1st-night Sales: Tens -- Perhaps Hundreds -- of Thousands of iPhones

If the reports that Apple (AAPL) had 3 million iPhones stockpiled for opening night are anywhere close to the mark, there should be plenty left over for next week.

Apple and AT&T (T) are not releasing sales figures, but piecing together eye-witness accounts from stores around the country and doing some quick back-of-the-envelope calculations, it's clear that Apple sold tens of thousands of iPhones -- and perhaps as many as 200,000 -- the first night, not millions.

There are several reports of AT&T stores selling out their consignment of iPhones -- 60 in one Wall Street store, 40 in another, 20 in a smaller store.

According to Apple's iPhone availability website (here) there are iPhones in stock today at all 164 Apple Stores, including the big ones in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Roughly 300 people lined up to buy phones at each of the largest stores (we counted 335 when the doors finally opened at the Stockton Street outlet in San Francisco) and more buyers streamed in before the doors closed at midnight.

If you generously assume that 500 iPhones were sold at each of Apple's 164 retail outlets (including the tiny mall stores), and that all AT&T stores sold out an average of 50 phones, that's

                                500 * 164 = 82,000
                                50 * 1,800 = 90,000
                                TOTAL   = 172,000

Not bad for one night's work. Because that doesn't include online sales, it's roughly in line with earlier analysts' estimates that Apple could sell 400,000 iPhones in the first few days.

Apple has not commented on the estimates. Steve Jobs has said he hopes to capture 1% of the worldwide cellphone market by 2008, which comes out to roughly 10 million iPhones over the next 18 months.

UPDATE: An AAPL watcher whose opinion I trust thinks this estimate for AT&T sales may be 25% to 35% too low. He believes the smaller AT&T stores had 60 to 70 phones and the larger ones 100 or more.

He also points out that many, if not most, customers at Apple stores bought two iPhones. If we assume that half did, the numbers come out somewhat differently:

                                500 * 164 * 1.5 = 123,000
                                50 * 1,800 = 90,000
                                TOTAL   = 213,000

In which case the headline should have read:

Apple Sells Hundreds of Thousands of iPhones the First Night

SUNDAY MORNING UPDATE: Bloomberg News estimates 200,000 sold on the "first day," but doesn't make clear whether they mean the first night or the first 24 hours:

Apple stores sold an estimated 128,000 iPhones on the first day, while AT&T stores sold 72,000, said Trip Chowdhry, an analyst with San Francisco-based Global Equities. (link)

SUNDAY EVENING UPDATE: Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, estimates that Apple sold 500,000 iPhones from 6 p.m. Friday to the close of business Sunday evening. Accoding to Piper Jaffray's survey:

Ninety-five percent of iPhone buyers in San Francisco, New York and Minneapolis (home to Piper Jaffray's offices) purchased the 8GB model... About half were new customers for AT&T, at least among the 253 people surveyed for the report. (link)

Comments

[will]

Why do you write such BS? Apple nevr said it would sell millions the 1st w/e. They never gave a number. Some analysts think that if they sell bewteen 300-400K they will have hit a grand slam. Why don't you write about that imstead of your BS storylime. I'm getting quite tired of all the BS and negativity around Apple's IPHONE this w/e by stupid TV reporters and journalists who are idiots. Just keep on pilng on the BS while Apple sells another IPHONE. Oh did I mention, this stock is going to fly beginning Monday. Write about that!

[Peter Stewart]

AT ~$550/iphone that makes close to $100 Million in revenue for Apple. Not bad for one day! That may just cover all their R&D costs right there.

172,000 X $550 = $94,600,000

[Wes]

I have been using my iPhone fresh out of the box without recharging for hours and letting all of my friends try it and it is unanimous that it is the most innovative and outstanding piece of technology of it's kind!

Well done Apple! And well done AT&T for such a smooth transasction! My phone received a call minutes after activation!

[stewart stanton]

What? A story with a title saying Apple sells 10,000 iPhones, but the story actually calculates 172,000 phones, and there's not a single bit of jounalistic investigation in the whole of it. Not even a phone call. In fact, you haven't the slightest idea about how many phones sold. This is junk journalism. Shame on you.

[QQ]

Business 2.0, you should fire Philip, what an idiot.

[Jean-David]

The title is misleading
"10,000s iPhones" is not equal to "tens of thousands" ( the article further says : it's clear that Apple sold tens of thousands ...)
the rest of the article tells us they might have sold more than 100,000 (not 10,000)
Would appreciate if you change the title. (that reads for now : Apple Sells 10,000s iPhones First Night)
Hello to all that are looking for this kind of infos, and other infos on the iPhone :)

[MacManMaz]

Journalism without effort or factual basis.

I am glad to be an Apple Stockholder and never will buy stock of a company that employees journalists like you.

[Ron]

This is the most stupid article I have read so far. Is it even possible to sell 1M ipones from the physical stores in 4 hrs( 6pm-10pm). think about the logistics required for such an immposible task! Please use your brains littile bit more.

[charlesn]

Is it any surprise that Apple Bash 2.0 and Elmer-DeWitless have their FUD machine cranked into overdrive? "It's clear that Apple sold tens of thousands of iPhones the first night, not millions."

Wow! Sure sounds like a huge disappointment, right? Ah, but this is a classic DeWitless FUD tactic: set up a false premise then smear Apple for "missing the mark." (Remember his breathless headlines about security bugs in Safari for Windows Beta ONE?) Apple's stated goal is to sell 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008--that's a little over 500K phones a month--not millions the first night. In fact, this is the first time I've seen that kind of acid-fueled delusional thinking posted anywhere. And to whom does DeWitless attribute this guesstimate of millions the first night? Apple execs? Analysts? Bloggers? ANYONE? Nope. His trusted source is (and I'm quoting directly here) "rumors."

