Thousands of people formed queues outside stores in UAE.Apple started selling its hotly-anticipated iPhone X in the UAE on Friday morning, delighting a good-sized crowd, a number of which started lining up at 12 noon on Thursday.
Naysayers pummelled them with punches of scepticism, but it was the tech giant that delivered the knock-out punch – actually, two of them.
Earlier in the day, it reported better-than-expected and record fourth-quarter financial numbers, allowing it to briefly breach the $900 billion market capitalisation mark, and putting an unprecedented and mind-boggling $1 trillion cap firmly within its sights.
And with huge crowds also flocking to Apple Stores all over the world, it seems that the iPhone X had, apparently, brought back the frenzy of earlier versions of the device, which had lost steam in recent launches.
The first walk-in customer was Pinkesh Jaswani, who said he came at 2pm on Thursday but was told that the queue would start at 4pm. Amit Gopal, meanwhile, was the first of customers who pre-booked to arrive and claim his new device.
However, in a positive sign, Nomura Instinet analysts say that 30 million iPhone X devices will be produced during the present quarter. Furthermore, delivery dates for the device have been listed at ‘within 3-4 weeks’ on Apple’s UAE website, compared to five to six weeks earlier this week.
At 1am Dubai time on Friday, Apple released its fourth-quarter results, which was another stellar showing from the bellwether.
As at Friday afternoon, Apple’s market cap was at $868.33 billion. It briefly swelled above the $900 billion mark in after-hours trading as it shares leapt 3.3 per cent. It closed on Thursday at $168.11.
“We had good success, I would say, through the different iPhones,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said on the conference call with journalists after the results.
“We tried hard to have an iPhone that is as affordable as possible for people that really want an iPhone, but may have a more limited budget.”
“A trillion-dollar market cap may now be in Cook’s sights in light of these results and guidance around iPhone X,” Daniel Ives, an analyst at GBH Insights, told.
Apple also said in its statement that it returned $11 billion to investors through its capital return programme. Operating cash flow was at $15.7 billion, according to chief financial officer Luca Maestri.
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