The iPhone 5 is alive … sort of. While the handset will not be physically available until September 21 in most markets, the brand-new Cupertino-based Apple is offering their new iPhone 5 for pre-order availability. Finally unveiled at a San Francisco event on September 12, the new Apple iPhone 5 is lighter and slimmer than its predecessors, attempting to fight off growing competition from smartphone manufacturers like Samsung who have released a host of high-resolution, super-slim smartphones recently.
And as is usually the case, the handset seems to be well received initially. Apple would not release exact figures on pre-sell orders, only stating that they have sold more than 2 million units in the first 24 hours of availability to Apple devotees chomping at the bit for their latest device release, a massive number which doubles the previous sales record set by their last smartphone offering. Apple admitted even they were stunned by the sales figures, and because of that many pre-orders will have to be pushed back to an October delivery, shipping out the smartphones on a first come, first served basis.
Brian White is an industry analyst at Topeka Capital Markets in New York, and he remarked that this early success is “clearly a blowout,” as the iPhone 5 pre-orders blew past his companies expectations of 1.3 million to 1.5 million units. Two days after the original unveiling and announcement of the iPhone 5 on September 12, Apple’s stock closed at a record high on the 14th. Today that previous record was surpassed, as Apple stock immediately rose 1.1% at 9:30 AM Eastern Standard Time to a price of $698.62 per share.
Far and away the best selling consumer-electronics product that Apple has ever developed, the iPhone makes up approximately 2/3 of the companies entire profit base. Entering the smartphone marketplace in 2007 with the original iPhone, over 240 million iPhone units have been sold globally since then, helping Apple earn the title of the world’s most valuable company.
Philip Schiller is Apple’s senior vice president of global marketing, and he was obviously very excited when he announced that “iPhone 5 pre-orders have shattered the previous record held by the iPhone 4S.” AT&T is the largest United States phone company and they echoed the record-breaking sales announcement when they stated that they have never sold more iPhones in one day than the pre-sell orders that were placed for the iPhone 5. AT&T would not provide specific sales numbers.
