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iPhone sell out as buyers take
home 2 lakh phones
3 June, 2007
It was expected to be a rage. And it
is. Apple’s iPhone has reportedly
surpassed all expectations with as
many as 2,00,000 phones sold out on
the first day of its arrival.
An industry review said that shoppers
bought as many as 200,000 units the
first day after the iPhone went on
sale on June 29, 2007. The report,
which cited the Global Equities
Research in San Francisco, said that
estimates had ranged between 50,000
and 200,000 iPhones. During the
weekend, Apple may have sold as many
as 500,000 iPhones. AT&T Inc, the
exclusive provider of wireless service
for the iPhone, said most of its 1,800
stores sold out within 24 hours. AT&T
sold 72,000 iPhones while Apple sold
an estimated 128,000 iPhones on the
first day.
Celebrity customers were part of the
iPhone revolution as film director
Spike Lee and actress Whoopi Goldberg
took home the first two iPhones. The
rush has been too huge to handle,
forcing dealers to set some norms.
Customers are currently allowed one
iPhone each at AT&T's stores and two
at Apple's outlets. There's a wait of
two to four weeks for customers who
order iPhones online from Apple. The
feature that brings in the
capabilities of Apple's iPod with a
handset equipped for web pages and
e-mail, pitting the product against
less expensive products from Nokia Oyj,
Samsung Electronics Co., Research In
Motion Ltd. and Palm Inc, has made the
iPhone a rage, it is felt.
Meanwhile, an elated Apple boss Steve
Jobs hopes to make the iPhone
profitable for the company just like
the iPod. A report said that Jobs
expects the iPhone to be Apple's third
main business, alongside the iPod
music player, and Macintosh computer.
The latter two generate $10 billion in
annual sales each. The company expects
that in 2009, a third of Apple's sales
will be from iPhone.
The iPhone, which costs $499 and $599
in stores, sold online for an average
price of $740, with the highest at
about $12,500, a report quoting online
retailer EBay Inc officials said.
Apple aims at selling as many as 10
million iPhones in 2008, capturing one
percent of the global market for
handsets. According to Steve jobs,
consumers will buy one billion mobile
phones next year, which would be
almost four times the number of
personal computers sold.
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