The iPhone 6 officially launched this past weekend and we can now confirm it’s a major success.
With over 10 million units sold within the first 72 hours, the iPhone 6 surpassed many financial analysts’ predictions and set a new sales record for Apple – despite all the complaints about iOS 8. And even with a delayed release for the largest smartphone market in the world (China), Apple managed to sell $6.5 billion worth of iPhones in just three days. Apple has once again proven the iPhone is the most popular smartphone in America, but are you one of the many people who couldn’t buy an iPhone 6 Plus?
The Supply Did Not Meet the Demand
The iPhone 6 is available in two sizes and people have clearly established which one they want: The bigger one.
In New York, where Apple has some of their most popular retail store locations, the iPhone 6 Plus was sold out before the end of the first morning and stores across the country soon began to follow suit. Customers all over the US waited several hours in lines that wrapped around city blocks only to be told they would have to wait 3-4 weeks for their device.
By Monday morning, the iPhone 6 Plus was sold out at every Apple Store location (online and physical) and by every major wireless provider. Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon are telling customers they will have to wait 4-6 weeks for the shipments of the iPhone 6 Plus to arrive.
There are still ways to get your hands on an iPhone 6, but it will cost you a lot more than Apple is selling them for.
The iPhone 6 Business is Booming, and Not Just for Apple
A contract-free 128GB iPhone 6 Plus retails for $949 at the Apple Store. But if you can’t wait the 3-4 weeks it will take for it to arrive, you can head on over to eBay where there are plenty of iPhone 6 Plus models available today. The only problem is they are marked up as much as 350%.
The price markup on iPhones is nothing new, but this is the first time there has been so much demand. And while the opportunists are cashing in all over the world, all we can do is wait for Apple to ramp up their production efforts.
According to Mixpanel, an Analytics firm that is tracking iPhone 6 adoption rates, the smaller version is being used a lot more than the bigger one. Currently, the iPhone 6 accounts for 3.03% of devices in use while the iPhone 6 Plus makes up just 0.30%.
These statistics can mean one of two things:
- Consumers prefer the iPhone 6 over the iPhone 6 Plus
- Apple didn’t make enough iPhone 6 Plus models
After reading Apple’s press release about iPhone 6 sales, I’m leaning towards the latter.
“Sales for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus exceeded our expectations for the launch weekend, and we couldn’t be happier. We would like to thank all of our customers for making this our best launch ever, shattering all previous sell-through records by a large margin. While our team managed the manufacturing ramp better than ever before, we could have sold many more iPhones with greater supply and we are working hard to fill orders as quickly as possible.”
— Tim Cook, CEO at Apple
Bigger Isn’t Always Better, Or is It?
It’s hard to believe Apple underestimated how many iPhone 6 Plus models they could sell. With a whopping 5.5-inch Retina HD display and an entirely new design, the iPhone 6 Plus is the biggest advancement in iPhone history. It also resembles something that has been trending recently in the mobile industry: People want bigger phones.
With phablet sales at an all-time high and tablet shipments on the decline, Apple couldn’t have picked a better time to release a bigger iPhone — and they have 10 million ways to prove it.
They may have waited a long time to jump aboard the phablet bandwagon, and there is no way of knowing what took them so long, but last weekend’s sales figures prove that bigger actually is better.
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