Apple has broken a first-weekend sales record this past weekend by selling more than 13 million new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus devices since they went on sale this last Friday.
“Sales for iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus have been phenomenal, blowing past any previous first weekend sales results in Apple’s history,” Apple’s CEO Tim Cook said. “Customers’ feedback is incredible and they are loving 3D Touch and Live Photos, and we can’t wait to bring iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus to customers in even more countries on October 9.”
For comparison, Apple only sold 10 million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in their opening weekend last year. So what gave Apple such a big bump this weekend?
China, mostly. China is now Apple’s second biggest market, having overtaken Europe earlier this year. In a quarter’s earnings call from earlier this year, Apple said they paid out over five billion dollars to developers in China through the app store, driving revenue for the App Store past a 100-percent growth rate.
The New York Times is reporting that several Wall Street analyst firms projected that Apple would sell less than 12 million devices this weekend, meaning that Apple beat the forecasts. However, this didn’t seem to help its stock price very much as it still dropped 1.3-percent, or $1.41 per share, to $133.25. While the market has been dropping, as Matt Krantz with USA TODAY explains, Apple’s product cycle model is supposed to make the company immune from the ups and downs.
The same Wall Street analyst firms that The New York Times spoke to predicted Apple could be expected to sell 77-78.4 million iPhones in the December quarter, an increase of 4 million from the last year.
Due to Samsung changing its company policy and no longer releasing sales data, it is unknown how many units Samsung moved in the first weekend of the Galaxy Note 5.
Released on Aug. 21, the Note 5, priced a little bit below Samsung’s S6 Edge+, lacks a user-removable battery or a micro SD slot. Other features, including Air View, were removed from the Note line as well with the Note 5. Last but not least, for the first time ever, battery capacity was reduced from 3200 mAh to 3000 mAh.
Note 5 users are warned not to insert the S pen stylus that comes included with the phone the wrong way, as it will damage the device. Samsung recommends reading the manual.
