Record sales for the iPhone

Once there was a time when Apple could do no wrong. Where they led, others simply followed. It seemed that the company launched one game-changing product after another, constantly raising the ‘innovation’ bar and all with frightening regularity. And then came the iPhone 5.

The arrival of Apples latest version of its revolutionary iPhone was marked with a wave of disappointment. Critics and press gave at best, a very lukewarm response. Nevertheless people couldn’t stop talking about it, as its launch quickly became the most talked about in the social media space:

iPhone 5           – 1.7million mentions

Blackberry Z10 – 300,000 mentions

Galaxy S4         – 140,000 mentions

Lumia 920         – 45,000 mentions

Worryingly for Apple however all this chatter wasn’t with the hugely positive chorus of approval and wonder that previous iPhones had been greeted with. Around 20% of these conversations about the iPhone 5 were actually negative - and all at a time when competitors within the smartphone market were aggressively pushing their own products.

Yet despite this, the iPhone has defied the negativity to post record sales. In the quarter ending June 29, sales of iPhones rose to 31.3million units compared to 26million sold in the same period in 2012.

The city certainly liked the news, resulting in a 5% increase in the company’s share price.