Apple Analysts and the Great Nine-Million iPhone Kerfuffle

Philip Elmer-DeWitt:

Apple on Monday announced first weekend sales of the iPhone 5S and 5C. They “topped” 9 million. Wall Street was expecting 5 to 6 million. Big surprise, egg on faces. Estimates revised. Price points raised.

Then the second-guessing began. How solid, some analysts asked, were those 9 million sales?

These analysts remind me of the Apple rumor sites — when they publish something that turns out way wrong, the explanation is never that they were wrong, but that something changed after they ran the rumor.

This downplaying of the 9 million iPhones sold is just ludicrous, because it’s the same accounting Apple has used in all previous years.

★ Friday, 27 September 2013