Apple today announced it had sold its one millionth iPhone since releasing the products on June 29th.
Apple Sells One Millionth iPhone
Yesterday, just 74 days after its introduction on June 29, Apple sold the one millionth iPhone. “One million iPhones in 74 days—it took almost two years to achieve this milestone with iPod,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We can’t wait to get this revolutionary product into the hands of even more customers this holiday season.” [Sep 10, 2007]
This is, of course, an amazing pace and in no doubt helped by the recent price drop to $399. We personally just bought a $299 4Gb model tohack to pieces play with and as a backup should our trusty 8Gb darling go south.
It of course took the iPod two years to sell one million units so it is hard to argue that Apple doesn't have a monster hit on its hands. iSuppli agrees. So do 94% of iPhone owners. Now just imagine if Apple sold that thing in Best Buy, Amazon and even overseas?
When do you think Apple will hit their 10 millionth iPhone? Their goal is end of 2008. Take the poll!
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Comments
At this pace, 1 million
At this pace, 1 million phones per 74 days, it will take... wait for it... 666 days to get the next 9 million sold!
Are you joking? Taking a
Are you joking?
Taking a simple average wouldn't possibly give the number of days to sell the next 9 million units. With the price drop on 9/5, it is likely that 20% of those 1 million units were sold in the past 5 to 6 days. Ahem...using your method would actually pace the next 9 million at...wait for it...270 more days...how about July 2008? Oh but wait, there's ONE MORE THING (hee-hee). You didn't take into account that iPhones are going to be sold in Europe in the very near future...a whole new market. No one said they'd sell 10 million iPhones based on only U.S. sales...just 10 million iPhones (wherever they're sold). And what about Asia? These iPhones are going to be sold in other parts of the world, not just U.S. and Europe. It looks like July will see number 12 or 15 million. THINK.
Yes, I was joking. I thought
Yes, I was joking. I thought that the 666 day thing was interesting. I'm actually not so dumb that I would assume sales would be completely steady.
Ahhh...a joke!
I didn't catch the subtle 666 joke...sorry. I suppose you are referring to the "mark of Steve Jobs" or something (hee-hee!)
Seriously, I don't suppose anyone would be naive to think sales will be steady. However, there will be strong spurts at different points along the "one more thing" path. Christmas sales (any new announcements concerning prices? concerning 3G iPhones?), Europe and then Asia introductions will both come with in initial sharp rises in sales. Those are the obvious things. What isn't so obvious will be the many market variables that are outside of Apple's control and also hidden (at least to us who aren't insiders) variables within Apple's control. I suspect by Christmas, not only will we have some shocking earnings figures to discuss as a whole, but there just may be one or two more "one more things" to hear about. I'm listening for them and still thinking.
Did you notice that retail
Did you notice that retail OSX Leopard has 6.66 Gb?
Interesting...
1000 million phones?
if the 10 mill equals 1% of market this suggest there are 1 billion handsets out there. For real??
1 billion phones
That's a great question and I am not the expert to answer it. But I wouldn't have written the first line (as you surely guessed) without having an answer. I can tell you that as a U.S. citizen living and working (legally, I might add) in Mexico, EVERYONE in Mexico has a cell phone. Kids here have cell phones. I'm not kidding. The rich, middle and lower class alike. All have cell phones. Many in the lower class don't have landlines...only cell phones. One often can't get a landline easily or at all in places here in this country, whereas anyone with a little bit of cash can get a $40 cell phone and use a prepay plan. I know users in all three economic classes here who have cell phones and even the ones whose income is probably under $500 a month use have them and use them...they can text message for a nickel. That's primarily what some do since it costs quite a bit more to use the voice service.
All that to say, this is a country with over 100 million people. They probably easily sell 10 to 20 million cell phones here a year. I own 3 cell phones all purchased in the past 12 months and have given away a 4th in the past year. So, do you think it's a billion unit global market in a 6 to 7 billion global population. It seems quite reasonable to believe so.
There are OF COURSE a lot
There are OF COURSE a lot more than 1 billion handsets in the world! It has been sold hundreds of millions each year for years now...
When Steve Jobs is saying that Apple is aiming to sell 10 million units of the iPod in 2008, corresponding to a 1% market share, this means that there is projected to be SOLD 1 billion handsets in 2008!