Apple boosts quarterly revenue guidance on strong iPhone 5s/5c sales

Apple Cupertino headquarters (Everaldo Coelho 001)

Nine million opening weekend iPhone sales is music to the ears of Wall Street. Matter of face, most analysts were expecting somewhere between five to ten million handsets so clearly launch numbers are on the high end of most people’s expectations.

Needles to say, following the company’s announcement this morning, $AAPL has surged toward $500 in pre-market trading. And now, encouraged by its own strong numbers, the Cupertino firm has increased its quarterly revenue guidance…

In a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Apple wrote it expects revenue and gross margin for the current financial quarter to come in near the high-end of the previously provided range:

On September 23, 2013, Apple Inc. (the “Company”) announced that it has sold over nine million new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c models, just three days after the launch of the new iPhones on September 20.

Apple 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 percent to 37 percent.

Nine million iPhone 5s/5c handsets is eighty percent better than the five million iPhone 5 units it sold last last year. AAPL opened at $496, up $28.59 – or a nice 6.1 percent – from Friday’s close.

In addition, Apple confirmed that 200 million customers upgraded to iOS 7 and said during the keynote it expected its 700 millionth iOS device sale next month. Analytics firm Akamai estimated the iOS 7 release  may have been responsible for a spike of up to 112 percent in last Wednesday’s Internet traffic.

apple-5s-adoption

Analytics firm Localytics discovered the flagship iPhone 5s was outselling the more affordable iPhone 5c by a factor of three in the period spanning the September 20 launch until 8 pm Sunday.

iphone 5c plastic

Meanwhile, the iPhone 5s continues to be in high demand as most online orders will ship “in the coming weeks” (the online Apple Store vaguely says ‘October’).

To make the purchasing experience more frictionless, customers can now use Apple’s Personal Pickup service via the online web store and the Apple Store app to order their iPhone 5s or 5c online and have it delivered to a desired retail store for pickup.

Image top of post: Apple’s corporate headquarters in Cupertino, California.