Iphone 5 takes big bite of market
Apple now scrambling to fill demand
Apple Inc. is poised for a record iPhone 5 debut and may not be able to keep up with demand as customers lined up in Sydney, Tokyo, Paris and New York to pick up the latest model of its top-selling product.
Global sales started at the Apple Store in Sydney’s George Street at 8 a.m., as about 500 people waited to buy the device. Sales also began Friday in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Germany, France, the U.K., Canada and the U.S. With a new wireless contract, the device costs $199, $299 and $399 in the U.S., depending on the amount of memory.
Keenen Thompson, 22, waited in line for three days to be among the first to snag an iPhone at Apple’s flagship store on Fifth Avenue in New York.
“It’s extremely exciting,” said Thompson, who works in fashion media. “It’s more about the experience and all the people I met and got to hang out with. We decided we might come stand in line even earlier next year.”
The crowds reinforce estimates from analysts that the iPhone 5 will be the largest consumer-electronics debut in history.
Apple may sell as many as 10 million iPhones in the weekend sales rush, said Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray Cos. Because Apple generates about two-thirds of its profit from the iPhone, a successful debut is critical to fuel growth that has led investors to catapult Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple to the world’s most valuable company.
Apple climbed less than one per cent to $700.10 at the close in New York. The stock has gained 73 per cent this year.
“We’ve never seen anything like this before,” said Andrew McAfee, principal research scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Digital Business.
“It used to be that with tech products the nerds got them, obsessed about them and talked about them, and the cool kids wanted no part of that conversation. That’s just not true anymore.”
Apple may have trouble keeping up with initial demand because of supply shortages of components such as in-cell screen displays, says Barclays PLC. Already, the company had to push out some deliveries to October after early online purchases topped two million in 24 hours, double the record set last year with the iPhone 4S.
Apple is introducing the iPhone across the world faster than any of the device’s five previous debuts. The iPhone will go on sale in 22 more countries on Sept. 28, Apple said, and it will be in more than 100 countries by the end of the year.
Steve Wozniak, who cofounded Apple with Steve Jobs, was among those waiting at an Apple Store before the opening. He wrote on Twitter that he was in line in Australia to pick up the new iPhone.
In Sydney, the first 11 places in line were taken up by companies using the sale to promote their own business. Some of them were there since Sept. 18, and were paid as much as A$200 ($210 US) a day to stand and advertise for business.
At the Apple Store in Tokyo’s shopping district Ginza, about 750 people had lined up by 8 a.m.
The new iPhone has a bigger screen, lightweight body design and faster microprocessor, and is compatible with speedier wireless networks. Software upgrades include new mapping and turn-by-turn navigation features.
Technology gadget reviewers mostly praised the new device, especially for its swifter wireless speeds that improve web browsing and other datahungry tasks. One criticism was the new mapping features, which don’t include details on how to navigate public transportation.
The benefits of a successful iPhone debut extend beyond Apple. Suppliers including Qualcomm Inc., Broadcom Corp., LG Display and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., the owner of Foxconn Technology Co., also will see a gain, Barclays says.