Apple says first-weekend sales of the iPhone 5C and 5S reached 9 million units worldwide, a new record. The company also says 200 million devices are now running iOS 7, which Apple describes as the fastest software upgrade in history.
This is the first time a new iPhone has been available in China at launch. It’s also the first time that Apple has sold a new lower-priced model, the iPhone 5C, rather than dropping the price and continuing to sell the previous-generation device (the iPhone 5).
In a news release announcing the milestones, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company has sold out of its initial supply of the iPhone 5S, but says stores will continue to receive new shipments regularly.
The report this morning comes hours after some analysts predicted lackluster first-weekend sales of the iPhone 5C and 5S, based on their observations of sales patterns over the weekend. Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster, who has made a cottage industry out of launch-weekend surveys, had predicted after the weekend that sales would be closer to 5 million units.
On the high end, analysts had expected 7.75 million unit sales, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.
Separately, in a regulatory filing this morning, Apple revised its financial forecast, saying it “expects total company revenue for the fourth fiscal quarter to be near the high end of the previously provided range of $34 billion to $37 billion, and expects gross margin to be near the high end of the previously provided range of 36% to 37%.”
Apple’s stock is up 4.5 percent on the news.
More coverage on GeekWire
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