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Posts tagged with "iPhone"

Sprint Q4 2011 Results: 1.8 Million iPhones Sold, 45% Of New Customers Bought iPhone

Sprint has just announced their Q4 2011 financial results, revealing that they sold 1.8 million iPhones. 40% of those iPhones sold were to new Sprint customers, a high percentage and one that was needed for Sprint. After continued losses, Sprint needed to add more customers to its network and in Q4 it achieved 1.6 million new users - meaning 45% of those new subscribers signed up with an iPhone.

“Our strong fourth quarter performance illustrates the power of matching iconic devices like the iPhone with our simple, unlimited plans and industry-leading customer experience,” said Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO

It follows the financial results from Verizon and AT&T a few weeks ago where it was revealed that Verizon sold 2.2 million iPhones and AT&T sold 7.6 million iPhones.

View the full Sprint press release after the break.

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Why The iPhone’s Average Selling Price Increased Despite The “Free” iPhone 3GS

Earlier this week Apple released its Q1 2012 financial results and it was a blockbuster quarter, Apple’s best ever with $46.33 billion in revenue. One of the key factors that drove this sky-high figure was the sale of 37 million iPhones at an average selling price (ASP) of $660 — iPhone sales actually contributed to 53% of Apple’s revenue for the quarter.

Significantly, this was the first full quarter where Apple offered a “free” iPhone in the US to customers going on contract — the iPhone 3GS. Previously Apple had offered the 3GS alongside the iPhone 4 at a reduced price, but with the 4S the iPhone 4 fell to $99 and the 3GS became free. One would have presumed that the iPhone ASP would thus fall with the addition of another lower-priced iPhone model but in fact the ASP increased from the previous quarter and at $660 the iPhone ASP is near the highest it has ever been.

How has the ASP risen despite the presence of the “free” 3GS?

There are a few reasons as to why the ASP has increased and a big reason is that in addition to the new lower-priced 3GS ($345), Apple also introduced the 64GB iPhone 4S that is at a higher price-point ($849) than the previously most-expensive iPhone. This new higher-priced model would seem to have offset any reduction in the ASP that the iPhone 3GS would have caused - particularly given Q1 2012 was the 4S launch quarter and demand was very high for the new iPhone model.

Whilst Apple didn’t give out details on what the breakdown was of sales between the iPhone 4S, 4 and 3GS, an estimate from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners suggests that in the last quarter the iPhone 4S represented 89% of all iPhone purchases in the US. The report showed that only 4% of iPhone purchases last quarter were for the 3GS and 7% for the iPhone 4. This backs up the notion that the higher-priced iPhone 4S 64GB model (estimated to be 21% of iPhone 4S purchases) actually offset any decrease in the ASP and probably drove the increase in ASP to $660.

How will the iPhone ASP fare in the following quarters?

As Horace Dediu of Asymco points out, there is usually a slight uptick in the iPhone ASP during a launch and holiday season. This would suggest that in the following quarters the ASP may decrease a little as the high launch demand for the 4S subsides a little. It is unlikely to drop that much though, with the iPhone ASP typically hovering somewhere between $620 and $660. Dediu also investigated the historical ASPs for the iPhone, iPad, iPod and Mac and found that “Apple does not change pricing but rather stakes out a specific price point as resonating with consumers given their positioning”. The above chart demonstrates this point quite well.

[Sources: MacRumors, Asymco, AllThingsD]

2012, The Next iPhone, And LTE

The iPhone 4S, released in October, was supposed to feature LTE connectivity, at least according to some of the rumors that were floating around at the time. The device turned out to feature faster 3G downloads at 14.4 Mbps through HSPDA, which is an enhanced version of the 3G protocol that has been around for a while, but still isn’t as widely adopted as you would expect from a technology that Apple decided to use in a major iPhone upgrade. In Italy, for instance, few areas have access to HSDPA, not to mention HSPA+.

