Apple tipped to sell 'five or six million' iPhone 5S and 5C handsets in ... - Inquirer

GADGET DESIGNER Apple is expected to shift "five or six million" iPhone 5S and 5C handsets this coming weekend, with the phones set to go on sale on 20 September.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster seems to think so, anyway, writing in an investor report that the Apple will likely sell "five-to-six million 5S and 5C units in the launch weekend, compared to five million iPhone 5s".

Munster continued that the firm likely will shift between "eight to nine million between September 20 and the end of the month", despite the stiff competition from Samsung and others. Perhaps most interestingly, Munster said that iPhone 5C pre-orders probably topped around one million on Friday, compared to two million pre-orders for the iPhone 5 on launch day last year.

However, he blamed this on the fact that Apple isn't also offering the iPhone 5S for pre-order, adding that if the firm had put its new flagship smartphone on sale ahead of its launch, pre-order numbers likely would have surpassed last year's figures.

Munster said, as quoted by Forbes, "If the 5S were available for pre-order, we believe the number would be closer to [two] million, essentially in line with the iPhone 5 pre-order total, which was for a redesigned phone with pent up demand."

Still, one million iPhone 5C pre-orders is pretty impressive given the negative reaction that Apple's colourful new smartphone has received, largely due to rumours ahead of the phone's launch having predicted that it would be priced around the £500 mark.

Despite this, Munster claimed that consumers are pretty excited about the colourful iPhone 5C, despite the fact that it is essentially a repackaged iPhone 5.

Munster said, "We believe people who followed tech closely and were interested in the announcement panned the [iPhone] 5C since it had minimal changes from the [iPhone] 5, but as more normal people became involved in the conversation, it appears that color matters to consumers and the [iPhone] 5C could be more popular among the total consumer base than some may have expected." µ