

iPhone 4S First Weekend Sales Top Four Million - ssclafani
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/10/17iPhone-4S-First-Weekend-Sales-Top-Four-Million.html

======
swombat
Oh yeah, the iPhone 4S is such a flop. Obviously, the lack of a new teardrop
form factor is totally sales and Apple should recant from their heathen ways
and do the smart thing, like the other mobile phone manufacturers.

One wonders where Technology mags find all these seemingly countless analysts
who deride every iPhone (or at least are unimpressed)...

~~~
nextparadigms
Even if the iPhone 4S would've been a worse phone than iPhone 4, they would've
still sold at least a million units in first weekend. I think everyone knows
that.

But this sales boost will confirm to Apple that it's ok for them to just
release the same phone for 2 years with some spec upgrades in the 2nd year.

~~~
johnthedebs
_Even if the iPhone 4S would've been a worse phone than iPhone 4, they
would've still sold at least a million units in first weekend. I think
everyone knows that._

No, I don't think everyone knows that. If we learned anything from the past
few Apple product launches, it's that customers aren't shy about complaining
even if they aren't completely sure what they're complaining about.

 _But this sales boost will confirm to Apple that it's ok for them to just
release the same phone for 2 years with some spec upgrades in the 2nd year._

It _is_ okay. The economics behind producing this many millions of a devices
doesn't allow them to change the design every single year without jacking up
the price. And for what?

A "tick tock" schedule, like the one Intel has adopted, makes tons of sense
for Apple too. You just can't completely rethink a product design every year
once it's matured.

~~~
nextparadigms
But that will be bad for customers. You don't see the other manufacturers
keeping the same phone for 2 years. Apple is making billions in profits per
quarter, and you're saying it would be bad for them to make it more often than
2 years? Then why not 3 years to save even more money?

And if you don't think they needed to change the design of the phone this
time, just take a look at this:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=e...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=elKxgsrJFhw)

No wonder nobody wanted to "copy" its design and build. It's so weak, even
some plastic phones are more solid than it.

~~~
froo
> But that will be bad for customers. You don't see the other manufacturers
> keeping the same phone for 2 years.

Similarly, you don't see other manufacturers producing phones that they intend
to still thoroughly support in a couple years time, which is why there is so
much fragmentation in the Android ecosystem.

I think this is a key thing in Apple's market strategy across the board -
you're not just buying hardware that will be out of date in 6 months time,
you're purchasing a utility which will be more or less current for a couple
years to come (like what we've seen in Macs).

I think its a smart move. It builds trust with the user base.

------
saturdaysaint
The biggest factor here is that this is the first U.S. iPhone launch on
multiple carriers. That's more than double the addressable market, and I'd
imagine that the effect on purchasing decisions goes well beyond that. In
short, forcing users on one carrier made the iPhone something of a niche
product, but now it's mainstream.

~~~
chugger
I'm also curious how many $99 iPhone 4s and free 3GS Apple sold over the
weekend.

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ugh
Can anyone put that into context?

~~~
scrrr
According to [http://www.phonearena.com/news/iPhone-4-sales-hit-a-
million-...](http://www.phonearena.com/news/iPhone-4-sales-hit-a-million-
units-over-the-first-weekend_id17160) AT&T sold 1.7 million units on the first
weekend.

I wonder if Steve Jobs being dead actually is a reason for increased sales. It
could be like a singer dying and people buy more of his records.

On the other hand it might be just that many people held back buying the
iphone 4 and waited for the next one.

~~~
mcphilip
I too wonder the same thing. Especially with the pre-order record for a phone
that seemed to initially miss expectations upon announcement. The articles
I've found on the topic are just speculative[1][2].

[1][http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/228095/20111010/iphone-4s-fo...](http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/228095/20111010/iphone-4s-fortunes-
linked-to-steve-jobs-untimely-death-loyal-apple-customers-drive-
iphone-4s-sales-a.htm)
[2][http://sanfrancisco.ibtimes.com/articles/228902/20111011/iph...](http://sanfrancisco.ibtimes.com/articles/228902/20111011/iphone-4s-sold-
out-pre-order-record-memory-steve-jobs.htm)

~~~
epo
The missed expectations were held by fanboy contributors to MacRumors and the
equally witless anti-fanboys (fandroids for the most part) who chimed in with
"Ha! No new case after 18 months? Lame! Fail!"

