Verizon iPhone 4 Sales Very Low for First Week

The anticipation had been building for years and the hype reached an all-time high when it became official, but did the Verizon iPhone 4 fail to meet sales expectations? We knew that pre-order sales were impressive and that Verizon set a new first-day sales record. Figures from the pre-orders are rumored to be just over half a million. But what about brick and mortar purchases from the carrier and Apple?

It’s hard to say, actually. BGR is reporting that sales were very paltry after receiving sales data from five Apple retail store locations – two of which are apparently “very, very prominent.” Here are the figures:

Thursday: Verizon = 909, AT&T = 539
Friday: Verizon = 916, AT&T = 680
Saturday: Verizon = 660, AT&T = 471
Sunday: Verizon = 796, AT&T = 701
Monday: Verizon = 711, AT&T = 618

With five total stores combined – hardly a large enough sample to draw anything meaningful or conclusive – it looks like Verizon iPhone 4 sales mildly outpaced AT&T units.

Can anyone really be surprised?

A good chunk of orders came in the form of online pre-orders the week before from existing Verizon customers. The following week, just a day before official launch, pre-orders became available to the general public. Perhaps all of these factors contribute to the lack of in-store sales. Here’s a quick snippet of the CDMA iPhone 4 variant demographic:

30% of people buying Verizon iPhones were Android users, just over 25% of people buying iPhone 4 were BlackBerry users, and only 14% of people buying the Verizon iPhone were AT&T iPhone owners. The remaining percent didn’t want to say, didn’t have a smartphone, or didn’t have a phone prior to making their iPhone 4 purchases last week.

When the iPhone 4 was announced for Big Red, many current customers wanting to jump on the device were advised not to: Apple is going to release a new iPhone this summer, and it seemed unreasonable to buy a phone model that is already eight months old. This fact alone might have deterred enough potential buyers from jumping the gun.

For now, the safest bet is to consider these stats and figures interesting, but definitely not enough to claim that it’s an instant failure.

[Via: BGR]

About The Author

Marc Flores

Marc has been a mobile fanatic for the better part of a decade and has had more devices pass through his hands than he would care to count. Originally from Los Angeles and briefly in San Francisco, Marc now lives in Brooklyn where, unlike Will Park, he longs for simpler times and simpler technology. All the while, he writes about gadgets and wireless technology as he tinkers, hacks and ultimately breaks most of his gadgets in the process. Marc has written about the mobile industry for Boy Genius Report, MobileCrunch, Laptop Magazine and has had his work appear in the Wall Street Journal, Gizmodo, CrunchGear and more.

http://twitter.com/whatwhatjbdo Jeff Brayer

Can we give it at least a month before we start assuming that things went bad? There is absolutely no relevance to the data shown here…5 apple stores? Really? That doesnt even rate 5% of all the locations that both devices are sold at…completely horrible waste of article space. Sorry Into…you guys are great and all…but this is a really bad article.
http://twitter.com/whatwhatjbdo Jeff Brayer

Oh and FYI…i have an AT&T iphone. I love it and will not switch, but again, give the 2 competitors (V and A) a little more credit…oh and apple too. BTW…hope Steve is ok. Good luck big guy.
http://twitter.com/clonewar2 parrotcam

i just hope steve jobs is okay. i worry everyday that something terrible might happen.
http://twitter.com/WillieFDiazSF William Diaz ?

The 5 Apple Stores listed actually happen to be the most high-volume stores Apple has for iPhone activations. I know one is NYC one is SF – both happen to be in areas that have solid Verizon coverage and shoddy AT&T coverage. So that right there is a definite factor.

As for giving things a month – it will take longer then a month to decide if Verizon failed or not. Personally, I happen to have plenty of friends on AT&T that have claimed their service is decent. Others claim it sucks. However, NEITHER group is leaving for Verizon for two simple reasons… 1. Contracts are NOT expired and AT&T has offered them really good deals to stay. 2. They are waiting till iPhone 5 launches to see how many people LEAVE AT&T for Verizon – if people leave, then their service will only get better. Kinda like them sticking with it because they know it will get better. Much like iDEN on Sprint got better once half the customers left.

Just saying that it will take a while.
Anonymous

Did you read the article at all???

“With five total stores combined – hardly a large enough sample to draw anything meaningful or conclusive…”

“For now, the safest bet is to consider these stats and figures interesting, but definitely not enough to claim that it’s an instant failure.”

Apparently you just skimmed it and went straight to comment and call us out.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1324502085 Jordan McMahon

Am I the only one who thinks that the iPhone 5 will only launch on ATT at first?
Anonymous

I kinda get that feeling, too, but Apple can be so unpredictable at times.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=636488338 Sean McCollum

Not even sure why there was any hype at all. It’s just an iPhone. Not sure what people were expecting.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=503236819 Umar Anjum

I can’t help but laugh. Apple always succeeds in surrounding each of their to-be-launched products with mega-hype and suckering the public into buying their stuff. It gives me a delight to watch the plan fail, for a change.
Anonymous

Wow, OK man that makes a lot of sense when you think about it.

http://www.total-online-privacy.us.tc
Immortal08

I think that’s the general observation. Why post about something without any “real” data, it’s basically just filler. I will consider the stats thought. How about this what if it rained those days, or there was a lunch special at Chotchkie’s that day.
Just saying who know what happened those days.
kathars1s

Thats what they get for being douchebags with their plan at the last minute. It’s why I didn’t make the switch. Unlimited data but you’re going to throttle the crap out of anyone who uses it? **** you. if i wasn’t going to use the hell out of it I wouldn’t need unlimited data would i.

Losing multitastking is a big enough downside for a lot of people not to switch either.

Not to mention I think that Iphone madness is starting to die down a little. Now that I’m not going verizon im gonna wait for the iphone 5 instead of getting a 4. Thats because I have the old 3g and its nearly a paperweight now. Anyone who has the iphone 4 probably won’t see a need to upgrade to the 5. Even 3gs owners may be on the fence for quite a while after initial launch.

Unless theres something amazing or groundbraking about the new iphone i think apples launch will also pale in comparrison to the 3g and 4 initial launches.

Theres some decent android phones out now to compare with also.
Imcneny

Did anyone realize though that Apple has done VERY little advertising for this release? They left it all to Verizon. Apple is saving up for the release of the iPhone 5. No time to really care about Verizon!
http://www.itechmax.com Umar Anjum

That could be it
Judosquash

There are rumors surfacing that there may be a AT&T/Verizon merger in the future, which would partially explain the release of the iPhone/iPads on Verizon. Also, AT&T raised their early termination fee to $325 to prep themselves for the release (and save their ass).