Apple CEO Tim Cook showed up in New York City to greet a raucous crowd of gadget geeks on Friday as the iPhone 15’s official launch drew lengthy lines at store locations worldwide.
Cook welcomed queued-up customers during the surprise appearance at Apple’s famed Fifth Avenue store, where the line extended around the corner of East 58th Street.
The Apple boss experienced a brief hiccup as he tried to unlock the door, but recovered to give high-fives and take selfies with fans as they entered.
Apple marketing executive Greg Joswiak was also on hand.
One customer told CNBC that he had been waiting outside the Fifth Avenue store since 8 p.m. on Thursday night to lock up a spot – in what proved to be a common occurrence as the iPhone launched in approximately 40 countries, including the US, China, Dubai and India.
Reservations for in-store pickups quickly sold out, even after online critics slammed Apple for a perceived lack of exciting features in the latest iPhone upgrade.
Meanwhile, consumers who placed their orders online aren’t expected to receive their phones until mid-November.
Elsewhere, customers in India also described waiting in line for nearly an entire day just to get an iPhone.
“I have been here since 3 p.m. yesterday,” one customer told India-based outlet ANI. “I waited in the queue for 17 hours to get the first iPhone at India’s first Apple store.”
The latest release’s is crucial for Apple, which still derives a significant chunk of its annual revenue from iPhone sales. Wall Street is tracking the launch closely ahead of the company’s critical holiday sales season.
In China, a key market for Apple, customers swarmed the company’s retail stores even after Beijing rolls out a crackdown on iPhone usages for certain government agencies. Some scalpers were even spotted hawking the smartphones outside Chinese stores, according to Bloomberg.
So far, demand for the iPhone 15 appears to be exceeding expectations, according to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives.
“iPhone 15 pre-orders are still tracking much stronger than we and the Street originally expected,” Ives said in a note to clients. He added that the number of preorders was “up roughly 10% to 12%” compared to the iPhone 14.
“The mix is heavily skewed towards iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max with Pro Max exceptionally strong in the US, China, India, and parts of Europe,” Ives added.
Still, Apple fanatics seemed less than impressed from the Cupertino, California-based firm unveiled the iPhone 15 at a splashy event earlier this month.
The latest model boasts features like a brighter screen and much-improved camera, as well as a long-awaited switched to the universally used USB-C charging port that was mandated by European Union regulators.
Some online critics felt the upgrades were underwhelming, with one even griping that Apple’s “innovation died with Steve Jobs.”
The company’s stock sank after the event.
The base model iPhone 15 starts at $799, while the iPhone 15 Pro goes for $999 and the Pro Max starts at $1,199.
About one week of iPhone sales will be included in Apple’s results for the fourth quarter, which concludes at the end of September.
Analysts project Apple will report fourth-quarter revenue of $89.3 billion, including $43.6 billion from iPhone sales. In the same period one year ago, Apple generated $90.1 billion in revenue and $42.6 billion from the iPhone.
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