events. Like before, iPhone fanatics have also camped out days before the event in order to be one of the first people to acquire the latest iPhones.
Gene Munster, Piper Jaffray analyst, tallied the queues in three big cities including San Francisco and New York. He reported that the count is comparable and probably a little higher than the crowd the year before. This means that the 5S model is getting more attention than its iPhone predecessors.
But the main question is whether or not it will break the record sales of $5 million that iPhone 5 launch bagged on its first weekend's release.
This is something to look forward by Monday as Apple Inc. will be reporting its running numbers on its iPhone 5S and 5C sales, including the total units sold in-stores Friday and all 5C reservations starting a week prior to the launch.
It is tougher to project numbers since Apple did not provide any clue as to the preorder numbers for the first day, unlike in previous years. Getting the figures, when only the 5C model is offered for preorders, could not provide a substantive idea of sales performance for both of the models 5S and 5C put together.
This however is not a wall to stop Wall Street people from doing approximations. Munster, who joined in the launch, believe that Apple is close to surpassing the 5 million sales the previous year, possibly reaching 6 million within its first weekend of release. Barclays Capital and RBC Capital markets are also projecting the same numbers as they see the 6 million target to beat.
Ben Reitzes, an analyst from Barclays Capital, told CNET, "Anything above 6 million units should be considered a positive surprise since that figure represents about 20 percent year on year growth over the opening from last year's iPhone 5."
He further shares that they are estimating the sales mix to be around 2 to 3 million for the iPhone 5S and more than 3 million for the iPhone 5C. If Apple has sufficient supply, the sales could even reach more than 7 million.
The truth is Apple supply for some of its high-end mobile devices are known to come short of demand. iPhone 5S gold units available online were sold fast in just a few minutes across different countries. The expected shipping date had slipped from seven to 10 days in a span of 10 minutes, and then slipping further to October delivery. Other iPhone 5S also had the same experience of longer lead times from seven to 10 days while the 5C model are available in stores and online with a waiting time of one to two days.
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