[Warren B.]

Apple (AAPL) is a STRONG BUY!

[Paul Bajus]

As usual, your article is misinformed and misleading. What a shame that you write trash like this to tarnish one of the best technology product launches in history.

[Jack Meoff]

since when is 10,000
= with 172,000.

You should write for The Enquire

Because enquiring minds want to be lied to

[EricL]

The factual basis for this article is weak at best. Isn't there something more concrete you could write about? This is really a new low for Business 2.0.

[Kaz]

This is horrible. Trying to sway the market cuz your news is number one to be looked at right now...Someone please write a damn article and reveal the identity. Someone please correct this guys numbers from 10K to 172K that he himself has mentioned in his article. Philip Elmer-DeWitt, this is bad journalism on your side. Poor and dirty game!

[San Hosdurg]

Apple i-Phones launch is definetly a blessing for the customers as the other vendor's will come with more intutive and competitive phones soon. I would wait to buy an i-Phone now to get a lesser price in coming days. Of course the reason being my assumption that this product would soon loose it's value by atleast 20% once the competition is in place, although other manufacturer's will target to come with same price range as that of apple i phone with additional intutive feature. I personally own a AT&T connection and a sunrocket service, I found AT&T customer care was really good and I had very good service from them. Atlthough I don't buy the idea of fewest dropped calls in the network, I usually have dropped calls while driving on 400

[Jean-David]

Well, in fact here looks like to be the stockholders rendez-vous.
It's not that surprising that we all came here to read the article when we saw it's title that looks pretty alarmous to us.
In that Philip did well, we came to read! :)

[J. Rabouin]

Well you've convinced me! I've been reading these inane columns since the iphone was announced and am a bit stunned that anyone with professional credentials would publish them, even on the internet. It's as if a staff of high-schoolers were working on their school newspaper. So congrats guys, here's what I'm convined of... I'll be sure to pass on ever purchasing Business 2.0 magazine. Hope you continue to do a great job of getting that message out.

[Henry Theloosen]

A T & T store in Williamsburg, VA had 20 iPhones and sold them all in the first 30 minutes. They are waiting for new inventory. And I believe it is another Apple masterpiece, just like the Lisa etc. etc. Can't wait to get one.

[Tom]

Looks like you've hit a nerve w/this article. I love that these posters are attacking you for not doing "thorough" investigative research before writing the article and questioning your integrity. On the other hand, they worship Gene Munster from Piper Jaffray for claiming 45 million of these iflops will be sold in '09 yet, even his colleagues say that he is creating unusual hype only setting investors up for failure. I really don't care if your figures are correct, the same way these comments don't care if Munster is correct. I do think that if there is any truth to your story though, that it is a clear indication that the collective media failed in their attempt to convince the intelligent public that this phone, MP3 player w/a touchscreen is goint to change peoples lives. Once again, I predict failure of the iflop!

[charanis chiu]

Don't just count on how many iPhone sold for the first day or first week, this machine is simply just great and will become more and more popular in the near future.

When it comes to launch in Europe and Asia later this year, with so many advance features on the iPhone, there will be more people willing to try and own at least one of it.

[Robert P.]

I think this is a reasonable estimate. However, there are also over 5000 listed on ebay and over 700 listed on SF craigslist as of Sunday morning. Those who waited in line and bought multiple iPhones took a real gamble. How are you going to sell yours at inflated prices when Apple itself has 3 mil more in stock? Now they seem to be stuck with something they don't want... or they'll return them to Apple. No way!! All part of the hype cycle. Little guy gets slammed first.

[Gabriele]

PLEASE CHANGE THE HEADLINE.

SHAME ON YOU.

[Jorge Piedra]

SALES ARE SIGNIFICANTLY LESS THAN EXPECTED BY THE STREET AND BY APPLE AND AT&T!!!
I went to several stores yesterday after 8 PM and there were phones availables everywhere.
Furthermore, there were no lines and you could play with the phones on display for as long as you wanted.
The buyers are young people for whom paying the contract will be a burden.
The fact that software has to be released by Apple is a majoy drawback for many of us that use other useful applications.
Writing something with it is very difficult unless you are a young lady with small fingers.
The fact that it is small, light and simple is good, but not enough.
Regarding funcionality it does not get even close to the Nokia phones that can work with Word, Excel, etc and capture WiFi signals as well. Additionally those phones are quadriband and have easy to use boards.

[ebay]

Around 7500 iphone is selling on ebay, and it is increasing every minute

[Jimmy Neutron]

The article was very simple and did not appear in any way to try in an effort to be intelligent. never-the-less, great f'ing job Apple. the iphone is definitely what a lot (many more than 10,000s) of consumers want, not to mention stock holders.
take the article with a "grain of salt"...it was written by a dip shit.

[mark]

Article written with sensationalist title as most articles here are:

TO DRIVE WEB TRAFFIC. Similar to Dvorak's admitted tactic. Nothing to do with actual news.

Look back at titles.

best thing you can do to show your dissapointment is not click on more article links from this site--regardless of the title.

[Pankaj]

Journalist S.O.B....

[Kurt]

Your comments are justified. I think somebody is a Microsoft user? Anyway, I went through this argument once before with Herb Greenberg from Marketwatch. He too was quick to pass judgement on their potential, and severely underestimated the passion of the apple user(Ipods, servers, software, computers), and acted like Apple is an ipod manufacturer. He was saying the stock was too overblown at 60.00 per share. He quoted his and other analysts opinions, and I conveyed to him that you have to have a strong grasp of the intangibles in addition to the fundamentals. As an apple user since 1986 I have a good grasp of that, and I was rewarded richly for ignoring fools like this. When the world has run out of Apple-haters then it might be time to run away if you own stock. I think I speak for most when I say...is Phillip an intern? Joking aside, try to put some meat in your story. Statistics are facts...and those numbers are neither.

