Apple Stock Hits Record as IPhone 5 Seen Sold Out Online
Apple Inc. (AAPL) rose to a record after the company said orders for the iPhone 5 from its online store won’t be shipped for two weeks, fueling speculation that the new model has sold out.
The shares climbed 1.2 percent to $691.28 at the close in New York, extending gains for the year to 71 percent.
The iPhone is Apple’s best-selling product, making up about two-thirds of profit. The company’s entry into the smartphone market in 2007 has resulted in sales of 244 million iPhone units and helped Apple become the most valuable company. Apple’s website says the iPhone 5 will ship Sept. 28, a week after it’s scheduled to be in stores, a sign demand is outpacing supply.
“The initial batch is sold out,” Shaw Wu, an analyst at Sterne Agee & Leach Inc., said in an interview. He raised his sales estimate for the quarter ending in September to 26 million units, from 23 million. “We think that could turn out to be conservative.”
An hour after Apple’s website began taking orders at midnight, at least one model -- the black 32-gigabyte iPhone 5 with an AT&T Inc. (T) contract -- was shipping in two weeks to buyers in San Francisco.
“Pre-orders for iPhone 5 have been incredible,” said Natalie Kerris, a spokeswoman for Cupertino, California-based Apple. “We’ve been completely blown away by the customer response.”
While previous iPhone models sold out quickly online, “I don’t think it happened quite this fast,” Tavis McCourt, an analyst at Raymond James & Associates, said in an interview. “The speed here is unusual.”
Mobile-service carriers AT&T, Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) and Verizon Wireless have the iPhone available to pre-order with delivery by Sept. 21, according to the companies’ websites.
As many as 58 million units of the iPhone 5 may sell by the end of the year, according the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. That could generate as much as $36.2 billion in sales for Apple, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ryan Faughnder in New York at rfaughnder@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net
Apple Hits Record as IPhone 5 Seen Sold Out: San Francisco Mover
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
The new iPhone 5 during an Apple special event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on Sept. 12, 2012 in San Francisco.
The new iPhone 5 during an Apple special event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on Sept. 12, 2012 in San Francisco. Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) – Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple Inc., Eugene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray Cos., and Howard Ward, chief investment officer at Gamco Investors Inc., offer their views on Apple’s new version of the iPhone. The thinner, lighter handset is called iPhone 5. This report also contains comments from Phil Schiller, senior vice president for wordwide marketing at Apple; Brian White, an analyst at Topeka Capital Markets Inc.; Jeff Clavier, founder and managing partner of SoftTech VC; Peter Misek, an analyst at Jefferies & Co., and Brian Blair, an analyst at Wedge Partners Corp. (Source: Bloomberg)
Apple Hits Record as IPhone 5 Seen Sold Out
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
Apple Inc. rose to a record after the company said the iPhone 5 won’t ship for two weeks from its online store, fueling speculation that the latest model had sold out.
Apple Inc. rose to a record after the company said the iPhone 5 won’t ship for two weeks from its online store, fueling speculation that the latest model had sold out. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
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