Apple shares rose in extended after-market trading to touch $700 per share for the first time. They have gained nearly 22 percent in the past 3-1/2 months in the build-up to the launch of the iPhone 5.
Apple said on Monday that pre-orders outstripped initial supply but it would deliver most phones as planned by Friday, the first day of delivery. Many would not be available until October, however.
It is not unusual for Apple products to sell out the first day but this time around Apple has doubled its first-day sales record. Last October, the company booked 1 million orders for the iPhone 4S, in the first 24 hours. That had beaten Apple's previous one-day record of 600,000 sales for the iPhone 4.
The strong preorders could mean a huge holiday quarter for Apple as the iPhone -- its marquee device -- accounts for half of Apple's revenue.
Apple will make initial deliveries of the iPhone 5 by September 21 in the United States and most of the major European markets, such as France, Germany and the United Kingdom. The phone then goes on sale on September 28 in 22 other countries.
Given the demand for the device so far and Apple's aggressive rollout of it internationally, some analysts raised their sales and earnings estimates.
"The pace of this iPhone 5 roll-out is the fastest in the iPhone's history and points to a big December quarter," said Barclays analyst Ben Reitzes, who expects Apple to sell 45.21 million iPhones in the December quarter, up 22 percent from last year. Reitzes said his estimates "could still be conservative."
Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley said he now expected Apple to ship 9 million to 10 million iPhone 5s from Friday to September 29, the last day of its fiscal 2012 year.
He also raised his earnings per share estimates for the September and December quarters to $44.32 from $43.25, and to $56.96 from $56.90, respectively.
Wall Street analysts on average expect Apple to earn $44.25 per share in the December quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S estimates.
The new phone, which will appear in stores on Friday for walk-in purchases, has a larger, 4-inch screen and is slimmer and far lighter than the previous model. The iPhone 5 supports the faster 4G network and also comes with a number of software updates, including Apple's new in-house maps feature.
Apple began taking orders for the iPhone 5 at midnight Pacific time on Friday (0700 GMT Saturday). Shipping dates for the smartphone slipped by a week within an hour of the start of preorders.
On Monday morning, Apple's U.S. store, at www.apple.com, showed preorders placed at that time would take two to three weeks to ship.
AT&T SETS SALES RECORD
Wall Street is also keeping a close eye on the supply of the smartphone.
"We still believe Apple is facing significant production constraints due to a move toward in-cell display technology, which pushes a significant amount of units into the December and March quarters," Reitzes said.
One of Apple's key suppliers for screens, Sharp Corp, is struggling with high costs and scrambling to raise funds to pay debt.
The latest iPhone comes as competition in the smartphone market has reached a fever-pitch with Apple up against phones that run on Google Inc's Android software. Android has become the most-used mobile operating system in the world, while Apple's key supplier and rival, Samsung Electronics, has taken the lead in smartphone sales.
But Apple appears to be making headway into the corporate market, a traditional stronghold of now-struggling Canadian company Research In Motion
Yahoo Inc has instituted a new corporate policy that allows employees to pick from a host of smartphones, including the iPhone 5 and Android-based phones such as Samsung's Galaxy S3. Yahoo, which previously gave out RIM's Blackberry phones, will no longer support them, according to Business Insider blog, which cited an internal memo from Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer.
Yahoo declined to comment.
AT&T, the No. 2 U.S. mobile service provider, said demand over the weekend had made the iPhone 5 the fastest-selling iPhone the company has ever offered.
AT&T did not disclose how many iPhones it had sold, but said the iPhone 5 was still available for preorder and would go on sale September 21 at AT&T retail stores.
All the phones carriers, including Verizon Communications Inc and Sprint Nextel Corp, showed delays of up to three weeks in shipping the phone.
European carriers also reported brisk sales. France Telecom's Orange said bookings for the new phone "have been very strong, breaking the records of what we saw for the iPhone 4 or 4S." But the carrier said it could deliver preorders on time.
Analysts have forecast that Apple will have sold more than 30 million iPhones, including older models, by the end of September.
相關中文資料
美國消費電子公司蘋果(AAPL.O: 行情)新款智能手機iPhone 5在前24個小時預訂量逾200萬部,反映出市場需求高於預期,而且預示著該款手機在購物季將會有強勁表現(xiàn).
蘋果股價在盤後交易中首度觸及700美元.在iPhone 5發(fā)布前的三個半月中,蘋果股價已累計上漲近22%.
蘋果周一表示,雖然預訂量超出最初供貨量,但大部分訂單會按計劃在周五出貨.不過,還有許多訂單要到10月才能交付.
對於蘋果產(chǎn)品來說,首日售罄已是司空見慣,但這次的首日銷量增長了一倍.去年10月iPhone 4S前24小時預訂量為100萬部,這一成績曾打敗之前iPhone 4單日銷量60萬部的紀錄.
預訂狀況強勁或意味著蘋果將收獲一個豐厚的假期季度,因為其營收有半數(shù)來自iPhone.
蘋果將於9月21日在美國及法國、德國、英國等多數(shù)主要歐洲市場推出iPhone 5,然後9月28日在另外22個國家上市銷售.
鑒於目前的需求狀況以及蘋果在國際上大力推介,一些分析師上調(diào)了銷售及獲利預估.
"iPhone 5的上市速度是iPhone系列產(chǎn)品歷來最快的,預示著12月當季收入頗豐,"巴克萊分析師Ben Reitzes表示.他預計蘋果12月當季料出售4,521萬部iPhone,較上年同期增長22%.Reitzes還稱,其預估"可能仍然保守".
Canaccord Genuity分析師Michael Walkley表示,他目前預計蘋果周五至9月29日將出貨900-1,000萬部iPhone 5.9月29日是該公司2012會計年度的最後一天.
他還將9月當季和12月當季的每股盈余預估分別上調(diào)至44.32美元和56.96美元,此前預估為43.25美元和56.90美元.
根據(jù)湯森路透I/B/E/S預估,華爾街分析師平均預期蘋果12月當季每股盈余為44.25美元.
AT&T稱iPhone 5銷售創(chuàng)紀錄
華爾街亦密切關注這款智能手機的供應情況.
"我們?nèi)匀徽J為,蘋果面臨嚴重的產(chǎn)量限制,因其采用in-cell螢幕技術,故大量出貨的時間將被推遲到第四季或明年第一季,"Ritzes說.
夏普(6753.T: 行情)是蘋果主要的螢幕供應商,該公司目前受到本居高不下的困擾,同時正在想方設法籌資還債.
當前智能手機市場的競爭已趨白熱化,蘋果面臨Android系列手機的激烈沖擊.這類手機搭載的谷歌(GOOG.O: 行情)Android系統(tǒng),是全球應用最廣的手機操作系統(tǒng).在智能手機銷售中的韓國三星電子(005930.KS: 行情),既是蘋果的主要供應商,亦是其競爭對手.
不過,蘋果似乎正在商用市場有所斬獲,該市場過去一直為加拿大Research In Motion(RIM)(RIM.TO: 行情)所牢牢掌控,而現(xiàn)在RIM卻已陷入困境.
全美第二大移動通信服務提供商AT&T(T.N: 行情)表示,上周末強勁的需求令iPhone 5成為公司有史以來銷售最快的一款iPhone手機.
歐洲運營商亦報告稱iPhone銷售喜人.法國電信(FTE.PA: 行情)旗下Orange稱,新手機的預訂"非常踴躍,打破了iPhone 4或4S的紀錄."但該運營商表示,公司可以按時出貨.
分析師預計,到9月底,iPhone 5以及老款iPhone手機銷售量將超過3,000萬部.
