Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster: Launch Weekend Figures Impeded by Availability. "This morning Apple announced the sale of 5 million iPhone 5s in the first weekend compared to our 8 million estimate (6-10 million range). We believe there are two factors that negatively impacted the number. First, our sales expectation assumed that Apple would include all phones pre-ordered online. We believe that this may have been up to 1 million additional units as units pre-ordered after the middle of the first day were projected to be available in October. Second, we noted 1.25 days of Apple Retail inventory compared to 2.5 days during the 4S launch. Our 8 million estimate assumed full weekend availability and the counting of all online pre-orders. We believe that if supply were not a constraint and Apple included all pre-orders, the launch weekend number would have been closer to 7-8 million, assuming ~1 million October pre-order sales and an additional 1-2 million units at retail."

"ISI Group's Brian Marshall: Clarification to Quick Thoughts on AAPL's Opening Weekend iPhone 5 Sales. "We expected 6-8 million over the opening weekend... Clarification - recall the 5mil+ iPhone 5 reported sales only takes into consideration: 1) what was sold into partners (e.g., retail outlets, carriers, etc.), 2) sold in AAPL retail stores, and 3) direct to customers only if they signed for the device. Importantly, this doesn't take into consideration units in delivery direct to customers (i.e., AAPL must have signature of acceptance by customer before it is counted as a sale) and we estimate units in transit could be in the millions currently. We believe the negative pre-market action in AAPL (i.e., down ~2%) is an over-reaction and would be buyers of the stock here."

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/09/24/apples-5-million-iphone-5-sales-what-analysts-are-saying/

"Cult like" lol...

Hundreds of people were lining up outside my local 'O2' shop as well, so it's not just Apple stores people buy them at on day 1. Even so, people just enjoy the experience of lining up with like-minded people in order to be among the first in he world to use the product. Nothing wrong with that. Are people who line up at midnight to get videogames "cult like" as well then, according to you?

I've been following what this guy says on stocks for a few months cause he talks a lot of trash about a stock I own. Hes a complete idiot... Just saying.

Yeah, I'm not really sure how I managed it.  

I went in expecting to just order one and wait a few weeks.  I didn't particularly care since I wasn't in a huge hurry, I just knew I was up for an upgrade.  I went in late afternoon and the lady asked if I had been running around all day trying to find one.  I said nope, I expected them to be completely sold out everywhere so I didn't bother but they surprisingly had quite a few of the 64GB's in stock (I guess those ones aren't popular?).  They did have a line that morning and all the 16's sold out immediately, but after that they still had 32's for a while and 64's up until that evening (I returned because when they upgraded my phone they accidently messed with my wife's plan and she couldn't connect to her phones 3G anymore).

I hadn't planned on getting a 64, but sure, why not?  I had the 16GB iPhone 4 and ran out of space a few times because of music and apps so went ahead and got the 64GB one.  

lol. There is more trash for you to read, click on the link!

It's amazing that 100m people have already downloaded iOS 6 too... :o

Verizon has had iPhone since 4. The 4S launched on Verizon on day one along with AT&T and Apple Stores.

Don't know about the rest as it sounded like it was launching in a very similar manner to the 4S as far as country releases.

Apple can and will certainly sell more, question is if it can regain is US lead over Samsung's Galaxy S3. :) Personally, if I was an Apple user, idk why anyone would upgrade if they have the 4S. I don't see enough to pay the price. If you have the 4, then you're close to upgrade anyways and you get a decently faster phone, better camera, and Siri.

What part about "supply constraints" you didn't understand.

Indeed, but its only handhelds that are affected by this, home consoles are safe...for now.(until Apple release a gaming controller which instantly turns 300m+ iOS devices into home consoles.) lol

No because they want the product and not the 'likeminded' experience.

A local radio DJ was going around and talking to people lined up at the Apple store, even telling them "You know we were just at Future Shop and there is no line there"...these guys didn't care.

I guess it doesn't surprise me they want the full experience... Knowing what iPhone 5 offers over 4s, and the fact that these people are willing to line up for hours and spend 800 dollars of their own money on the iPhone 5...there has to be something else they are getting out fo the experience besides the phone.