Perhaps the buyers were at the end of a contract, or looking to upgrade, or
simply saw the best phone on the market.

~~~
glhaynes
And tons of guy-on-the-street types (both real and those dreamed up by news
media, propagating the meme further) were disappointed, too. But the frame has
shifted over the last few days and now everybody's talking about Siri,
theoretical teardrop case be damned.

------
podperson
It seems like the "Apple is going bankrupt" stories have finally disappeared.
Looking back I wonder when that happened. Now we're down to "Apple's new
iPhone might not sell quite as fast as some other guy thinks it will".

------
dr_
The launch "delay" probably had something to do with this as well.
Anticipation was already high. Plus perhaps it allowed them to launch in more
countries simultaneously. Product delays are not always because of
manufacturing issues. Sometimes it can be a business decision.

~~~
coob
It makes more sense to me that the delay was down to iOS 5/iCloud and the
surrounding infrastructure.

20 million iOS 5 users in 2 days is a very quick ramp up.

~~~
protomyth
I would imagine you are on the right track about needing iOS 5/iCloud ready
first. I would also add that Apple probably needs to replace the fall music
event with an annual iPhone event since, although still high, iPods don't net
the press of a new iPhone.

------
walldorf
[http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/06/28iPhone-4-Sales-
Top...](http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/06/28iPhone-4-Sales-
Top-1-7-Million.html)

------
schnaars
I wonder what a warehouse with 4M iPhones in it looks like. That is a huge
stack o'phones.

------
ajays
Being a 3GS owner, I feel like an ugly stepchild. Should I upgrade to 4S, and
then watch (once again, as in the case of iphone 4) as the iphone 5 rolls out
early next year? If the i5 comes out in Feb, it might be worth the wait. If
June... I'm not so sure.

First-world problems.... ;-)

~~~
crazygringo
Buy the unlocked 4S a few weeks from now in November. (Yes, Apple will be
selling it officially!)

Use either the AT&T or T-Mobile prepaid plans. (You are pretty much guaranteed
to save money over the cost of a two-year contract.)

Sell your 4S on Ebay after a year, and buy your new phone.

Voila. First-world problem solved. (This is what I'll be doing, anyways.)

Bonus: if AT&T or T-Mobile turn out to have bad reception in your apartment,
you can effortlessly switch to the other carrier.

~~~
e1ven
As far as I know, the 4S still doesn't support T-Mobile freqs for > 2G..

~~~
w33ble
This is true, but they make up for it with a $30/mo plan that includes 100
minutes of talk and unlimited text and data. There's a $50/mo plan that
includes unlimited everything. Personally, that's a trade-off I'm happy to
make.

~~~
cshesse
I can't find either of these plans on their website. I went to buy a Micro SIM
card, and the only unlimited everything plan is 105$ a month. There is no 100
minute plan or 30$ plan that I can find.

~~~
w33ble
Both are right here. The $30 plan is available online or through Walmart. Pre-
paid monthly, no contract required.

<http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans>

~~~
cshesse
Thanks, no idea why I didn't see this list before.

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ryandvm
This is not about the general public being utterly amazed with the iPhone 4S.

This is what happens when there is an 18 month period between product
refreshes of a popular phone. It turns out that several million people have
been holding out for "the next iPhone" for the last several months. Is this
surprising anyone?

~~~
glhaynes
Seems like a statement in need of support. Certainly that's a factor, but it
seems like a _ton_ of people [including non-Apple-geeks] are interested in and
talking about the phone (especially Siri but also the camera) and saying
they're "utterly amazed".

~~~
ajross
If the previous statement is in need of support, surely you have a cite for
that _ton_ of non-Apple-geeks saying they're "utterly amazed" by Siri and the
camera, right?

~~~
froo
<http://twitter.com/search?q=siri>

or for something more visual

<http://trendistic.indextank.com/siri>

People are talking more about Siri since the release date (on average) and for
more dramatic effect, look at the results over a 30 day timeframe - not bad
considering that Siri is essentially 2 year old technology.

Yeah, people are impressed by Siri, even if they just want to make fun of it
(in Australia we call that Tall Poppy Syndrome)

