On the heels of all the drama with Apple’s iPhone price cut last week, the Cupertino giant issued a press release this morning announcing that it has already sold one million iPhones, at least 20 days earlier than expected. Apple sold one million iPhones in 74 days, a milestone that took two years for the iPod to achieve.
This is not quite a fair comparison — the iPod was introduced in October 2001, but was available only for Mac computers for almost a full year after its debut. But still, one million iPhones is a healthy sales figure that should put to rest doubters of the iPhone’s future.
The real question is: why is Apple telling us this now, instead of last week when Steve Jobs could have touted the figure during Apple’s quasi-disastrous dog-and-pony show? Is it possible the price cuts announced last week spurred a flood of new buyers? (I think so. Many people I’ve encountered have lusted after my iPhone — I know some of them were pushed off the fence when the price cut was announced.)
Or is it possible that Apple kept this good news, i.e. that it would top the one-million mark 20 days early, in its hip pocket, with the idea that it might need an upbeat announcement following the iPhone price cut? That’s a possibility too. Both scenarios could be right.
Apple 2.0 puts it best:
Color me cynical. It’s possible that the price cut Jobs sprang on us on Wednesday boosted sales just enough in the four days afterward to put the iPhone over the 1 million mark on Sunday.
It’s also possible that the timing of today’s announcement was a decision driven less by sales figures than by public relations. Why bury a piece of news like this in an event crafted to spotlight the new iPod line when you can save it for just before the stock market opens in New York on Monday, when it will make a much bigger splash?
Cynthia Brumfield at 12:06 PM|Comments(0)
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