[mushtar babies]

what utter disrespect. Let us know when there are real figures to report on

[PainfulActivation]

I had a painful experience trying to Activate My iPhone. If the math in this article is correct, there are a lot of pissed off people out there.

More than 10 hours after being told by AT&T to wait for an email, I am still waiting for an email telling me how I can use my new iPhone.

So much for all those hours I put into getting an iPhone early!

I posted my experience on iSomethingCool, including screen shots of the ridiculous process put in place for something this huge and announced back in January. Maybe Steve knows how to produce cool products, but somebody sure does not understand how to define and document a clean installation process!

[Abbi]

Not sure why there is all that fuss over the iphone.

I use a HP 6900 series phone that has phone, wi-fi, photo, word-excel, GPS, plays music etc. And I can type on the screen.

I also have a ipod only for music.

So why the iphone, other than it may look good (my hp 6900 also looks great)?

[spaceage]

This has to be one of the most twisted, convoluted pieces of journalism I've ever read. What are you trying to say exactly?

a) apple didn't sell 3,000,000 phones in the first 3 hours it offered the product for sale?

b) at&t got screwed by apple 'cause they only got 60 phones per store out of the 3 million?

c) 172,000 phones in the first few hours is a good thing but not good enough?

d) you have no f&*^%ing clue?

Based on whay I saw on TV and in my humble abode of Portland, OR, Apple stores sold THOUSANDS per store on the first night, plus whatever at&t did, which leads one to conclude hundreds of thousands of phones sold, not "tens of thousands" as you allude to.

Let me help you with the math, oh clueless one:

250,000 phones * $550 = $137.5 million

If they do that much again by the end of the weekend, you're talking over a QUARTER OF A BILLION DOLLARS IN SALES IN ONE WEEKEND.

Wow, this story is dumb!

[Jason Allen]

This is the same bonehead who said that the IPOD would be a flop!

[Philip Elmer Fudd-DeWittless]

What? -you don't like my investigative pulp reporting? Truth be told, my editor has made it clear we must protect our Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, RIMM, Palm and Microsoft friends and, more importantly, the advertising dollars we get from them.
Also, please remember, we're just a little player in the business reporting space and need to be provocative to generate hits. So, we're on a mission to downplay the iPhone by spreading FUD-What a surprise. Looks like most people are too smart to fall for it. Wascally wabbits...
BTW- I Love my iPhone.

[zg]

Are you paid to write FUD? Not just paid to write, but to specifically write FUD?

It doesn't matter. As usual, data will out--Apple will have the numbers over the next year for you and others to finally say "job well done". Many analysts predicted that the ipod sales would slow down after Christmas 2006 and they were wrong--see Apple's last earnings release.

Don't forget the halo effect of more and more people being exposed to the Apple experience and will perhaps buy even more Apple products.

The iphone will be accounted by Apple on a conservative basis with Apple taking only 1/8 of the revenues each quarter for two years on each sale. Imagine the ramp up this will give them in 1-2 years!

There appear be more parties who have a vested interest in seeing the iphone fail than those who want it to succeed. Competitive handset manufacturers and their suppliers, competitive carriers, etc. just to name a few.

The consumer will buy it regardless of the FUD. We know a revolutionary item when we see it and hope that others try to emulate the intuitive interface that Apple has developed. Glad that Apple has the head start, though.

[LC]

iPhone is not perfect; but it is very good. The screen is beautiful, no physical keyboard is not a problem at all and the software is so much better than anything on the market. It is easy, you can actually use many of the cool features such as map, youtube, stock, weather, browing the net and of course phone. Other than email, I probably used all the cool features with no manual. I have Sony-Ericsson high end model; the software is bad and it discourages me to use many features. Once I was on the road, trying to access Internet with my Sony-Ericsson phone to get info was so hard, it took me 40 minutes to find out a near by shop address. I had Nokia, Motorola phones before and it was hard to use anything other than phone and one more feature.
IMO - It is the first revolution consumer product in the last 10 years. iPod was a evolution with its tight integration with iTunes; but iPhone is a true revolution and it is very close to the hype.

[MC]

Whoever wrote this article, really does not know how to write. Bad title, no information, just blithering heresay.

[MC]

Whoever wrote this article, really does not know how to write. Bad title, no information, just blithering heresay.

[MC]

Whoever wrote this article, really does not know how to write. Bad title, no information, just blithering heresay.

[Matt]

I agree with the comments saying this is poor journalism. Furthermore, the Apple iPhone availability website is updated once a night at store closing time -- 9 pm. In the case of last night -- according to a friend of mine who works at a NJ Apple Store -- they didn't bother updating their inventory to the website since they closed a while after 9 pm.

Moreover, shouldn't we wait until the holiday season to get a fair grasp of how iPhone sales will turn out? The only people who bought one yesterday are the ones who wanted to wait in line or were too excited to wait. There are a lot more potential buyers who stayed away last night in fear of the lines.

[MC]

Whoever wrote this article, really does not know how to write. Bad title, no information, just blithering heresay.

[LYNN PRINCE]

My seventeen year old son stood in line yesterday for six hours in Burbank at one of the malls, he was 20th in line and had approx. 250
people behind him. Everytime anyone came out of the store with a phone in hand, the entire line would cheer and applaud!!! He had no
problem starting up his phone, and had service right away, it was painless. Every one of his friends wants one now that they have seen
his. When he takes it to school on monday, and everyone sees it, I can
only imagine what will happen. Talk to me in three months, and you
won't believe the numbers.

[you journalists...]

shame on you.

[Mark U.]

