CNET:
Apple’s new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus were unveiled on Wednesday, and go on sale later this month. The company traditionally issues a statement about the record number of people who purchase the devices during the first weekend of sales, but this will no longer be the case.
An Apple spokesperson confirmed to CNET the Cupertino-based company will end the practice, but added that it has nothing to do with low demand or expectations.
“In years past, we’ve announced how many new iPhones had been sold as of the first weekend following launch,” Apple spokesperson Kristin Huguet said. “But as we have expanded our distribution through carriers and resellers to hundreds of thousands of locations around the world, we are now at a point where we know before taking the first customer preorder that we will sell out of iPhone 7.”
This will send the Tech Media into a tizzy but, as Apple says, they already know what their sales numbers will be.
Q. How many iPhones will Apple sell?
A. All of them.
This one is on Apple, not on the pundits. If you are going to brag about being open about sales and then change course when sales numbers drop and are predicted to be lower for the latest model, what conclusions do you expect media to draw?
Maybe. But that means nothing. They could be making fewer because of lower expectations.
This. As someone who has read more 10-Ks and listened to more analyst calls than I care to count, this is a classic management trick (and not Apple specific). Break out a segment, geography, etc. when things are going gangbusters (e.g. our China sales are $XB , direct to consumer has been growing Y%) and when things turn, consolidate them back in (e.g. international sales are $XB, product sales are growing at Y%) with no mention of the previous breakout. And if asked a direct question about it, deflect and say that the prior breakout was not representative, affected by currency, not comparable due to regulatory constraints or other hand-waving.
Apple is a big corporation with excellent, highly paid lawyers and accountants, they deserve the same scrutiny that you would give IBM, Exxon or JP Morgan Chase.
Although I think this is a bit of a dink move on Cook’s part, I am sure pundits and the bloggers will draw conclusion on demand based on how quickly delivery lead time goes from one week to 3-4 weeks.
Apple used to be better than this. But then, the numbers were improving every quarter.
Nobody else really gives numbers anymore, why should Apple? Samsung, How many Galaxy 7 Notes did you sell? 36. How many caught fire? 35. Lucky guy, that one.
That would be the point of knowing how to manage one’s supply chain, no?
Steve Jobs in 2009, when talking about how Amazon doesn’t say how many Kindles it sells. “Usually, if they sell a lot of something, you want to tell everybody.”
Yes. But that would also mean they are hiding sales numbers when they predict them to be lower than the past. Kind of the type of move we would mock other companies for.
Horse pucky. Why do you people insist on dredging up negative, pessimistic crap? Akami had the highest video streaming traffic for this event. THAT’S a positive indicator, dammit. Apple IS going to sell all of them, and we’ll find out on the next earnings call.
Why do you people keep giving the God dammed media any credibility at all? Apple doesn’t need to disclose its sales statistics. They’ll be too busy making phones to satisfy continuing staggering demand.
It’s also the kind of move other tech companies use without criticism from the analyst community.
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Not true. People have criticized them before. But that’s irrelevant. When you brag about being open, then change your position when you expect numbers to not look good, you don’t get a pass for saying, “Sammy doesn’t disclose numbers either.”
I just don’t subscribe to Apple can’t do no wrong because others are always wrong theory.
They don’t have to. It just looks dinkish that they kept bragging when sales were good, but stopped talking numbers when sales are down. I’d have given them props if they stopped giving numbers two years ago.
Golly. By your reasoning, I guess I do, then.
It’s fun to pretend it’s about being “open”, and at one point it may have actually been. But the fact of the matter is that Apple releasing the numbers does nothing to correct the narrative of “troubled Apple” that analysts use to manipulate the stock.
Apple sells a quintillion? Saturation is weeks away and then what will they do. Apple sells something short of a quintillion? Apples days are numbered and the product is a failure. Analysts are now more free to make up nonsense numbers like they do for every other tech company that never reports numbers. They didn’t give a crap about the accuracy of their reporting when they did have numbers, so who ultimately cares?