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The truth about the iPhone's sales numbers |
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Written by Daniel
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Wednesday, 23 January 2008 |
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The truth about the iPhone's sales numbers
By Jacqui Cheng | Published: January 23, 2008 - 11:30AM CT
ARS Technica The iPhone has managed to stay atop the news almost constantly since its launch last June—and sales haven't been too shabby either. Market research firm Gartner said that the company managed to capture 20 percent of smartphone sales during the third quarter of 2007, second only to RIM with the heavyweight BlackBerry at 39 percent. During last week's Macworld 2008 keynote, CEO Steve Jobs proudly announced that the iPhone topped smartphone sales by Palm, Nokia, and Motorola combined, right out of the gate.
But there have been some doubters. Skeptics have long said that the Apple won't be able to maintain the momentum after the early rush of Apple fans get their fill of iPhones. And since the iPhone's launch in the UK, Germany, and France last November, there have been rumblings that the device just isn't taking off overseas with the same vigor as it has in the US (and may not until there's a 3G version available). One Apple Store employee at London's Regent Street store recently told Ars that "sales have not been as good as the stores have hoped."
Now, The Inquirer has a piece claiming that iPhone sales overall are "dropping off real fast." This conclusion was drawn after doing some math on Apple's self-reported sales numbers. "Now we get to the interesting bit. The company gave a cumulative total of 1,389,000 to the end of Q3. If you add in Q4's figure, you get 3,704,000," notes the Inquirer. "So we've got a missing 296,000. Let's say there's 14 days between 30th December 2007 and the 200th day. That's a mere 21,142 units a day. Nothing near the 200,000 units figure which everybody was banding about."
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