Comment by MrFoof | Hacker News Reader

Comment by MrFoof | Hacker News Reader

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On launch weekend, the iPhone 4 sold 1.7M units in five countries. The iPhone 4S sold > 4.0M units in seven countries (the additions being Canada and Australia). The iPhone 4 launch countries had a combined population of ~644 million. The iPhone 4S launch countries had a combined population of ~700 million -- only an 8.7% increase. So the additional launch countries alone wouldn't explain the vastly increased number of sales (~135% increase).

At least from personal experience, most Apple Retail Stores didn't seem to exhaust their supply on Friday the 14th. So having more units on hand (and the usual second round of deliveries on Saturday), plus the pre-order records contributed to breaking this record. Simply having the product available was probably the biggest factor, though pre-orders (confirmation tomorrow) do indicate that demand may have increased over the iPhone 4, although some of that that could be seasonal demand.

I'm not sure on carrier counts (iPhone 4 not known, iPhone 4S launched on 22 carriers). In the US, the iPhone 4 only launched on one carrier, whereas the 4S launched on three. That's also going to be a significant contributing factor in increasing its effective availability to buyers.

It would also be interesting to look at the growth of iPhone 4 sales. I know that they were growing like crazy in the quarters after the launch. But it's hard to compare. Sales numbers right after the launch are certainly always an outlier so it might be more reasonable to wait for the following quarterly results.

Availability is a big thing, I think. For about 5 months after the iPhone launched in Australia, we couldn't keep enough of them in stock (have a box arrive Friday, all gone by Saturday arvo and none for the rest of the week).

With the 4S, we have a hundred of the damn things sitting on our shelves. If it's a similar thing in other countries, then that's probably a large part of why (vodafoneAU staff here).

That's because all the manufacturing tooling for the 4S form factor has had 18 months to scale up since the launch of the 4. That's why Apple changed as little as possible in the physical form factor.

The Galaxy S sold 10 millions units in 6 months. The Galaxy S II, largely heralded as the best phone ever made, hit 10 millions sales worldwide in 5 months (http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/09/galaxy-s-ii-10-millio...). Apple being 40% of the way there 3 days after public release is impressive.

Anyone care to throw some more Android or other device numbers into the mix? Blackberry numbers might be a fun comparison to see, for instance.

Correction: The iPhone 4 was the best phone ever made. Now its the 4S. :)

You clearly haven't tried GS2

"The Galaxy S II, largely heralded as the best phone ever made"

The best Android phone but nowhere near consensus as best phone. The iphone 4 probably sold 10 million just in this past quarter, it's 5th on the market.

I wouldn't disagree, not being a fan of Android myself. Just repeating what I've seen on Engadget, but I also found another site that said it too:

"It's the best Android smartphone yet, but more importantly, it might well be the best smartphone, period." http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/28/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-revie...

"Samsung Galaxy S2 (or S II) is arguably the best smartphone currently in the market." http://www.androidauthority.com/top-5-android-smartphones-ch...

Maybe "heralded by some" would have been a better choice of words. The point was that people seem to love that phone, and the 4S, which some have called a disappointment, has already reached 40% of the Galaxy S II's sales numbers within just days of being released.

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