Lining up to buy latest Apple device

SAN FRANCISCO - Apple Inc's iPhone 4S barreled toward unit sales of up to 4 million last weekend as the company's carrier partner AT&T Inc reported a record number of customers activating the device on its network.

The latest version of Apple's best-seller, which went on sale on Friday in the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom, is outpacing the iPhone 4 - a device that topped 1.7 million units in its first weekend in 2010. Most estimates for weekend sales range from 2 million to 3 million, with Yankee Group analyst Carl Howe predicting up to 4 million.

In New York, London, Tokyo and Frankfurt on Oct 14, hundreds of people lined up at the company's stores. At London's Covent Garden store, 20 Apple employees formed a human tunnel for shoppers entering the store, whooping, chanting and doling out high fives. The line outside New York's iconic glass cube store on Fifth Avenue snaked back and forth across the plaza out front and stretched halfway down the block.

"I'm a diehard Apple fan and I've been using Apple products since I was 12," said Cary Santos, 24, who lined up at the Fifth Avenue store at 11 pm on Oct 13 and spent the night checking e-mail and news on his iPad 2. "This company has rocked American life."

As of 4:30 pm New York time, AT&T had activated a record number of iPhones on its network, the company said. The Dallas-based carrier said it was likely to double its previous high for one-day activations.

Noontime record

Sprint Nextel Corp, another mobile-phone service provider offering the iPhone, said that by noon it had already reached its best sales day. Verizon Wireless also reported a surge of customers, without being specific.

"We are seeing a nice mix of people who are first-time smartphone purchasers as well as those who are switching from competitors," Brenda Raney, a spokeswoman for New Jersey-based Verizon Wireless, said in a statement.

The release of the new phone represents the end of Apple's era under Steve Jobs, who died this month after an eight-year battle with cancer. The iPhone 4S has received positive reviews for its voice-recognition software, speedier processor and improved camera.

The device also provides Apple with fresh ammunition in its fight against Google Inc's Android software, which will appear on a host of new smartphones in the year-end holiday season.

"It's going to easily outpace any previous launch," said Charlie Wolf, an analyst at Needham & Co in New York. It helps that the iPhone is available on the three largest US carriers for the first time, which will bring in new buyers, he said.

The phone costs $199, $299 or $399, depending on features. Apple also released an update to its iOS mobile operating system, which customers can download to their existing devices. The software comes with 200 new features and a Web storage service for synchronizing photos, documents, music and other files across different Apple gadgets.

While the iPhone is the best-selling single smartphone, the combined devices running Google's Android operating system account for more of the industry's sales. HTC Corp, Samsung Electronics Co, Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc and other manufacturers have adopted the software. Google offers Android free and then makes money on mobile advertising and services. That revenue is on pace to account for $2.5 billion a year, the company said this week when it released quarterly results.

Topping Exxon

Apple's stock rose 3.3 percent to $422 on Oct 14 trading, for a gain of 14 percent this week. The company is the world's most valuable business, with a market capitalization of $391.2 billion. That compares with $379.8 billion for the second-ranking Exxon Mobil Corp.

Heavy demand for the new iOS 5 software contributed to glitches at Apple even before the iPhone 4S went on sale. Customers downloading the operating system to their older phones overwhelmed the company's servers, making it harder to upgrade.

Apple hasn't said how many people were affected.

Bloomberg News

(China Daily 10/17/2011 page14)