Have The Missing iPhones Been Found?
01.29.08 - 02:06pm
Ever since Steve Jobs announced in his keynote address at Macworld that the company had sold 3.7 million iPhones analysts everywhere have been crunching the numbers and coming up with a differentiation between Apple’s numbers and the cell phone’s companies activation numbers. A 1.4 million differentiation.
What happened to the phones? First it was believed that they were stuck in stores backlog inventory waiting to be sold. Now after careful research by Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray and A.M. Sacconaghi, Jr. of Sanford C. Bernste the thought is that the iPhones are out there, sold and unlocked.
Munster monitored Apple stores in New York, San Francisco and Minneapolis and reported that 40% of the people buying the phones were buying 2 at a time. He also said “The majority of the people who were buying more than one phone were Asian, and they were bringing small buses of people who all buy more than one phone.” Conclusion was simple. They were taking the phones back to Asia, unlocking them and using them there.
“We believe Apple can sell 45 million iPhones in calendar year 2009,” said analysts from Piper. “While this may seem like a bold prediction, we believe a number in this area is not as far of a reach as some may think.”
