Re: Suppose Apple gave a contract
quote: "Relative unpopularity - you living on a different planet to me? Thought Apple sold more iPhone 5S than any previous model?"
Yes, but the article quite clearly talks about the 5C, which has had less than stellar reception since it's introduction, and is the model that operators are being burned on because they haven't shifted enough units.
I'm fairly confident claiming that "Moffett estimated that Verizon had committed to $23 billion worth of iPhone purchases, but had fallen short on sales, by around $12bn to $14bn." (taken from the article) is a pretty clear indicator that something made by Apple is not selling the way it was expected to. Unless Verizon is being run by a cabal of damp sponges, one would hope they actually based that $23 million estimation upon reasonable figures rather than just rolling some dice, and thus a sales shortfall of 50% is more an indictment of the state of the market, rather than their utter incompetence at estimating sales.
Although TBH if you're going to fail estimates by 50%, there is obviously an element of incompetence involved on your part, even if it is just not hedging your bets appropriately. Luckily they have a willing army of customers ready to pay increased monthly, call and data charges, so they can make that money back ready to give to Apple, eh? :)