iPhone 4: 1.5 Million Sold on First Day [REPORT]

I know that the lines in front of Apple stores were enormous yesterday. But how many iPhone 4 devices has Apple sold, exactly?

While no one knows the exact number at this point, Oppenheimer’s Yair Reiner decided to try his hand at some iPhone 4 math. According to his calculations in a note to clients issued Friday, Apple sold 1.5 million phones on launch day.


I know that 600,000 units have been pre-ordered. Reiner estimates that 100,000 additional, non-reserved units were sold at Apple stores and that 50,000 were sold at Best Buy. He multiplied the final number by two to include international sales.

Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster has a more conservative calculation: He thinks that Apple will sell between 1 million and 1.5 million iPhones in the first three days, including pre-orders.

Both Munster and Reiner arrived at these numbers by surveying hundreds of iPhone 4 buyers on Thursday, but make no mistake: These are very rough estimates. Apple’s sales numbers — especially on launch day — have a habit of surprising even the biggest optimists, so it’s probably a good idea to wait for the official numbers before jumping to conclusions.

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