I'm baffled by the vitriol in the comments. This post was just a simple attempt at estimating the number of phones sold on the first night, which is a figure a LOT of people are curious about. P E-D doesn't hold it out to be any more or less than that. Relax, people. (Comments about the headline have more basis, although I assume it was written by an editor and not the author, so again, ease up.)

Regarding stock at AT&T stores: I bought my phone at the AT&T Experience store in Houston. This is a national flagship store and was the first of its kind for AT&T when they opened it earlier this year (the opening was detailed in the NY Times, among other places.) I figured this would be the best place in town, other than the larger Apple stores, to have a chance at getting the phone. I was about 75th in line and got one with no issue. I had to go back later in the evening due to an account issue, and store staff told me they had sold out of 8GB models, of which they had received around 200. They still had 30-40 4GB models in stock.

[Rob]

It seems there are a bunch of F-tards on both side of the fence.

This is a bogus article though.

[you journalists...]

shame on you.

[you journalists...]

shame on you.

[Jeremy]

It should be required that you actually know what you are talking about before you write an article about any tech product that hits the market. I am sick of all the negativity about this iPhone, people were saying it sucked before it came out... Did you even use it? Some people try to create buzz and others are just so loyal to their blackberry or other device that they want to bash a similar device in the market. They are mad that they didn't get to line up days before the release of their latest blackberry. Other's are commenting on the price and how its way too high. SO DONT BUY IT! You don't know every aspect of the phone and all the innovative ideas that were so brilliantly put into the device so how can you actually comment on the price. All the little sensors that do things that no other phone has done. Apple Inc. patented over 100 features of this new phone. Last for the writer of this article it makes NO sense. your headline doesn't follow your story, they are giving two different bits of information. Plus you are guessing on your figures and saying that Apple said things that they actually never did say. I wonder if the journalist that wrote this article is against Apple Inc. for some reason.... It makes you wonder. I own a Palm Treo and Love it and all I have to say is GO APPLE! this device from what I saw last night was amazing. It follows the simplicity of the iMac I am typing on. So many little things about it where you say to yourself "Why didn't anyone else think of this?" I can't wait to see what you come out with next!

[iPhone Owner]

This article left one small part of the sales out or should I say a very large part.

The large number of sales of iPhones done on the Apple website. Apple very well should have sold more iPhones on their website then all the stores together.

I read some AT&T stores as selling out at 150 iphones so sales varied as to how many they actually had to sell.

[Bababooey]

Business 2.0 and CNN needs to FIRE Philip Elmer-DeWitt on undocumented reporting like Dan Rather did for CBS.

Even he agrees, as he stated on February 2, 2007 "Who is this idiot?"

Mr. Elmer-DeWitt continues to bash whatever Apple does; perhaps he has SHORT positions on AAPL or PUTS on its options in his portfolio.

And Yahoo! Finance, why do you keep listing a BLOG in the NEWS Headlines section?

[William]

It amazes me that so many people LASH out against ANYONE that they believe is talking negatively about Apple. Apple has great products and all but get real. A phone, a browser, an Ipod, OK. This takes the Pocket PC from THREE YEARS ago, gives it a touch screen and an MP3 Player. Big deal. This is a gadget for the nerdiest of nerds and trendiest of people to get all worked up about? I am just so tired of people giving apple so much UNDUE PRAISE. Calm down people, is he Steve Jobs or Charles Manson (the way he is followed).

[William]

It amazes me that so many people LASH out against ANYONE that they believe is talking negatively about Apple. Apple has great products and all but get real. A phone, a browser, an Ipod, OK. This takes the Pocket PC from THREE YEARS ago, gives it a touch screen and an MP3 Player. Big deal. This is a gadget for the nerdiest of nerds and trendiest of people to get all worked up about? I am just so tired of people giving apple so much UNDUE PRAISE. Calm down people, is he Steve Jobs or Charles Manson (the way he is followed).

[luke]

I can't believe we still read stuff from this blog

[Josh Ozoli]

I'm not an Apple fan, but this article stuck out as quite possibly the least-informed, blatantly anti-Apple article I've read.

[taojones]

I think Elmer Fudd is using the nome de plume Elmer The (de) Wittless

"Thats all folks"

[iPhone Owner 951]

Not mentioned in this article as well is the majority of the 300+ people lined up at the San Diego store I went to bought 2 phones, not just one. So a store selling 300 phones because there were 300 people in line is just plain stupid. I and my wife bought 2 phones each, one to keep and one to sell. Even if I sell for $50 profit or no profit at all, what am I out? Nothing. And if they don't sell, since they are not open I can take back to the Apple store within 15 days for a refund. No gamble for us like some user said...

But at the same time, yeah, there are 3000 phones on ebay right now, but that doesn't mean they don't like the phone or want the phone. I was standing near about 15 people who weren't even buying the phone for themselves. They bought the phone for people farther back in line who thought they wouldn't get a phone and made $200 on the spot. Some were also buying the phone on pure profit potential just like all the PS3 and XBox 360 people who did the same when they hit the market. This phone will sell out and there is no so-called "gamble" for anyone.

[carhug]

I was 40th in line at one AT&T store, by the time i was allowed in and the transaction complete (the AT&T computers were crawling btw), it was just 3-4 minutes shy of 7:00. We went back 2 hours later to buy another iphone and the store had sold out at 7:54. I estimate this store had about 90-100 phones. The AT&T person told me she doubted any of the nearby AT&T stores had anymore left. Apple SF & Apple Burlingame had sold out too. We were able to get one more of the few remaining at the other Apple SF store. i also think your estimate on the AT&T stores is on the low side and i think the Apple stores were allocated a few hundred more, especially in the big cities.

[Christopher K Legan]

Give him a break - mathematics is boring. Maybe the '10,000s' title was a play on Apple's spoof where they point out Microsnoft has sold 10's of dozens of Zune player's, eh?

