AppleInsider Staff
In a possible indication of preorder demand for a China Mobile iPhone 5s, Apple partner supplier Foxconn has reportedly sent more than one million handsets to the world's largest carrier ahead of its launch of the device this Friday.
Citing people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reports China Mobile has taken receipt of roughly 1.4 million iPhone 5s handsets. The carrier has been taking preorders for Apple's flagship iPhone since December and will officially launch the device this Friday.
The source said shipping one million or more iPhones to a single carrier in one month "is substantial," but notes they have no further information regarding demand beyond January. Apple has yet to notify Foxconn of the next shipment's volume, the person said.
It was announced in December that Apple would be selling its smartphone through China Mobile, a hotly anticipated deal many believe will give a significant boost to worldwide iPhone sales. The carrier is reportedly looking to the iPhone to draw current 3G customers to a newly deployed 4G TD-LTE network.
While it is unknown if the purportedly shipped iPhone 5s handsets are accounted for by preorder reservations, the 1.4 million unit figure is in line with analyst projections for 2014. Based on a survey of Chinese consumers taken before the China Mobile announcement, Morgan Stanley Research estimated the deal would generate a minimum of 12 million additional iPhone sales this year.
For context, Apple sold a combined 9 million iPhone 5s and 5c units in three days when the two smartphones launched worldwide in September of 2013.
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Malcolm Owen
19 Comments
Only 1.5 million iPhone units?!!! Apple is going to be in deep doo-doo if this isn't just the amount of units needed for only the first weekend of sales. Out of 760 million China Mobile subscribers is this the best that Apple can do? It looks like this quarter is going to be worse than last year's quarter and send Apple's share price down to $500 as a start. Android OS is just too much for Apple to deal with. Apple is truly doomed. /s
1.5 out of 760 is just 0,19%, so in language of numbers its close to zero!
The number does not include 5C phones which sell about 25% of total iphones.
So we are looking at about 2 million phones on launch.
That's pretty big.
The great thing about China Mobile is a ton of people on the network own 4S phones on it already. They will be upgrading this year and then the 5 buyers will be upgrading next year. That means we will have a constant stream of additional phone sales from China Moblie the next two years. I'm thinking 15-25 million per year.
5 year return (Jan 2009- Dec 2013)
Apple: 580%
Google: 264%
15 - 25 million. That amount will keep the share price exactly where it is now.
Brave predictions of doom. No way. China Mobile will sell tons of iPhones. Tons.
pretty idiotic thing to say.
The stock is priced at ZERO growth right now. An extra 25 million phones would be a boost of 16% of units sold
... and I thought that saying 15 - 25 million was the idiotic thing that was said.