It was a safe bet, going into the iPhone 5's launch that it was going to be a big seller. Most anything that Apple (News - Alert) had released--be it phone, tablet, or otherwise--was, especially within the last five years or so. But the early word has emerged that, based just on the number of pre-orders out so far, the iPhone (News - Alert) 5 is going to utterly devastate the iPhone 4S' sales numbers, which were already formidable in their own right.
The word from Topeka analyst Brian White, who released a note about the sales figures, was that the delivery time for pre-orders, which began at one week, jumped to two weeks in just a matter of hours. Apple opened up the pre-order systems at 3:00 AM EST, but within just a four hour time span, the delivery time had doubled from one week to two. Topeka's claim is that this represents significantly stronger pre-ordering, as for the iPhone 4S, the one week delivery time frame had persisted throughout the day.
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White was even able to add an estimate of sales based on the pre-order system, given previous information about the iPhone 4S' sales. The iPhone 4S received just over one million pre-orders in the first 24 hours, so given the shortened time to the expansion of the wait time, early estimates suggest current sales around 1.3 to 1.5 million pre-orders. Further, barring major calamities or troubles in the supply chain, which have happened to Apple previously to some extent, White projected sales between five and 5.5 million in the first three days, with the fourth quarter of the 2012 fiscal year seeing fully 10 to 12 million iPhone 5 models sold. White even acknowledges the possibility that the estimates may prove, ultimately, "conservative".
Basically, the early word suggests what we all knew on at least a limited level: iPhone 5 sales will be brisk and at this point no one cares just how weak the economy overall is, many people are going to get an iPhone 5. The extent of the sales hike, however, is something of a surprise; foreseeing doubled delivery times within the first four hours of launch, well, that's something altogether new.
But there's already been some doubt expressed as to whether or not Apple can keep this frenzy up without substantial redesign initiatives. Only time will tell if that's ultimately the case, but for the foreseeable future, Apple looks to continue riding high on its comparative handful of devices.