14 DAY TRIAL // The AT&T iPhone sales have proved quite unexpected results when it comes to the number of such devices which have actually been activated. As a result, AT&T and Apple too had to suffer.
The iPhone has been launched on the 29th of June, just a few days before the second financial quarter was over. Results over this period have been unveiled and show just how successful the handset has been, when compared to expectations coming from professionals.
AT&T activated 146,000 iPhones during the first days since its release. Moreover, around 40 percent of all new buyers for this mobile phone were new subscribers for AT&T. Still, a telecommunication analyst said that demands for this handset have seen a significant decline over the past few days. It sounds only natural to see this happen, as the iPhone craze was expected to settle in time, when compared to the first two days since its release.
Apple's stock surged more than 40 percent since the beginning of the year, when they first announced the iPhone "The much-anticipated iPhone launch went very well. We continue to see traffic levels in our stores above historical levels", said Chief Financial Officer Rick Lindner. Projections hoped for at least 200,000 activated iPhones, which makes the final figure so disappointing.
The difference in expected and final numbers is partially due to the fact that many people have bought an iPhone with the sole interest of reselling it. Because of this, Piper Jaffray & Co. analyst Gene Munster called the amount of iPhone activations "a disappointment". As a result of recent sales of this handset, Apple's stock has gone down more than six percent, which shows that the interest for this device has stopped being profitable and has started its expected and natural drop.