So you read the article, and it's as good as anyone's back of the envelope number... they sold 200,000 +/- 200,000 the first night. We're done.

[John]

DeWitt... stop being such a retard.. with your incorrent title & incorrect facts, what kind of journalist are you? Shame on you. I'm not sure how much money you got paid to write this (and by whom).. why don't you just go shag yourself (Oh, you don't have a dick? Like your non-existent brain?)

[Wilson]

I find it interesting that no one is focusing much attention on the AT&T side of this story.

Assume for a second that half of the iPhones are sold through their channels and they book $525 on average. While this adds up to a nice little boost for their top line revenue, ALL iPhones are signing up for a 24 month plan at lets say an average of $75 per month.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the one time and ongoing incremental revenue AT&T will receive makes them the BIG winner in all this hysteria.

[Robert]

Well there are currently about 7500 iPhones for sale on eBay so we know at least that many people who don't even want one bought one ;-)

[zg]

To the poster above--just because there are phones on Ebay does not mean the seller does not want one. I know someone who is trying to sell their phones on Ebay so they can make money to buy an iphone! I am guessing that they are not the only one who is doing that. :)

[Tim]

All I have to say is that Business 2.0 writes yet another worthless story. Yahoo needs to remove Business 2.0 from the news section.

[Laughing Outloud]

WOW - It's just a telephone for gods sake. Good to see the consumer sheep are still alive.

[KingNorris]

Lets see from above, referring Steve Jobs to Charles Manson.

One guy got a lot of people killed, the other made a killing for a lot of people - stock increased over 1200% in six years!!

So anyone want a "slightly" used Treo that loves rebooting? Makes a great paperweight/doorstop.

There may be a lot of iPhone listings on eBay, but the current highest bid for one 8GB is $2550.00 (29 bids). I should have gotten my butt into the Apple Store last night to buy two.

[quicknk]

Apple and ATT did post their expectations. Vague they are, but they did hope to sell out at the latest by the end of next week. The 1-3 million units out there were expected to fly off the shelves. The funny thing is is even if they sell 800K units by the end of the week, the cover quite a bit of the R&D, Marketing, and other expenses (they may be making a 40-60% profit on all phones- do the math). It's not like were fighting over the life of the company, which it seems like many Apple fans are willing to die for Apple, but the success of a product that isn't quite up to par.
I like how people fall into the corporate branding traps. I just amazes me. The use of the phone by the general public was Apples second goal. Look who embraced it, and will never really use all of it's features, let alone have access to key elements 24/7 that drive all of it's features. Don't get me wrong it is a great phone that could have a place in the market and make Apple a big competitor, but they jumped the gun by signing with ATT. EDGE? it's like dial-up. 3G, well that's many times faster. Yet i guess if you live in the Midwest and still use dial-up or a slow DSL connection, this phone is for you. Just like the iPods, Mac Mini's, Mac Books, the camera they developed in the mid 90's, the apple Newton (early 90's)... to name a few, have all been pushed on the public as the hot new innovative item. Some are still around and some are not. Lots of money goes into marketing that is based on the why we buy what we buy (human psychology). And those who fall into the image that is marketed (I will be popular, i will be a better player, I will.....) tend to drive the popularity of the product, but can never make the product a corporate success if the product does not live up to the hype. Basically it is a great product if your job does not rely on having features that other phones have that trump the iPhone for business purposes. Time is money, and if you don't have a constant wifi connection while working, while at home, while on the road, traveling, etc... than your stuck, possibly loosing time doing simple tasks that we take for granted.

[Bob]

I got photos of nearly 100 people standing in line at a TINY AT&T Wireless store in a small strip mall in Santa Clara, CA. Friends all around the country report the same thing.

What a worthless article, filled with FUD.

[TIM]

Apple made a great product. Regardless if the sell millions or thousands the first day, time will prove to the industry that IPHONE will have it's place in the wireless arena.

[John Appleseed]

These "Assumption" numbers are bull shite. I know that to be a fact.

[El Dude]

Apple will sell OVER 500,000 iPHONES the first week...WATCH AN SEE!

[El Dude]

Apple will sell OVER 500,000 iPHONES the first week...WATCH AN SEE!

[Apple User]

WHAT EXACTLY IS BUSINESS 2.0's BEEF AGAINST APPLE?

SERIOUSLY. WHY ALL THIS BASHING AGAINST APPLE?

WHAT IS YOUR AGENDA?

[Jon]

The article was OK but probably not very news-worthy since anyone could have come up with a similar estimate. The headline was misleading though. I've noticed that even when an article is decent, the headline often looks like it was written by an idiot. Or maybe not not so much an idiot, as a person who doesn't give a f**k about the subject.

[Apple User]

You know what, I am thinking of reporting Business 2.0 to the SEC for recklessly and persistently making up lies and spreading false information about Apple.

Maybe someone at the SEC ought to investigate the motivation for Business 2.0 to continuously pump out all this questionable articles about Apple, articles which masks speculation as facts.

What exactly are your sources for this article? You heard it from an "Apple watcher?" I am an Apple watcher too, so why don't you listen to me?

Where is your journalistic integrity?

[kent beuchert]

Several iphone fans have their facts wrong. This article did NOT claim that Apple claimed 1 milion sales, but that estimates by others (probably shills for Apple) did so. The point of the article is well taken. There have been plenty of negative reports by users who have discovered all of the bonehead decisions Job's made in his quest to resell another device to the loyal (and dimwitted) faithful. The problem with th eiphone is that it cannot do very much, what is does do it does VERY slowly, the keyboard is stupidly positioned at the portrait
view only, an incredible blunder, etc. etc. etc. Some have posted 13 blunders in the iphone, not counting the fact that it's attempting to convince the public who can't stand anything smaller than a 46 inch plasma, that this device will ever function as a video
player. This is without doubt the most overpriced (50% profit margin) and stupid "smart device" on th eplanet. Competitiors will prodcue a similar device within months that will correct all of Job's blunders and cost 1/2 as much and run over
quality networks. Anyone who ties themselves into this gets exactly what they deserve for swallowing another Apple.

