Three days after the launching of Apple’s new products (iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s), nine million iPhones were sold worldwide. This was,in fact, the first time Apple launched its products in China on the same day along with the other ten countries.
“That sentiment is almost more important than the number“(Par.5). Apple had been forecasting the demand for its products after selling nine millions of them. However, it had proven to be a difficult task as this time Apple simultaneously launched two products and also signed a new contract with Japan’s largest phone carrier company, NTT DoCoMo.
Forecasting the demand becomes an extremely important duty since the supply is limited and the demand for its two products are different.For instance, the demand for the gold-coloured iPhone 5s had exceeded the supply and sold out shortly after the released date, which means the demand for a specific colour is higher than the other coloured versions.
From the article, I observed that forecasting is really helpful in terms of dealing with the uncertainty. If Apple had been able to forecast the demand earlier, then they would have been more prepared to supply more demanded products (gold coloured 5s) and resulted in bringing them more revenues.
References:
- “Apple Polishes Forecast After Selling 9 million New iPhones-reuters.com” Business Daily. Sept. 25,2013<http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/23/us-apple-iphone-idUSBRE98J0LD20130923>
- “Apple iPhone 5S and 5C: All the News and Rumors” Theverage.com. Sept.25 2013,<http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/12/4614200/apple-iphone-5s-rumors-what-to-expect>