Apple won’t reveal its launch weekend numbers, because Apple can’t break its own record

In the past, Apple has always released the number of iPhones that are sold within the first few days of an iPhone launch. Likewise, every year, Apple reports that it sells more iPhones in launch-weekend than the previous year. We'll come back to that.

In a statement written to CNBC from Apple, the Cupertino-based company declares that it will not be announcing any iPhone pre-order numbers, nor launch weekend numbers any longer.

JUST IN: Apple says it will not be releasing iPhone pre-order numbers as it traditionally has in the past. pic.twitter.com/kGXfPcUkKB

— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) September 8, 2016

Either of two things are happening. Apple does not know how well the iPhone 7 will sell (which isn’t as likely as the next reason...) or it could be that Apple literally does not have enough units to beat its own launch-weekend record from last year.

These initial sales will be governed by supply, not demand, and we have decided that it is no longer a representative metric for our investors and customers. Therefore we won’t be releasing a first-weekend number any longer. - Apple

In 2015’s launch weekend, the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus sold 13 million units. The year before that, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus sold 10 million. The iPhone 5S and 5C sold 9 million in 2013, and 5 million iPhone 5 units in 2012. Do you see where I’m going with this?

Apple is done setting records for itself (for now). To have to sell more than 13 million units in three days, is (quite) a lot. And now Apple feels it has to warn the public that these new smartphones WILL be sold out and that demand won’t bring more units to the stores. That way investors and partners don’t have to wonder about the numbers since Apple has effectively run them through a shredder, so now everyone else should disregard them, I guess?

Source | Via