[Jim]

Besides just writing a story without leaving your home, you should actually go out and research before writing any article. You should also proof read before posting!

"He also points out that many, of not most, customers at Apple stores bought two iPhones."

should read

"He also points out that many, if not most, customers at Apple stores bought two iPhones."

I repeat what I've posted many times before on Business 2.0, that YOU SHOULD BE FIRED!

[BK]

You should be fired for outright falsifying headlines and slanting the truth on Apple Iphone sales. Why you are still employed is a mystery. Must be getting paid preey good sideline money from the shorts/hedge funds. Fact is Apple will blow away the highest forecast and this stock will be up to 130 come Monday.

[Some Guy]

Your per-store figure of 500 units is way too low. I overheard one Apple retail employee telling another that they'd hit 1500 units, and this was at around 9 PM, with three hours to go before closing.

Based on the floor traffic I saw at that point (the line was gone, but the store was full, and people were still coming in and out), I'd estimate they broke two thousand units. This was not one of the flagship stores, it was an average-sized store in a mall in California.

I think we'll see an announcement from Apple when they hit a million units, and it will come before the end of next week.

[SanityMan]

I am amazed at the lock-step, cult-like venom spewed at the author for this piece. To me it is an informative piece of jounalism regarding sales projection of a retail item. To others here, Herr Jobs is apparently more like a god than a man, and to give anything but stellar reports is akin to burning the Bible. Get a life! Its' a phone!

[Billy Hicks]

Good article.
It's obvious the complainers posting on here are afraid of the truth. AAPL stock is over priced, and the iPhone will soon be referred to as an iFlop. Perhaps the 2nd generation iPhone will be better. I wonder how many of the people waiting in line to buy this phone had the extra cash to even buy one. It's no wonder the sub-prime market is falling, when you have consumers out spend their mortgage money on a cell phone.

[PEE DeWitless]

Yes, you are all morons for reading this aerticle. BTW, I have a garage full of Ferrari laptops and Zooone, email me if you want to buy one cheeeap!

[Robert]

The Apple Store (online) now has a 2-4 week shipping date. All sold out.

ex ped: The Apple Store online was giving a 2-4 week shipping date as of 6 p.m. PDT Friday. That doesn't mean they are sold out. I suspect it means a lot of people are going to be delighted when their iPhone arrives sooner than they expected. --Philip Elmer-DeWitt

[Kurt]

To the individual who had technical issues with the iphone, I'd say it was an ID10-T error!!

[Kurt]

Can we get a vote for the people who agree with the author....If you don't have an apple device, how then can you truly know what others profess? on the other hand, if you do own an apple device and you agree...it is a bit hypocritical. It is easy to underestimate the passion of an Applian. Can I here the I's?

[Phil]

GIGO - those are some hefty assumptions you're making.

[Mister Snitch!]

Since exact figures were/are not available, a little research was in order. How about a comparison with sales of OTHER anticipated phones from past years? Did any of them sell millions in a matter of hours? What about a comparison with other hotly anticipated electronic devices, such as the Walkman or Wii or Playstation, or even the first iPods? Instead of looking for a realistic sales comparison, the lazy writer says "well it certainly wasn't millions". As other commenters here have noted, were 'millions' of sales in LESS THAN 24 HOURS even possible? How many is that per salesperson per hour?

Sloppy, sloppy work.

[Gidi]

There is no Iphone in los angeles ca at att stores I check 10 of them
thay told me it takes 4 to 6 weeks, total cost with shipping + tax 659.25

[MC Hammertime]

Actually the subprime market has faltered and foreclosures have increased because consumers were too busy buying and driving around their big gas-guzzling cars and SUVs, speeding money on booze, smokes, and lottery tickets, buying huge flat panel TVs/surround sound systems with their collection of DVDs/CDs, and going on outlandish vacations.

And when their ARM/Interest-Only/Negative Amortization mortgage payment(s) got readjusted upward, there was nothing in the bank, just a bunch of merchandise crap in the house and garage.

The iPhone will not be an iFlop (that category is called MS-Flop, this year reserved to Vista pre-SR1 and MS Office 2007 Professional for being almost the price of a laptop.) Previous winners were Windows 95 First Edition, Windows ME, XP pre-SR2, and Windows NT for not being plug-and-play.

Business owners (and some employees) could write off either all or part of the cost of the iPhone and the AT&T service as a business expense on their taxes.

[Jon T]

With the success of this phone, I'm gonna buy some more Apple stock. Hopefully it goes up enough to pay for this new phone :)

[Prasad]

Bought the first Apple product - ie iphone from AT&T store. AT&T tried to sell sim.. for $15 stating it is needed for the existing telephone number transfer from Cingular phone to iPhone. Didn't buy. Connected to PC (at home), downloaded itunes and everything went easily including the phone number transfer without a sim... Don't know if extra was charged to credit card through itunes as the rate part did not appear during the process!

[Prasad]

I agree with majority of individuals who commented about the title of this article stating 10,000s sold when the author's own calculation itself went in hundreds of thousands.

[Robert S Franklin]

We had 140 lined up for 20 phones at an AT&T store serving a population of 140,000.

It wasn't until 7:15 PM, when they actually sold out, that the store staff announced - to the remainder of the queue - that they would not get a phone. Much yelling and screaming at the manager followed, and a lot of pissed off people, many of which had been in line for 10 plus hours left in disgust.

Apple blew this big time... they lost many customers and unleashed bad PR the likes of which they will not easily recover.

