ZOMG! Has Verizon Only Doubled iPhone Sales?
By Ed Oswald | Wednesday, February 16, 2011 at 1:32 pm
There’s almost a degree of absurdity to the amount of armchair quarterbacking going on when it comes to Verizon iPhone sales. It appears as if nothing short of armies of consumers descending on Apple and Verizon stores would stop the opining masses from predicting doom and gloom.
BGR has what it claims are internal numbers showing that the launch of the iPhone on Verizon has “failed” to meet expectations. Here’s the numbers from five selected Apple stores (including two “prominent” locations):
- Thursday: Verizon = 909, AT&T = 539
- Friday: Verizon = 916, AT&T = 680
- Saturday: Verizon = 660, AT&T = 471
- Sunday: Verizon = 796, AT&T = 701
- Monday: Verizon = 711, AT&T = 618
How unfortunate, these numbers show Apple having only managed to double sales of its phone! While yes, these are certainly not blowout numbers for the phone, by no means is this a failure. Lets be realistic: the iPhone 4 is a eight-month old device. Those who really, really wanted it have it already. Who is going to switch for a phone about to be become obsolete within months?
In addition, much has been made of Apple’s silence regarding the sales of the device. We really shouldn’t be concerned. Yes, a new iPhone carrier here in the US is a big deal, but generally Cupertino has not said much when it comes to expanding carriers other than the standard press release. The hype here on sales has come from Verizon alone.
One positive for Apple? 30% of those switching to the Verizon iPhone are coming from Android, BGR says. That may give some creedence to the argument that Apple’s biggest problem when it comes to market share is limited carrier distribution.
We all should be holding judgement until the iPhone 5 comes out on both carriers. Then if the lines are still not appearing, we can all pass judegement that Apple’s time has come and gone. Until then it’s all pure speculation.
3 Comments
Read more:
3 Comments For This Post
February 17th, 2011 at 12:09 pm
Just what I was thinking. By the way, those figures are pretty high even for AT&T. If they're anywhere near average sales of the average Apple Store, Apple is looking at sales of 2 million AT&T iPhones and 2.5 million Verizon iPhones per quarter, just in their own stores, before adding carrier stores, online stores and third parties like Best Buy. US iPhone sales (which were about 4 million per quarter last year, across all sales channels) seem to be doubling.
February 21st, 2011 at 8:36 am
What are these folks on? I'm neither an apple fan nor an ATT hater, but let's be real here. This is hardly a failure, for either Verizon or Apple. Even if "only" 30% of Verizon iPhone sales are coming from Android, that's still significant. And, even if the next iPhone doesn't generate the kinds of crazy lines that they have managed in the past, that's hardly a sign that "Apple's time has come and gone." Maybe the Midas touch is gone, but you don't need that to be a solid contender – they are still going strong against their current competition.
On the other hand, I don't think that the conversion rate from Android really shows that Apple's major problem has been vendor limitations. Clearly that played a part, but one would have expected a much higher number of conversions if this had been the case.
I'm not placing any bets yet.
February 17th, 2012 at 5:17 am
WOw this is an excellent view. i really like the blog post which you have made. i was in Cruise agency with them, but
i really like the way they have predicated every thing. Thanks