Verizon Wireless isn’t the only company cashing in on this month’s soaring iPhone sales.
Irvine’s Incipio Technologies, a maker of protective cases for Apple Inc.’s do-all device and other consumer electronics, also is breaking sales records.
That’s on the heels of the iPhone kickoff at Verizon, which the company called “the most successful first-day sales in the company’s history.”
Verizon, part of New York’s Verizon Communications Inc., offered the phones for sale online to existing customers starting on Feb. 3. It started selling them in stores last week.
Verizon halted the pre-orders after selling out of inventory set aside for the promotion within two days. As of this writing, the company didn’t disclose how many iPhones it had sold.
The estimates are flying.
Chesterfield, Mo.-based Susquehanna Financial Group LLP analyst Jeff Fidicaro pegs Verizon sales of iPhones at nearly 3 million before the end of March and some 12 million for the year.
It’s been a boon, Incipio founder and Chief Executive Andy Fathollahi said.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “Our online sales … have been through the roof.”
Verizon itself also is a reseller of Incipio’s iPhone accessories.
Fathollahi said he expects roughly half of Incipio’s iPhone product revenue to come from Verizon this year.
“Our iPhone product line is definitely our best-selling,” he said.
The company sees an estimated $25 million in yearly sales.
February is expected to show 300% sales growth over last year, Fathollahi said.
Incipio’s best-selling product is an iPhone case made from a blend of materials that it calls “silicrylic”—a mix of silicone and acrylic. Incipio currently is applying for patents on the material.
“It has a soft inner core with a hard outer shell,” Fathollahi said. “Verizon is calling it a double cover.”
The case also is a top seller at AT&T Inc. stores, which have been selling the iPhone for the past three years.
Before Verizon’s deal to become a service provider for the iPhone, AT&T was its exclusive wireless carrier.
Incipio had been prepping for the Verizon launch for some time.
It leased an additional 50,000 square feet in warehouse space here and doubled its temporary workers to help fill orders.
“We’ve done a really good job supplying Verizon with plenty of inventory for this launch, in anticipation of a very successful pre-order and in-store launch,” Fathollahi said. “But this is just the beginning.”
Incipio, which started in 1999, also makes protective cases for iPods, iPads, BlackBerrys, other smartphones, laptops and handheld devices.
Big Players Boost Startups
The White House announced a new effort to spur entrepreneurship and grow the nation’s high tech jobs.
The Startup America Partnership, as the program is called, is set to be headed by AOL Corp. cofounder Steve Case.
It’s backed by a couple of big tech players and private foundations.
Intel Capital—Intel Corp.’s venture arm—is pitching in $200 million. IBM Corp. is investing $150 million. Other big tech names joining the effort include Facebook Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Google Inc.
The idea is to “dramatically increase the development, prevalence and success of innovative, high-growth U.S. firms,” according to the Obama administration.
It’s unclear exactly how the money is set to be distributed. The goal is to give startups access to capital, add educational and mentorship programs that help create jobs, boost federal funded research and development programs that give rise to new companies and set up collaborative relationships between large companies and startups.
Bits and Pieces
Worldwide chip sales hit record sales of nearly $300 billion in 2010, according to recent data from the Semiconductor Industry Association, a San Jose-based trade group. That’s up 32% from 2009. The group forecasts “moderate double-digit growth” this year … Atlanta-based telecom service provider Cox Communications Inc. is continuing the “greening” of its local offices in Rancho Santa Margarita. Earlier this month the company installed an 800-kilowatt fuel cell that’s set to cut energy costs by generating electricity. The project is expected to reduce Cox’s annual emissions by an amount equivalent to removing more than 850 cars from the road per year, and to generate enough electricity to light about 600 homes … Joey Benadretti, president of Costa Mesa-based business software maker Syspro Impact Software Inc., was named one of the top 100 executives of 2010 by Computer Reseller News, a trade magazine for software and tech services resellers. Benadretti was included in a group of twenty-five “Top Channel Chiefs in Software.”
