In line with its announcement from earlier this month, Apple today launched the iPhone 5 in 33 new countries, with the most prominent member of the group being China.
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Unlike the chaos that reigned at the iPhone 4S launch earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal reports that the iPhone 5 appears to have been quite subdued. It is unclear, however, how much of the change may be due to lack of interest and how much may have been related to snowy weather and changes in Apple's sales policies designed to reduce scalping and other factors that have led to problems at previous launches.
Friday’s iPhone 5 launch was notable for a different kind of white: a rare accumulation of fresh snow that blanketed the nearly empty plaza outside the Sanlitun store.
At 8 am on Friday, when the store opened to hurrahs from employees, only two consumers stood inside a cordon set up by Apple, though they were joined by a desultory snow man someone had made on a bench near the entrance.
Apple's new sales policies require customers to enter a lottery for the right to purchase an iPhone in the store, with winners being given specific windows of time in which to pick up their devices.
Fortune has also collected a handful of videos showing launches in China, Malaysia, and the Philippines that were part of today's major rollout in the following countries: Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Ecuador, Grenada, Indonesia, Israel, Jamaica, Jordan, Kuwait, Macedonia, Malaysia, Moldova, Montenegro, Panama, Paraguay, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela.
Top Rated Comments
Apple is riding high on consumer sales in the most profitable market segments.
They are experiencing success greater than ever in their history, and arguably, greater than any company in history.
Eventually, the sun will die too. But don't hold your breath for either event.
And you're basing this on?
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We heard the same stories about no lines the day the iPad mini came out. Heck I was able to walk right into an Apple store and get one no problem. Now NPD is claiming Apple is asking for 12 million displays for this quarter. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57559159-37/ipad-mini-set-to-eclipse-retina-ipad/
I don't think lines outside a store are indicative of anything these days.
I really do hope this iPhone/iPad thing blows over and fizzles. I wont Apple to go back to making computers for professionals. Yes cut out all the consumer orients "glossy" screens and put all thos engineers back to work on Mac OS X and the suite of props, like Logic and Aperture. So what if they have a 2% market share, you can choose to be in this 2% club if you like.
Eventually this WILL happen.
What are you basing this on? Sales figures beat out antidotal evidence of people standing outside a store. Especially in China where they have a reservation system. But I'm not surprised FUD is driving the stock down.
This is very, very bad news. The iPhone accounts for a huge chunk of Apple's profits. If not for the iPhone, Apple would not be the same company. It would not be a huge corporate name brand as it currently is.
And now it looks like there may be significantly less demand for the newest iPhone in China?
The stock is currently down more than 3%.