This morning, Apple issued a press release announcing that the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c have sold more than 9 million units in their first three days of sales after launching on Friday in the US, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the UK. Apple has also announced that iOS 7, released last Wednesday, has already been installed on over 200 million iOS devices (of the over 700 million that, according to Apple, have been sold to date).
This is our best iPhone launch yet―more than nine million new iPhones sold―a new record for first weekend sales,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The demand for the new iPhones has been incredible, and while we’ve sold out of our initial supply of iPhone 5s, stores continue to receive new iPhone shipments regularly. We appreciate everyone’s patience and are working hard to build enough new iPhones for everyone.
9 million units sold over the opening weekend is a new record for the company. Last year, Apple announced that the iPhone 5 topped 5 million sales over the opening weekend, with 100 million devices updated to iOS 6. In 2011, Apple sold 4 million iPhone 4S units in the first weekend, and, in 2010, they sold 1.7 million iPhone 4 units.
The iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, and iOS 7 launched to positive reviews that mentioned the solid hardware construction and Touch ID feature on the new iPhones, and the modern design and new functionalities such as Control Center and improved multitasking for iOS 7. Both the iPhone 5s and 5c generated long lines at Apple retail stores around the globe, partially thanks to the lack of pre-orders for the iPhone 5s (for the iPhone 5c, there were online pre-orders, but Apple didn’t release official numbers).
Also of note in this year’s launch is the addition of China to the first round of countries, as well as the fact that, in today’s press release, there is no mention of a second round of countries. Apple also announced that “over 11 million unique listeners have already tuned in to iTunes Radio since launch” with the most listened to song being “Hold On, We’re Going Home” by Drake.