Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster reports that Apple was averaging about 9,000 iPhones sold each day prior to the recent 33 percent price cut, but post-price cut Apple sold about 27,000 iPhones a day for at least four days.
Here's how Munster figured it out: By surveying Apple stores he figured out that Apple was averaging 9,000 iPhones a day, which would have put the total iPhones sold in the quarter at 594,000 as of September 5. Apple had already announced that it sold 270,000 phones in the previous quarter. Since Apple announced that it had hit the 1 million iPhones sold mark on September 9, Munster figured out that it had to have sold 27,000 phones a day between September 5 and September 9.
Munster characterized the spike in sales as "an initial surge that is not sustainable." Munster predicts 1.28 million iPhones will have been sold by the end of the quarter.
On a related note, since the iPhone is not set to launch in Asia until next year, the black market for "iClones" is certainly taking off: The phones cost a mere $270, which is still far below the iPhone's reduced $399 pricetag. Here's an image of one of the more popular iClones, see if you can tell the difference by clicking the image to see a comparison:
For more on Munster's report:
- read this article from Apple 2.0
- read this article on the iClones