Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) revealed today that the sales for the iPhone 5S and 5C totaled 9 million units in three days since the company’s initial launch on September 20, which, according to Stifel analysts (Aaron C. Rakers, Sanjiv R. Wadhwani, Joseph Quatrochi, Andrew Shinn, William C. Peterson) should be taken as a positive upside for the stock. For the September quarter, the iPhone maker is expecting revenue and gross profit margins to come in at the high end of the earlier guidance provided.
Sales numbers from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) are higher than the Street expectations of 6 to 8 million. According to analysts, the numbers grew higher as the weekend progressed, which was in line with an earlier report published by Stifel on Friday afternoon.
Sales for 5S strong
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), as of now, has not given a break down of sales numbers for 5S and 5C separately, but the reports over the weekend do suggest a strong demand for iPhone 5S compared to 5C. At the time of announcing the sales figures, Apple noted that demand for iPhone 5S outstripped supply, with many of the online orders expected to get shipped in coming weeks. According to analysts, some of the U.S. wireless providers revealed the shipping availability for Gold iPhone 5S to be late-October.
Analysts believe that the positioning of 5S done by Apple in China is also positive. Including China and Japan NTT Docomo in the initial list of the release for 5S and 5C will guide the investors to assess the “impact of incremental ~500 million mobile subscribers to the initial weekend launch.”
Comparison with previous launches
Last year, during the iPhone 5 launch, three day weekend sales were above 5 million. For China, shipments for the first weekend of availability in December were more than 5 million. This was the first time that China Telecom partnered with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). iPhone 5 was initially launched in 8 countries, followed by 22 more countries in the next week, while iPhone 4S was initially launched in 7 countries followed by 22 more countries in the next 2 weeks. Until the end of December, the iPhone 5 was available in more than 100 countries and 240 carriers, including China on December 14th.
Apple iOS 7 hits 200 million
Along with the iPhone figures, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) also announced that the iOS 7 download crossed the 200 million mark compared to 600 million downloads for iOS 6 in September 2012 and more than 25 million for iOS 5 with the launch of the iPhone 4S in October 2011. Analysts believe the new features of iOS 7 have been received well by the users. Apple also revealed that, since the launch, it registered over 11 million unique listeners for the company’s iTunes Radio.
