
The company did not say how many of each model was sold, but it had expected the iPhone 5S, the more expensive one, to be the more popular. Apple allowed customers to place early online orders for the cheaper 5C but not the 5S because of expected supply constraints.
Sales of the new iPhones topped analysts’ expectations. They had predicted Apple would sell between five million and eight million. The strong sales should give Apple a much-needed boost. Over recent quarters, its revenue has been flat and its profit growth has slowed. And its stock has taken a beating on Wall Street amid investors’ concerns that the company had lost its ability to innovate after the death of its visionary co-founder, Steven P. Jobs. Its stock opened Monday with a gain of about 5 percent.
“Remarkable. The rumors of Apple’s demise are clearly wrong,” said Laurence Isaac Balter, chief market strategist at Oracle Investment Research, which has clients that own Apple shares.
The sales figures apparently exceeded even Apple’s expectations. After announcing the numbers, the company issued updated financial guidance for investors. The company said that while it had previously forecast between $34 billion and $37 billion in revenue, it now expects revenue to be toward the high end of that range.