[Jim Lane]

1. I thought the headline was very misleading.

2. I thought the author was lazy. His update added 50% to the Apple Store estimate but he neglected to update his AT&T number. He didn't produce an Apple Online Store estimate.

3. I noted that most of the critics who have posted here do not actually possess an iPhone. It is very lazy to critique a product you haven't personally tested. For example, I read comments from respondents who made very simple errors such as describing the keyboard only works in portrait position. I have purchased an 8GB iPhone, and have tested competing products from HP, Palm, and RIM.

4. The setup and activation was so straightforward that I actually received my first call while still inside the Apple Store. I do not recall ever reading or witnessing that sort of convenience in a smartphone purchase.

5. Having thoroughly tested the device, I find that the productivity advantages for a business user are so stark and plain, it reflects poorly on the user who has difficulty recorgnizing them. I have advised my clients not to discuss or "promote" the iPhone any more than they would discuss their own company intellectual property. My clients will reap a windfall if their competitors remain on Blackberries, Treos and Pocket PC devices.

6. I do not expect Palm, RIM and H-P to remain so defiantly satisfied as some of the commentators quote above. I fully expect they will be working at an extremely fast internal pace to avoid the potential of a sales catastrophe. I recommended their products very strongly to my clients commencing in 1999, and saw tremendous competitive productivity gains for those clients who were strong adopters of Blackberry, Treo etc, as I expect to see iPhone users record them now.

[Joseph D]

I agree with these other people, the person that wrote this article is an iDiot. This isn't journalism. I know for a fact that the apple store where I live, which is one of the smallest in the company as far as size and revenue, sold over 1100 iphones when they closed at midnight. 1100!! Imagine what the bigger stores sold, yeah they sold tens of thousand iPhones.....in Florida alone. Learn to write an article and do actual research.

[vincent]

Is this some kind of Double Speak ,I`m starting to see this a lot lately even with the fire there`s this weird rewording of what is really going on.

[sigs21]

Fire your Fact checker, very bad reporting.. 200k would be a huge sucess at 600 to 500 a phone plus the extra's

I am sure apple thanks every one for the free press.. but get it right you aren't any better then the obits sec writer..

[cody]

So funny how you poke at CNN on a junk article, but yet most of you are probably regulars at CNN. Do us a favor and shutup. I'm sure you would be better off at fox gay news site.

[chief]

not a beliver till my son came home with his. first thing monday morning i am changing my service. thats 2 more iphones(me and my wife)
bravo APPLE !!!!!!

[Billy Hicks]

Read and weep for those of you people bashing, iPhone fanatics!
http://ct.cnet-ssa.cnet.com/clicks?t=39070967-d7a78c23e62ba1724c7a41ff0ff763d9-bf&s=5&fs=0
I'll be shorting AAPL once all the hype suckers buy more stock, and help run the share price up!
Once iProfit, not one cent will be to buy the iPhod! (not a typo, it's the new name for an iPod you can talk on)

[TGC]

Go back to covering Paris Hilton.

[Sotek]

What a BS article! Completely misleading and inaccurate.

[Sotek]

What a BS article! Completely misleading and inaccurate.

[Bill Gates]

>"Read and weep for those of you people bashing, iPhone fanatics!
http://ct.cnet-ssa.cnet.com/clicks?t=39070967-d7a78c23e62ba1724c7a41ff0ff763d9-bf&s=5&fs=0
I'll be shorting AAPL once all the hype suckers buy more stock, and help run the share price up!
Once iProfit, not one cent will be to buy the iPhod! (not a typo, it's the new name for an iPod you can talk on)

Posted by: Billy Hicks | June 30, 2007 at 04:09 PM"

Did you even watch the video you posted? If getting an 8 of 10 is a bad review then you deserve to lose money shorting AAPL so go ahead, AAPL closed 122.04 last Friday, lets see where it'll be a few weeks from now :P http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=AAPL&t=1d&c=

See how tough the iPhone in this PCWorld Stress Test
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,133636/article.html

video link
http://www.pcworld.com/video/id,545-page,1-bid,0/video.html

[Money Go Finacial]

Me and my friend are doing some number crunching and we think this weekend (called about 50 stores) and we think Apple stores can net up to 150,000 units for the weekend.

Some stores in Cali (36 stores) had 800 people waiting out in front on friday and had to be limited to 2 iphones

New York/New Jersey has 21 stores too which had people camping in front of it 3 days before the release

And on top of that we have EXACT number shipped to all AT&T/Apple stores in IL/WI market daily

AT&T's 1800 stores should yield about 65 per store or almost 120,000

And we're ball parking that another 30,000 online

That brings us up to 300,000 nation wide.

Beats the typical 200,000 prediction

[Darryl]

Though I'm an Apple fan and do believe there are a lot of journalist that have an Apple reporting negative bias, I don't believe that this was the case here.
When I read the headlines, I saw clearly that the number was 10,000s.
Likely a poor choice to state it that way, but certainly not malicious.
The estimated figures in the body of the story appear to a reasonable attempt to estimate as well.
I'm all for pointing out a biased report when it's clear that the report is flawed. I don't think this is one of those times.

[SidinKeyWest]

Over the past few months Business 2.0 has published? many negative articles regarding Apple,Inc. With this posting you have lost any credibility you might have had.

[iPhone Lover]

You crazy, stupid people at business2.com, change the title of this article. :/

[Deedee]

My daughter just called me from her new IPhone she got today from a friend who stood in line at the Apple Store at the Grove in LA for NINE HOURS last night! And he bought TEN phones for friends who had placed orders with him. My daughter had NO problems getting going with her phone.

I am an old fogie-fifty something-who does not understand all this but I know a winner when I hear of one!!

[Billy Hicks]

What a bunch of haters posting on here!
May God forgive you, and spare the stock holders from the monetary losses they will soon have.

