Timing can be a wonderful thing. Recent days have seen several prominent commentators suggest that Apple’s iPhone 5 is boring and not enough of a step on from its predecessor, the iPhone 4S. Do consumers agree? Seemingly not.
Apple announced today that in the first 24 hours after pre-orders started for the new smartphone, 2m units were snapped up. “Demand for iPhone 5 exceeds the initial supply and while the majority of pre-orders will be delivered to customers on September 21, many are scheduled to be delivered in October,” noted the company’s press release.
SVP of worldwide marketing Philip Schiller crowed that the device had “shattered the previous record held by iPhone 4S” (which was 1m units pre-ordered in 24 hours). It represents a strong start for the company’s flagship handset as it seeks to overhaul Samsung’s Galaxy S III – which shipped 10m units in its first 55 days earlier in the year.
Apple’s critics may not be mollified by the news. An example today – unluckily published hours before the 2m-units news – was The Music Void’s piece labelling the iPhone 5 “lacklustre and behind the times”.
The article, whose neutrality is shown in its “all you iDrones out there” phrase, and whose technical stance is summarised by the suggestion that Samsung having more phone models makes it “more innovative than Apple” – not something that helped Nokia or RIM much – is by no means alone.
Journalists are picking sides in the Samsung / Apple (and by extension Android / iOS) dispute, with increasingly rancorous rhetoric. Meanwhile, consumers keep on snapping up both company’s smartphones in their millions, drawing their own conclusions about their respective merits.
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