Apple sold so many new iPhones this weekend it had to alert SEC

Free coffee and bottled water were some comfort to the hundreds lined up to get their new iPhone outside the Grove Apple store in Los Angeles.

By Chris O’Brien

Sept. 23, 2013 12 AM PT

Analysts and the media apparently weren’t the only ones caught off guard by the record 9 million new iPhones sold this weekend. So was Apple.

On Monday, after issuing a news release announcing the record-breaking figure, the company followed up by making an unusual filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

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Basically, Apple sold so many more units of the new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c this weekend that it caused a material change in its business prospects for the current quarter that ends Sept. 28. The company is going to make more money than it had anticipated.

According to the filing: “Apple expects total company revenue for the fourth fiscal quarter to be near the high end of the previously provided range of $34 billion to $37 billion, and expects gross margin to be near the high end of the previously provided range of 36% to 37%.”

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