Apple’s iPhone X hits stores as profits soar
US tech giant firmly on course for $1 trillion valuation: analysts
PARIS, Nov 4, (Agencies): Apple’s flagship iPhone X hit stores around the world Friday, as the company predicted bumper sales despite the handset’s eye-watering price tag and celebrated a surge in profits.
Apple enthusiasts around the globe were lining up to get their hands on the new device which features facial recognition, cordless charging and an edge-to-edge screen made of organic light-emitting diodes used in high-end televisions.
The new gadget marks the 10th anniversary of the first iPhone release and is released in about 50 markets on Friday, starting in Asia and then followed by Europe and the Americas.
The launch came as Apple announced a 19-percent jump in net profit to $10.7 billion in the fiscal fourth quarter to September 30. Revenues were up 12 percent at $52.6 billion.
“If I don’t get it on the first day, I may as well wait until next year’s model — I don’t like waiting,” said Mathew Kam, a 21-year-old film student who has been queuing outside the Apple store on London’s Regent Street for 16 hours. The line had grown to around 100 by 0800 GMT.
In Paris, where a queue had also formed in front of the Apple Store near the French capital’s Garnier Opera house, 21-year-old engineering student Jeremy said he had worked throughout the summer so as to be able to treat himself to a new phone.
He bought the most expensive version of the model costing 1,300 euros, which is more than the minimum monthly wage in France.
In Frankfurt, Germany’s financial capital, Apple fans had been lining up since the early hours.
Timo, 16, said when he arrived at 7:30 am (0630 GMT), the queue already stretched about 100 metres. “I wanted to be one of the first to see it,” he said.
Tim, a teacher, had travelled around 80 kms from Heidelberg to collect the phone he had ordered online. “All the reserved models were sold out within 10 minutes,” he recalled.
The new device was not creating such a buzz in the Greek capital of Athens, however, where no queues formed in front of the licensed Apple
dealer in the city’s chic Kolonaki quarter. But the company’s marketing officer in Athens, Natalia Revela, insisted she was expecting “strong demand” and a “successful launch” for the phone.
Vyron Hatzidromou, a 38-year-old lawyer, said he “never missed” a new Apple launch. “I always buy the latest models when they come out for the hype and the fun,” he said.
The 1,300-euro price tag is nearly three times the minimum monthly salary in Greece. It was certainly expensive, “but worth it,” Hatzidromou said.
Earlier in Asia, buyers ho had preordered the phone online queued to pick up their new purchases, saying they were willing to pay for what they saw as a landmark model.
“It’s the 10th anniversary phone — anyway, other phones like the Samsung are not much less,” said
banker Tony Yeung, 35, as he queued outside the Apple store in Hong Kong’s Festival Walk mall.
Around 300 customers waited overnight outside Singapore’s Apple store, the first shop in Southeast Asia to sell the new model.
Apple Inc’s shares rose to a record high on Friday as more analysts set a trillion-dollar valuation on the company, following a blowout fourth quarter and an upbeat forecast that quashed investor concerns around the iPhone X.
The stock rose as much as 3.7 percent to $174.26, briefly breaching $900 billion in market value, amid declines in the broader market. The gains added nearly $32 billion to the company’s market capitalization.
The Cupertino, California-based company also forecast a strong holiday quarter ahead, which will include the iPhone X that started selling on Nov. 3.
“We see iPhone X unlocking pentup iPhone upgrades, especially in China, driving more than 20 percent iPhone unit growth and a revenue and earnings beat in 2018,” analyst Katy Huberty on Morgan Stanley said.
The glass-and-steel $999 phone appeared to have brought back the frenzy associated with iPhone launches - long lines formed outside Apple stores across the world as fans flocked to buy the new phone.
The company will make 30 million iPhone X units during the current quarter, Nomura Instinet analysts estimated, allaying production worries related to the phone.
IPhone X’s launch follows weeks of concerns among analysts about the production of the phone, which for the first time includes new facial identification software to replace the fingerprint used on previous phones.