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Apple's iPhone 5s And iPhone 5c Sell 9M Units Over Opening Weekend, Topping 5M For iPhone 5 Last Year

Apple has just issued a press release revealing it sold 9M iPhones during the launch weekend of its iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s.  As is typical for the company with new hardware …

TechCrunch Darrell Etherington

Context & Ripple Effects

Apple’s opening-weekend benchmark rose from four million iPhone 4S units in 2011 to five million iPhone 5 units in 2012. The 2013 launch spreads demand across two new models, so product mix matters alongside the aggregate sales result; earlier coverage had already identified legacy iPhones as pressure on average selling prices.

First-order effects

  • Apple enters the iPhone 5s and 5c cycle with a nine-million-unit opening-weekend demand signal, materially above the prior iPhone 5 launch benchmark.
  • Apple must manage supply and pricing across the 5s and 5c rather than a single new flagship, making each model’s share of the total commercially important.

Second-order effects

  • Apple’s unit total alone does not settle the revenue impact: the split between the 5s and 5c will shape whether higher launch volume offsets the average-selling-price pressure associated with older iPhones.
  • The two-model launch makes inventory allocation a sharper operating decision for Apple, because demand concentrated in either model would leave the other’s supply less useful.

Third-order effects

  • If Apple continues opening iPhone cycles with multiple new models, launch performance will increasingly be judged by segment mix and pricing discipline, not only by a single opening-weekend unit record.

The trend: The iPhone launch is evolving from a single-model sales event into a portfolio launch in which volume and model mix jointly determine the business outcome.

Related: Apple · iPhone · iPhone 5 First Weekend Sales Top Five Million · Legacy iPhones Biting Apple in the ASP

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