Apple soars on iPhone sales
Apple shares were up nearly 5%, going for $127.17 a piece when the New York Stock Exchange closed. The price slipped a fraction to $126.82 in after-hours trading.
Investors were evidently reacting to reports from analysts that from 310 000 to 700 000 iPhones have been snapped up since the devices began selling on Friday and that the profit margin on the devices is estimated at 55%.
Apple and US telecom giant AT&T, the exclusive iPhone service provider, did not disclose sales figures "for competition reasons".
"In its first weekend we sold more iPhones than in the first month of any other wireless phone AT&T ever offered," AT&T spokesperson Mark Siegel told AFP. "That's how good it's been. We are simply not releasing figures."
Nearly all of AT&T's 1 800 stores were sold out of iPhones by Monday and new stocks were en route, according to Siegel.
The rush of people activating their iPhones online during the weekend flooded AT&T computers, causing delays in a small fraction of cases, according to Siegel.
"We think all those problems are behind us," Siegel said. "The overwhelming number of customers went home, onto their iTunes website and were off and running in a matter of minutes the way it was intended."
The touch-screen devices, which combine internet, telephone and iPod-like music and video play, are sold at Apple and AT&T stores and at Apple's online store.
An eight-gigabyte iPhone is priced at $599 and a four-gigabyte version is $499.
Among the hordes of people that raced to get iPhones are those that tore them apart to figure out which companies supply parts and how much the devices cost to make.
Research firm iSuppli reported on Tuesday that it dismantled an eight-gigabyte iPhone and determined Apple paid approximately $266 for the parts.
The iSuppli analysis pegs Apple's iPhone profit margin at 55%, even more than the 40 to 50% it makes off each iPod MP3 players.
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