[Jim]

You last name should be Dimwit instead of Dewitt. Junk journalism is what you are good at.

[Rezzz]

Apple will report weekend sales on Monday and then we will see. While expectations (set by analysts like this one) were basically unachievable, I would not bet against them with this product launch. It is and will continue to be a very sucessful new handheld computing platform.

Rock on, Apple.

[free]

Very believable that this was the sell out that wasnt..

[PeteMazudo]

I cant believe all you Apple suck ups, the phone is cool as promised but its functionality sucks, it isnt any better than some of the other phones out there. Steve Jobs is a master marketer and he know he has a bunch of Apple loyalist that will buy whatever he is selling. Lets face it, the only reason apple has survived is because of the Ipod. It is the only product they have that is worth anything. I might get myself an iphone when AT@T starts giving them away. Kind of the like when the razor phone came out and they were $700. They cant give them away now. This technology will be old in the less than a year. Apple will have to find a way to keep up, I guess as long as they have a built crowd that will buy anything they will be fine. Good luck with ijunk

[Olden Atwoody]

The problem here is these "Bloggies" get ad revenue from your clicks aa well as free product from conniving hardware companies. Worse, these 'writers' often get CASH payments, i.e. bribes, to write up certain products. My take is this - if the so-called journalist gives you reason to question his ethics, then never log back to that stupid blog.

Statistics don't have an opinion, you iDiot.

[Steve]

Get a life, people. The article NEVER claimed that Apple estimated millions of units sold in the first day. It merely mentioned the amount Apple and AT&T have in stock. Take a pill, chill out and view this article for what it is--a simple estimate of first day sales.

At the end of the day, your iPhone still looks gorgeous, and you can still have wet dreams with it, regardless of how many others are sold.

[Steve mcCrapple.]

quit your whining Apple fanboys. You got your overpriced phone.. big deal. While I'd love to punch Jobs in the face for acting so smug all the time like everything that happened to Apple over the past 5 years is soley due to him, I'll eventually get a 2.0 version. Yeah.. the one to wait for with 3G, larger capacity and more enhancements. My friends jumped on this and some say if a 2.0 is released next year they may buy that too. A waste of money if you ask me, but they're all things Apple, which is what Apple was hoping for with this release. The bottom line is this was a disappointing release, regardless of the exact amount. The Wii, PSIII and even XB360 garnered more fevor at stores on the first day than this.

[Cass 2go]

Wow... Seems like there are quite a few people out who are all too willing to overlook important things (like networks a service runs on) for what is basically an overhyped piece of plastic. Have fun with that. I'll stick to my basic music phone which does the job just as well for hundreds less.

[Dorian]

I said no to the iPhone for the following reasons.

1. No voice dialing!

2. The keyboard is insconsistent in that in Safari, it can be tilted, but in other apps that use just as much text, it does not.

3. Price Gauging!

Go buy direct from Apple or Att and you have a miminum of $109.99 for a family plan. Now go buy a regular plan from ATT and get two free phones (I got two brand new razors), and you get for $59.99 the same amount of minutes. Then add the $20 internet (UNLIMITED) plan, and you have everything for $79.99. Buy the iPhone and you just saved $40 per month! That is $500 per year or two iphone with the two year contract!

The fact that this is happening, let me to the understanding of how much Att is reaping us off.

I mean, come on! Why aren't they subsidizing the phone just like any other phone? I just got two razors for FREE without ANY rebates! Compare that with the iPhone deal where if you cancel the contract you have to pay $175 even if they did NOT subsided the phone, and you can see the picture!

4. The price is just to high, for the price of this phone, you can get a mac mini. That's just to much for a phone, that can't voice dial, no voice recording, no video cam, the list goes on and on.

To top if all off, all this software that is supposed to be added later on via updates, is already in OSX. So why can't they provide it like, yesterday?

For $600, forget about it.

Period.

[Mike]

Apple is selling more than what was said in the blog. If you go to Apples website, you can see that all but 2 stores in CA are sold out (where apple has the most stores) , and that about 40% of all stores nationwide are sold out. I am glad I own APPLe stock!!

[Billy Hicks]

I'm glad I shorted AAPL stock and made a nice profit today. Buy more iPhods and run the price higher so I can sort it again. Thank you Apple junkies :)

[harry]

Its funny to read all the rubbish in here, including the 'article'.
Shorted Apple stock? - oh dear, it went up $5 today......

All the early reviews are in - everybody likes it a LOT, its obviously going to change the game - again.

They sold 500,000, not 10,000.

BTW, hows the Zune doing? Mwuahahahahahahahahaha!

[PC User]

Are the majority of Apple user's over the age of 14? What does a story about trying to estimate the number of Iphones have to do with the MS Zune.

It is like, we may be bad but you are worse mentality. Well I never have made a purchase decision based on how bad the competitors product is.

I love the people who estimate the sales from the line they saw in their part of the country. Where are those wonderful sales number to be released yesterday by Apple?

And sales less than 200,000 is NOT hundreds of thousands but tens of thousands. The title even alludes to maybe 100,000 of thousands but since the author is not a member of the Church of Steve Jobs, he is crucified.

Grow up. Some of us know better than to trust Jobs and co. They love to be quiet when the rumors benefit them and love to unleash their flying monkeys on the world when the rumors denigrate them. How about releasing sales numbers? Surely Itunes knows how many activations were performed if nothing else.

[Mike]

The title is fine. It seems completely clear that this article in no way claims to know how many phones were sold, just trying to give viable estimates....Of course if the title isn't "Apple can do no wrong" you will get tens of thousands maybe hundreds of thousands negative responses. There are plenty of articles estimating the number at 500,000 are you responding negatively to them as well if they don't have exact figures? Doubt it...