Once again, it looks like Steve Jobs has pulled it off.
According to preliminary numbers, about 500,000 iPhones have been sold since they became available at 6pm on Friday:
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Opening weekend sales of iPhones may have reached 500,000, according to an analyst’s estimate, as Apple’s much anticipated product saw sales that lived up to and even exceeded its hype.
Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster released a report Sunday night estimating that the iPhone sales would reach that mark through the close of business Sunday. He had previously forecast first weekend sales of 200,000 of the device, which sells for either $499 or $599.
“Overall, Apple met strong demand over the weekend with adequate supply,” he wrote in the report. “We were surprised by the rate at which Apple was able to sell the handsets, with 50 cashiers processing up to 1,000 iPhones an hour in some stores.”
Apple (Charts, Fortune 500) was not immediately available to comment on that estimate early Monday. It has set a goal of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008, and analysts are generally looking for it to sell about 3 million units this year. The phones went on sale at 6 p.m. Friday, with long lines outside many Apple Stores.
In fact, it seems as though Apple may have underestimated demand:
100 percent of Apple Stores had the phones available on Saturday and 84 percent had them available on Sunday. The Apple Web site showed mixed availability for the phones at its various Apple Store retail outlets nationwide heading into Monday, though, and virtually all of the 1,800 retail locations for AT&T were out of the phones heading into Monday. The Apple Web site said the availability listings for its stores were current as of 9 p.m. Sunday.
Just about every Apple Store in California was out of the iPhone except for two in San Francisco. But in New York only one Apple Store, in Smith Haven Mall in Lake Grove, was reported out of the iPhone, while the other 11 stores in the state had them available, as did the 12 stores in neighboring New Jersey and Connecticut.
Seattle’s University Village Apple Store reportedly had the iPhone, but the other three stores in the state were out, while in Texas, the two Apple Stores in Austin were out of the phone, as was the Dallas store, but the other nine other stores in the state had the phone.
Apple’s Web site also reported two to four weeks for deliveries of purchases made online.
I did try out the iPhone at the Apple Store at Tysons Corner on Saturday. The interface is even cooler than I thought it was going to be, although, it would take a little bit of practice getting used to the number pad and keyboard. Sound for the music seemed great. And web browsing, while slow, is closer to the true Internet than you get on most phones today.
But this is only the 1st generation iPhone. I look forward to seeing what it’s like in a few years when I’m ready to consider a new phone again.
Update: According to this article, linked by Brendan Loy, 85% of the people who purchased iPhones this weekend bought the $ 600 8GB model. That translate to a gross revenue just under $ 300,000,000 in less that three days !
Update # 2: Meanwhile, Paul at Wizbang reports on what may be the first stolen iPhone:
I just got off the phone with a client. He went to breakfast Saturday morning and as he was being seated he noticed a shiny new iPhone that the owner had placed on the table while he ate. Apparently both the owner of the phone and his wife left the table at the same time briefly and when they returned, the iPhone had been stolen.
He had owned it about 12 hours.
I’m not sure why anyone would take it, it’s not like AT&T will let it on the network again. I guess the thief just wanted some bling to impress his peeps.
Heh