(Note: although commonly referred to as “4G” the current revision of LTE doesn’t meet the requirements for 4G connectivity yet. The LTE Advanced standard does conform to 4G requirements, but it’s likely that you’ll see the term “LTE” associated with 4G simply because it’s a major leap forward in terms of wireless connectivity)

Now, the debate as to whether Apple should have made the 4S an LTE iPhone or should have an LTE iPhone 5 this year is making the rounds again. Unlike previous debates, fortunately this time we have someone who’s trying to make some sense out of this and cut through the haze of rumors and theories to point out that, actually, it wouldn’t make much sense business-wise for Apple to implement LTE in the near term. Why? Because of all those 37 million iPhones Apple has sold in the quarter that ended on December 31, very few of them were sold in areas where LTE is available. Read: the United States, some parts of Denmark and Sweden, some cities in Canada, and Saudi Arabia. The “4G” rollout in countries other than the US is a slow process, and the ones mentioned above have a very small percentage of their spectrum covered by active LTE networks – they’re basically in the middle of initial testing right now. And even in the US, Chris Foreman assumes that whilst the major carriers have all implemented LTE or will start relatively soon, only half of subscribers would be covered in 2012, thus reducing the potential addressable market to 15% of iPhone customers worldwide. Why would Apple make an LTE iPhone for 15% of its entire customer base?

According to fourth quarter 2011 results, AT&T activated 4.1 million iPhones, while Verizon activated 4.2 million. Sprint would not disclose the number of iPhones it activated last quarter, but we feel safe in assuming that number is less than 4 million. Assuming Sprint was able to activate (perhaps a generous) 2 million or so iPhones, only a little over a quarter of iPhones were sold in the US. The other three-quarters, then, are sold in areas with practically no LTE coverage.

It goes deeper. You might argue that, yes, Apple could make an exception because they have made some in the past. But the WiFi-less 3GS and camera-less iPhone 4S were necessary modifications to get these devices on sale, otherwise they wouldn’t have gotten regulatory approval. It’s not like Apple is forced to implement LTE, especially considering the enhanced 3G still isn’t as widely adopted as the company hopes.

The LTE iPhone is primarily the result of months of speculation and countless rumors based on nothing. No evidence. Perhaps a few code strings here and there, but then again – go trust those code references these days. For all we know, the LTE iPhone doesn’t exist.

Or does it? A popular counterargument I often get is that Apple experiments with all kinds of new technologies in their labs; they take a look at new specifications and standards, and consider whether they should be worth investing more research and development resources for possible future implementations. I get it, and it’s entirely plausible that Apple engineers have at least looked at current LTE chips utilized by several Android handsets. But I don’t know how far they may have gotten into actually testing these chips, if only for verification purposes, at the light of Cook’s multiple remarks in the past about concerns regarding the effects these chips have on battery life. Those bigger screens Android makers tout in their commercials might be a requirement, rather than a feature. But I digress.

Another popular theory is that new LTE chips by Qualcomm, a component supplier Apple is already using, should become available in the first half of this year and, based on published specifications, allow device makers to considerably cut down on battery usage and required space. These new chips are smaller, consume less power and are made by a company Apple already buys components from. The next iPhone will have LTE! Not so fast. Read more

More iPhones Than Babies Born Every Day→

More iPhones Than Babies Born Every Day

Matthew Panzarino for The Next Web:

The 37.04M iPhone figure divided out over the period of 98 days in the quarter gives us a slightly lower number at 377.9K sold every day, but it’s still higher than the world’s average birth rate which clocks in at 371K per day.

If those numbers are correct, and we believe that they are, Apple is now making iPhones at a rate that exceeds the amount of babies that humans produce on earth every day. This number is likely to be transient as the birth rate isn’t static and Apple’s first quarter normally gets a bump in sales from the Christmas shopping season which subsides in the second.

The iPhone’s sales numbers in Q1 2012 are absolutely amazing – imagine what will happen with the “redesigned” iPhone later this year when iPhone 4 customers will be looking for an upgrade.

Also: Wembley Stadium has a reported capacity of 90,000 people. To reach the 37 million units sold by Apple, each person in Wembley Stadium would have to carry 411 iPhones in his pocket. That’s how many iPhones Apple sold last quarter. [image via]

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How Many iPhones Did Apple Sell In Q1 2012?

Philip Elmer-Dewitt reports on analysts’ expectations for iPhone sales in Apple’s first financial quarter of 2012 (which ended last week):

The numbers from the 22 Wall Street analysts who have responded so far to our call for estimates range from a high of 35 million iPhones from BTIG’s Walter Piecyk to a low of 25.2 million from Gabelli’s Hendi Susanto. The average among this group is 29.74 million, which would represent a year-over-year increase of 83%.

