大屏机得宠 新iPhone首周末销量破千万台

Early sales of Apple’s new iPhones have lived up to high expectations.

苹果(Apple)新款iPhone的初期销售没有辜负人们的厚望。

The company on Monday said it sold more than 10 million of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus models in the first three days they were available in stores. That is higher than the nine million new iPhones it sold last year in their first weekend on sale.

公司在周一称，iPhone 6和6 Plus在进入门店销售的前三天里销量超过了1000万台。这个数字比去年的新款iPhone首周末销量900万台还要高。

The phones’ larger screens — 4.7 diagonal inches for the 6 and 5.5 for the 6 Plus — are a considerable jump from the 4-inch screens of earlier iPhones.

手机的屏幕——6为4.7寸、6 Plus为5.5寸——较旧版的4寸屏要大出许多。

The iPhone sales were on the upper end of financial analysts’ expectations, which ranged from 6.5 million to the “low teens” of millions of sales.

金融分析师对iPhone销量的预测在650万台到“1000万台出头”之间，所以实际销量已经达到了预测的上限。

The strong sales mirror growing consumer demand for smartphones with bigger screens. IDC, a research firm, estimated that at least 20 percent of all smartphones shipped last year in China, the largest smartphone market in the world, were five inches or larger. It also predicted that manufacturers this year would ship more “phablets,” or smartphones with screens measuring at least 5.5 diagonal inches, than laptops.

强劲的销售反映了消费者对大屏智能手机的需求增长。据研究机构IDC估计，去年在全球最大的智能手机市场中国，智能手机总出货量中有至少20%的屏幕在5英寸以上。该机构还预测，生产商今年的“平板手机”(phablet)——也就是屏幕在5.5寸以上的智能手机——出货量将超过手提电脑。

Some analysts even estimated that the larger iPhone 6 Plus was more popular with consumers over the weekend.

一些分析师甚至估计在周末的销售中，屏幕更大的iPhone 6 Plus更受消费者青睐。

“The iPhone 6 Plus demand is very strong. They’re basically sold out everywhere we checked,” said Maynard Um, a senior research analyst for Wells Fargo. “But the iPhone 6 didn’t look to be fully sold out. That’s hard to tell if it’s because Apple has a lot of supply out there, or it’s because there’s less demand for it compared to the iPhone 6 Plus.”

“IPhone 6 Plus的需求非常旺盛。基本上我们看过的地方都已经断货，”富国银行(Wells Fargo)高级研究分析师梅纳德·乌姆(Maynard Um)说。“但iPhone 6看起来还没有完全售空。很难说这是不是因为苹果的供货量很大，还是它相比iPhone 6 Plus的需求比较小。”

Apple’s investors — much like Hollywood producers tracking the first few days of ticket sales for a blockbuster movie — closely watch first-weekend sales for the iPhone because they are a reflection of consumer demand. The iPhone is still Apple’s biggest cash cow, accounting for about 70 percent of its profit. So early sales can help predict quarterly or even annual results for the company, based in Cupertino, Calif.

和跟踪观察某部大片上映最初几天票房的好莱坞制片人一样，苹果的投资人在密切关注iPhone的首周末销量，因为这是消费者需求的一种反映。iPhone至今仍是苹果最大的赚钱机器，其大约70%的利润来自于此。因此早期的销售情况可以预示这家加州库珀蒂诺公司的季度甚至年度业绩。

But some analysts, like Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, wondered whether first-weekend sales were still a reliable measure for consumer demand. The iPhone is already immensely popular in many countries, he noted before the announcement, so early sales may be more of a sign of how many iPhones can initially be produced by Apple and its manufacturing partners.

但是有一些分析师在质疑，首周末销量是否依然是一个可靠的消费者需求衡量手段，比如派杰(Piper Jaffray)的基尼·蒙斯特(Gene Munster)。他提出在宣布消息前，iPhone在许多国家已经极为抢手，所以早期的销售额可能更多反映了苹果及其制造合作伙伴在一开始能有多少产量。

“The first weekend iPhone sales number continues to be more about how much Apple can supply than what the demand is in the market,” said Walter Piecyk, managing director at BTIG Research, an industry firm.

“首周末iPhone销量的重点始终是苹果的供货量，而不是市场的需求，”产业机构BTIG研究公司(BTIG Research)的执行董事沃尔特·皮西科(Walter Piecyk)说。

Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, said as much on Monday.

苹果首席执行官蒂莫西·D·库克(Timothy D. Cook)在周一也说了类似的话。

Apple “could have sold many more iPhones with greater supply, and we are working hard to fill orders as quickly as possible,” he said in a statement.

他在声明中说，苹果“如果有更大的供应，就应该能卖出更多的iPhone，我们都在努力想办法尽快交付订单。”

The latest iPhones also missed out on a big market: China. Apple has delayed the release of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus there, apparently because the devices have not yet received approval from Chinese regulators.

最新款iPhone还错过了一个大市场：中国。苹果推迟了iPhone 6和6 Plus在那里的销售，原因看起来是这些设备还没有得到中国监管机构的核准。

Despite missing out on hundreds of millions of potential Chinese customers, Apple impressed analysts with its weekend performance.

虽然失去了数以百万计的潜在中国顾客，苹果在首周末的表现依然让分析人士啧啧称羡。

“Even without China, Apple was able to move $6.5 billion of product in three days which would be impressive for any industry,” Mr. Piecyk said.

“在没有中国的情况下，苹果可以在三天里卖掉65亿美元的产品，这放在任何产业都是很了不起的，”皮西科说。

The introduction of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus on Friday was the second time Apple released two new iPhones at the same time. Last year, Apple introduced the iPhone 5S along with the iPhone 5C, a colorful plastic model sold at a lower price.

在周五推出的iPhone 6和6 Plus是苹果第二次同时发售两款新iPhone。去年苹果在介绍iPhone 5S的同时，还推出了售价较低的彩色塑料型号iPhone 5C。

Apple is treating the iPhone 5C differently than past iPhones. Traditionally, Apple has upgraded each iPhone once a year, with improvements like faster chips and better cameras. But this month, instead of announcing an upgrade for the iPhone 5C, Apple said it would continue to sell the exact same iPhone, but for a lower cost: free with a contract.

苹果在iPhone 5C上使用的策略和以往的iPhone不同。按照惯例每款iPhone是一年升级一次的，会配备更快的芯片和更好的摄像头。但这个月，苹果没有宣布iPhone 5C的升级，手机本身毫无变化，只是售价更低：合约机免费。

Analysts say that it appears Apple’s strategy all along for the iPhone 5C was to sell an older, plastic iPhone over a longer time period to allow the costs of production and components to drop. That lets Apple decrease the price of the plastic iPhone and increase market share in less affluent markets.

分析人士称，看起来这从一开始就是苹果对iPhone 5C的策略：在相对较长的时间里出售一种老款的、塑料的iPhone，从而降低生产和零件的成本。这样一来，苹果可以降低塑料iPhone的价格，在没那么富裕的市场获得更多份额。