A record-breaking 10 million iPhone 6 / 6 Plus units sold on opening weekend
Apple announced that it sold over 10 million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus smartphones in the first three days of their general availability in the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore, and the U.K. (China is notably absent from this list; the new iPhones will go on sale there later this year).
“Sales for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus exceeded our expectations for the launch weekend,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook in Apple’s press release, “and we couldn’t be happier.”
The crowd at the Apple Store in Tampa, Saturday, September 20, 2014.
Click the photo to see it at full size.
A couple of observations about that 10 million number
Farhad Manjoo, tech journalist at the New York Times, made a couple of observations about this news and the milestone of selling 10 million units. First, about the difference between this year’s iPhone 6 / 6 Plus release and last year’s iPhone 5S / 5C release…
10 million new iPhones sounds just a bit more than 9 million from last year but remember that included $99 5C. This year Apple made $$$$.
— Farhad Manjoo (@fmanjoo) September 22, 2014
…and secondly, about the difference in expectations between this year and 2007, the year the iPhone was first released:
When Apple launched the iPhone in 2007, the stated sales goal was 10 million in a year.
— Farhad Manjoo (@fmanjoo) September 22, 2014
The first iPhone 6 retail purchase and drop on the sidewalk, caught on video
Thanks to the magic of time zones, the first in-store iPhone purchase was made in Perth, Australia by Jack Cooksey. He also made his way into the record books by being the first person to drop a newly-purchased iPhone 6:
AnandTech posts their preliminary iPhone 6 / 6 Plus benchmark performance tests
Anandtech say that they’re still working on their full review of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, but have decided to sate the public appetite for iPhone 6-related news by releasing some of the results of their benchmark performance tests. Among the results they posted were their browser benchmarks, which they say “can serve as a relatively useful proxy for CPU performance”. The numbers are good, with the iPhone 6 placing at or near the top of most tests.
The only exception to Apple doing very well on the benchmarks was the 3DMark 1.2 Unlimited – Physics test, where it placed near the bottom:
Of note is the iPhone 6’s battery life in the tests:
AnandTech write:
\As one can see, it seems that Apple has managed to do something quite incredible with battery life. Normally an 1810 mAh battery with 3.82V nominal voltage would be quite a poor performer, but the iPhone 6 is a step above just about every other Android smartphone on the market.
Simply put, Apple know their power management, and for you, that means more bang for the battery.
Businessweek’s post-presentation interview with Tim Cook
Bloomberg Businessweek has posted their interview with Tim Cook about the iPhone 6 and the Apple Watch that they made on the day after their September 10th presentation.
Photos in different lands — Iceland and Disneyland — with the iPhone 6
Smartphones aren’t just for work, but for the rest of your life, including being your primary camera. The iPhone 6 seems to be an excellent camera for not just personal snapshots as shown when TechCrunch took two to Disneyland (example below), but even for professional work as the photos of Iceland by Austin Mann (an example of which is shown above).