The average among our panel of 15 independents – an assortment of bloggers, enthusiasts and individual investors – is 33.42 million iPhones, or an annual increase of nearly 106%. Among this group, the estimates range from a high of 35.75 million from Posts at Eventide’s Robert Paul Leitao to a low of 30.17 million from Alexis Cabot of the MacObserver’s Apple Finance Board.

To put these predictions in context, here’s how Apple performed in its previous Q1s:

And here’s a graph showing every iPhone quarter to date:

Predictions for Q1 2012 (results will be announced on January 24) now range between 25.2 million and 35.75 million iPhones sold. Either way, it’s going to be a “blow-out quarter” for iPhone sales – even if we consider Apple’s Q3 2011, the biggest ever for iPhone sales to date with 20.34 million units sold.

It’ll be interesting to observe how Asia-Pacific will perform in relation to iPhone sales, too, as Apple reported overall sales more than doubled in Q4 2011. As for Q1 2012 itself, Apple CEO Tim Cook said they were confident to have enough 4S supply to go through the holiday season, and also confirmed the company was expecting record iPhone sales for the quarter with revenue guidance set at $37 billion (Asymco’s Horace Dediu, however, expects revenue to hit $44 billion).

Kickstarter: TidyTilt, a Smart Cover Design with Smart Options for the iPhone

There are more manufacturers and designs for the iPhone than probably any other accessory in the market. Many look nice, others have gimmicks and some are just wrong. The TidyTilt is a new iPhone 4S accessory by Zahra Tashakorinia & Derek Tarnow, 2 students at the IIT Institute of Design in Chicago, that aims to be a unique multi-functional earbud holder, kickstand and mount for the iPhone 4 and 4S.

Video after the break. Read more

Zephyr Jailbreak Tweak Enables Cohesive iPhone Multitasking Gestures

The iPad brought four (or five) finger gestures for multitasking in iOS 5, but due to the screen size, the iPhone didn’t receive the same gestures. Today however, Grant Paul (known more commonly as chpwn) has released a jailbreak tweak that brings gestures to the iPhone for those same multitasking functions.

The tweak, named Zephyr, is available on the Cydia store and is currently made up of two key gestures. The first is based on Max Rudberg’s concept video from earlier this month, and is essentially a single finger swipe up from the bottom of the screen (ie. the Notification Center gesture but from the bottom of the screen, moving up) and it reveals the multitasking tray. The second gesture is swiping in from the sides of the iPhone screen, allowing you to go back to your last opened app and then back again.

Emulating the gesture functions of the iPad and iOS 5, this Zephyr tweak looks and works really well and it’s clear that Paul took the time and effort to perfect how it works. It’s available for jailbroken devices for $2.99 on the Cydia store. Unlike some other, similar tweaks, Zephyr does not require Activator or other jailbreak tweaks to work.

Paul says he is looking to update the tweak with more gestures and actions in the future, including perhaps a gesture to exit to the home screen (as is possible with the iPad on iOS 5). You can view a demonstration of the tweak below the break.

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Microsoft Continues iOS App Rollout with OneNote for iPad and SkyDrive for iPhone

Microsoft has been rolling out quite a few apps lately, now introducing Microsoft OneNote for the iPad and SkyDrive for the iPhone (and Windows Phone). It looks like Microsoft really is bringing Microsoft Office to the iPad with these notable releases, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. OneNote is a mobile companion for the desktop app (not an addition to), and SkyDrive is Dropbox-esque in its execution. Handy to have with you? You bet. Alternative replacements for the real things? Probably not so much.

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Tapbots Release First Ever #TweetbotSale

Tapbots, creators of awesome iPhone apps such as Calcbot, Weightbot, Pastebot, and Convertbot have decided to promote their fantastic twitter client by having a limited time sale of Tweetbot. Normally $2.99, Tweetbot has a sale price of just $.99. This #TweetbotSale comes after the official Twitter client for the iPhone was updated yesterday. Version 4.0 of Twitter has received much discussion on the internet in the last 24 hours. Cody did an excellent review yesterday that everyone should read regardless of your thoughts about version 4.0 of the official client.

Tapbots is hoping to gain even more users after many may be shopping for a new iPhone client. We at MacStories think that Tweetbot is one of the best Twitter clients available for the iPhone and if you haven’t had the chance to pick up the app, you get it now on the App Store for $.99.