I think the market and people need to get a little perspective on the 146,000 from ATT. This number is misleading at best and lacks a lot of information.
Take my first hand experience I bought 2 iphones on that friday, one was for me, one was for a friend. I was one of the 2% or 6% or whatever the number is that had activation trouble, so my phone did not activate until late Sunday morning. The other iphone my friend did pick up from me until Sunday. So both phones I bought don't count in this number.
146,000 phones are only phones sold friday and saturday, nothing from Sunday. Weren't all the estimates based on the weekend sales, not just half the weekend? So not only are all these experts that were disappointed with this number comparing 2 entirely different numbers, activations rather than sales, they aren't even comparing them over the right time frame. Also who was the idiot analyst that was throwing around the 700,000 number for the weekend. Did this guy really think that was right and for that matter who was dumb enough to take that number seriously. I mean I think they have sold lots of phones but 700,000 over a weekend, give me a break.
Next this number doesn't include a single phone that was sold online, as we know for sure none of these were activated by Saturday night. Also there were many people buying an extra phone or 2 phones for the single plan of selling them on eBay or wherever else. Once again none of these are in that number. I think I had a couple other reasons why I thought this 146,000 is useless but I can't remember them anymore.
You also have to love these news stories that showed up all of a sudden saying demand for the iPhone was going down. Really? You think? You mean to tell me they weren’t going to sell (at least) 146,000 every 30 hours for the rest of time.
And in respect to having a little perspective, how about comparing the iPhone to other cell phones launches in the past, how many of those new Blackberrys (8830?) did they sell the first 30 hours, or how many razrs were sold the first weekend? I don't know the answer to these questions but I can guess that it was less than 146,000.
My original plan was to sell half my calls after the ATT earnings release, figuring hype was too great and an Apple earnings disappoint was a given no matter what they released or what guidance was given. But with the drop yesterday, I didn't sell anything and instead took the drop as a chance to double down. I think this could have been a nice little gift in disguise. I think we are now positioned to have a nice earnings surprise tomorrow afternoon. I hope Apple either gives us sales to date or tells us they sold the 1 millionth iPhone on such and such day, this information would actually be useful, rather than this activation business.
AI
