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Apple Will Not Release First Weekend Sales Numbers for iPhone 7 Due to Demand Outweighing Supply

Thursday September 8, 2016 7:29 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
apple-iphone7Apple, in a statement provided to CNBC, has announced that it will not be releasing first weekend sales numbers for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, as it feels the results are "no longer a representative metric" due to demand outweighing supply.
“We expect iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will be incredibly popular with customers and we are thrilled to begin taking pre-orders on September 9. Customers will receive their new iPhones starting September 16.

In years past, we’ve announced how many new iPhones had been sold as of the first weekend following launch. But as we have expanded our distribution through carriers and resellers to hundreds of thousands of locations around the world, we are now at a point where we know before taking the first customer pre-order that we will sell out of iPhone 7.

These initial sales will be governed by supply, not demand, and we have decided that it is no longer a representative metric for our investors and customers. Therefore we won’t be releasing a first-weekend number any longer. We are reiterating the financial guidance for the September quarter that we provided on July 26.”
In a research note last week, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said mass production of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus did not begin until the second half of August, later than expected, as Apple's supply chain faced issues ramping up production due to challenging requirements for IPX7 water resistance.

The statement has ignited concern among some investors about potentially weaker iPhone sales numbers. Kuo himself revised his iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus shipments forecast to 20 to 25 million units in the quarter, compared to his original estimate of 30 million units. AAPL is currently down around 2% to $106.20 in intraday trading following the announcement.

Apple's first weekend sales had increased sequentially for each iPhone launch between the iPhone 4s in 2011 and iPhone 6s in 2015:

• iPhone 6s and 6s Plus Sales Top Thirteen Million in Launch Weekend
• iPhone 6 and 6 Plus Sales Top Ten Million in Launch Weekend
• iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c Sales Top Nine Million in Launch Weekend
• iPhone 5 Sales Top Five Million in Launch Weekend
• iPhone 4S Sales Top 4 Million as 25 Million Users Move to iOS 5

Apple reiterated its financial guidance of between $45.5 billion and $47.5 billion in revenue for the fourth fiscal quarter.

Related Roundup: iPhone 7
Tag: AAPL
[ 297 comments ]


Top Rated Comments

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samac92
33 months ago
They don't want "iPhone 7 less popular than iPhone 6s" headlines to spoil the launch weekend.
Rating: 50 Votes
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BMcCoy
33 months ago
= we know it's going to be a flop.
Rating: 42 Votes
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spiderman0616
33 months ago
Apple: Launch weekend numbers are not useful anymore, always get spun as negative, and are always limited by supply no matter what that supply number is. Therefore we're just not going to bother reporting it anymore.

MacRumors forum trolls: This phone is a flop.

God I hate this site sometimes.
Rating: 38 Votes
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Mac Rules
33 months ago
So that's a flop then.

The non-existant Apple Watch numbers have always inspired such confidence.
Rating: 32 Votes
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Rogifan
33 months ago

They don't want "iPhone 7 less popular than iPhone 6s" headlines to spoil the launch weekend.

Exactly. Smart. I'm glad they've stopped releasing sales figures outside of earnings calls. No one else does it. All it does is create a big fat unnecessary target that they're probably not going to surpass anymore now that the market is more mature/saturated.
Rating: 29 Votes
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scottish
33 months ago
Supply more then.
Rating: 28 Votes
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BootsWalking
33 months ago

99% of the people who use this forum want to see Apple burn. They take every news story or PR statement as negative because they like to bend the facts to fit their narrative.

But how short their memory is. For the last few years, it's very common for Apple to get slammed for their iPhone launch weekend numbers. If the number is really high but iPhones are readily available, people say nobody is interested in them and Apple made too many thinking it was going to be a bigger hit than it really turned out to be. If the number is really low but sold out, people say Apple predicted the phone was going to flop and didn't make enough or that they engineered the sellout to make it look like it was a bigger hit than it really was.

They are damned if they do and damned if they don't. If they remove the launch numbers from the conversation, then at least that's one more thing I have to hear everyone whine about the following Monday morning every year.


99% of people on this forum are Apple customers so I don't think they want to see Apple burn - but many might want to see Apple punished for making business decisions that work against the interest of their customers, like removing a headphone jack or failing to innovate to the level they want. And not punished for punishment sake but to help steer Apple in a better direction for the future.
Rating: 22 Votes
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JEDB
33 months ago
Smells fishy
Rating: 19 Votes
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spiderman0616
33 months ago

Very strange response in the forums here.

Apple have clearly stated here that the 7 and 7 Plus will sell out, which will understate first weekend sales.

The story is that supplies will be limited, not that demand will be flat!

99% of the people who use this forum want to see Apple burn. They take every news story or PR statement as negative because they like to bend the facts to fit their narrative.

But how short their memory is. For the last few years, it's very common for Apple to get slammed for their iPhone launch weekend numbers. If the number is really high but iPhones are readily available, people say nobody is interested in them and Apple made too many thinking it was going to be a bigger hit than it really turned out to be. If the number is really low but sold out, people say Apple predicted the phone was going to flop and didn't make enough or that they engineered the sellout to make it look like it was a bigger hit than it really was.

They are damned if they do and damned if they don't. If they remove the launch numbers from the conversation, then at least that's one more thing I have to hear everyone whine about the following Monday morning every year.
Rating: 18 Votes
Avatar
Jmausmuc
33 months ago

Apple: Launch weekend numbers are not useful anymore, always get spun as negative, and are always limited by supply no matter what that supply number is. Therefore we're just not going to bother reporting it anymore.

MacRumors forum trolls: This phone is a flop.

God I hate this site sometimes.

Because you actually believe the cheapest of PR bs...

You probably also believe that Apple wouldn't have released the watch sales figures, even if it had sold exceptionally well....
Rating: 16 Votes

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