(Light blogging during this July 4th week…or at least I hope it’s light blogging.)
Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster thinks that Apple sold 500,000 of its shiny new money-making iPhones this past weekend. I have no way of knowing if this estimate is correct, but I can tell you that the AT&T store where I purchased my iPhone (of course I purchased an iPhone!) ran out of units shortly after I got my mitts on one.
I can tell you that if this estimate is right, Apple generated an estimated $275 million in two days. Assuming the average unit price sale was $550, mid-way between the $499 and $599 models, the total revenue for the Cupertino company was $275 million ($550 x 500,000). That’s a big weekend for any kind of business.
That’s might be nothing, however, compared to what AT&T might generate from the watershed development. Assuming that 1) half of the iPhone buyers were new customers for AT&T (and again, I have no ability to gauge the true number…yet) and 2) the average monthly rate plans was $79 for the new customers and 3) all new customers signed up for a two-year commitment, then AT&T can bank on $474 million more in revenue over the next two years than it otherwise might have generated. (Here’s the calculation: $1,896 in subscriptions fees over two years times 250,000 new customers=$474 million.)
If anyone doubts that the iPhone is a big success, these numbers should put all doubts to rest.
Cynthia Brumfield at 4:58 PM|Comments(1)
Thanks for doing the math.
I heard a rumor (which I have to research more) that as much as half the cost of a typical cell phone plan goes to marketing partners (like your neighborhood car audio store when they sell you the phone). Given that most of these units were probably sold through Apple stores, I wonder if Apple is getting a cut of the services revenue too.
Posted by: eas at July 2, 2007 8:57 PM
Blogs We Read
