Apple Watch: Lucky numbers

The 'Apple is doomed' squad won't be mollified by any of this, but mollification (that's really a word?) is definitely on the cards for the Apple faithful. In spades. Look at these Apple numbers:

Apple sold nine million of the new iPhone 5s and 5c in the first weekend on sale. When the iPhone 5 was released last year, Apple sold five million in the first weekend. And that was considered pretty good.

Apple didn't give a breakdown of who bought what out of the two new models it released, but data has since come in showing that despite logic, it's the expensive model that's by far the most popular.

Globally, according to Localytics' analysis of mobile statistics, the iPhone 5s accounted for a surprisingly high 78 per cent of all new iPhones purchased. In China, which was seen as a prime market for the cheaper 5c, 91 per cent of iPhone sales there were for the more expensive iPhone 5s.

The UK had the lowest ratio of iPhone 5s to iPhone 5c sales, with 69 per cent of new iPhone sales being the 5s. In the US, 76 per cent of new iPhone sales also went to the 5s.

To my mind, because the iPhone 5s embodies what's new and exciting, sales of the iPhone 5c will pick up only by comparison once the euphoria of those early adopters with money to splurge is sated.

And the iPhone 5s is fast. Gizmodo says "Apple's iPhone design is a masterpiece, and iOS 7 shows that Apple's got a mastery of operating systems as well, more or less." The site goes on to say the new A7 CPU is even faster in use than its specs would suggest. "The benchmarks for Apple's new iPhone 5S are absurd. After running Geekbench 3.0 on the hardware, we got scores that match up with the numbers reported by others ..."

iOS 7 may have divided users thanks to its radical redesign, but the new OS quickly went on to be the most downloaded and used version of iOS ever. This year, iOS 7 arguably had more of a potential hindrance to the controversial Maps app in iOS 6 thanks to its completely revamped user interface. Yet within 72 hours of its release, iOS 7 overtook iOS 6 as the iOS installed on the majority of devices.

According to Apple, over 200 million iOS devices are already running the completely redesigned iOS 7 since its September 18th launch.

By 8 PM on Friday, September 20, iOS 7 was on 48.21 per cent of iOS devices, compared to 47.58 per cent for iOS 6. BySeptember 23rd, that percentage had grown to 56.21 per cent of iDevices.

But if you're still struggling with iOS 7 (I absolutely love the usability, even if I still find some of the redesign a little jarring) check out Macworld's guide to what you may have missed.

Is the iPhone 'better' than other smartphones? I have no idea. I'd stay with Apple, of course, and as I've said before, whether a Galaxy was better or not simply because it integrates into my Apple ecosystem without me having to do anything. I know you can make an Android do this, but that has no appeal for me. But anyway, if you're in the market for the best no matter the platform, maybe check out Phonedog's video review, as this smartphone site does compare the iPhone 5s to Android to some extent, at least in the second part.

There are other numbers that confirm Apple is still doing what Apple lovers love. For personal computers, Apple has been at the top of the American Customer Satisfaction Index customer satisfaction charts for the last 10 years.

Apple's score for 2013 was 87, compared to 80 for Hewlett-Packard, 79 for and 78 for Toshiba. Scores are based on a number of factors, including customer expectations, perceived quality of products and perceived value. Apple's score increased 1.2 per cent from the 2012 survey results. And it's interesting to look back through these results to the '90s when Jobs had gone and Apple was suffering.

In the US and Canada, Microsoft is actually handing out cash if you turn in an iDevice! But that's not desperation, right? It's solid business practice ...

Here's a prediction for you - a Samsung phone will appear shortly with high-speed video to match the iPhone 5s slo-mo feature, now that YouTube is filling up with 5s-filmed examples.

Although we all know Samsung makes wonderful smartphones and never copies anything. Samsung, I'm sure, has always had plans for a gold Galaxy, despite all those asserting that a gold iPhone would look tacky.

But if you still think (or hope, anyway) that Apple is doomed, check through TUAW's list of 'the sky is falling!' announcements since the first iPhone appeared six years ago.

I am very much looking forward to checking out both new iPhones in person ... but no, sorry, I have no idea when they might arrive in New Zealand.