Apple today announced it sold its one millionth iPhone yesterday, just 74 days after its introduction on June 29. iPhone combines three devices into one-a mobile phone, a widescreen iPod, and the best mobile Internet device ever-all based on Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch interface and pioneering software that allows users to control iPhone with just a tap, flick or pinch of their fingers.
“One million iPhones in 74 days-it took almost two years to achieve this milestone with iPod,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in the press release. “We can’t wait to get this revolutionary product into the hands of even more customers this holiday season.”
Apple has hit the first of their two publicly-stated goals: 1 million iPhones sold by the end of September 2007 (21 days early). Apple also has a goal (however laughably conservative it may be) of selling 10 million iPhones in calendar 2008.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in his Macworld Expo 2007 keynote address that Apple would set the goal of selling 10 million iPhone units in 2008, the first full year on the market. (Macworld Expo 2007 iPhone Introduction: Jobs’ remarks on iPhone goals begin at 1:15:52 into the QuickTime video). On July 25, 2007, during Apple’s conference call discussing Q3 – 2007 financial results, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer reiterated Apple’s goal of selling 10 million iPhone units in “calendar 2008.” (Apple’s Q3 07 Apple Quarterly Results Call: Oppenheimer’s remarks on iPhone goals begin at 6:05 into the QuickTime audio stream).
Going forward, Apple’s iPhone price reductions and launches outside the U.S. will change much about these figures, but here’s what we know today about Apple’s position in the market:
• Apple sold an average of 13,514 iPhone units per day in each of the first 74 days (mostly at launch prices)
• Without taking the price cuts into account, Apple will sell 1.233 million iPhones in the first quarter.
• Using the latest numbers Canalys has available on their website (Q4 2006 – Holiday Quarter):
– Apple (with summer U.S. sales only) outsold Sony Ericsson’s worldwide holiday smartphone unit sales (1.137 million units, 5.1% market share)
– Apple (with summer U.S. sales only) outsold Palm’s worldwide holiday smartphone unit sales (1.211 million units, 5.5% market share)
– Apple (with summer U.S. sales only) places just behind Motorola’s worldwide holiday smartphone unit sales (1.463 million units, 6.6% market share)
– According to Canalys, Nokia led with 11.114 million “smart mobile device” shipments in Q4 2006 (50.2% share); RIM was second with 1.829 million (8.3% share).
(Note that we are comparing projected Apple iPhone sales in Q3 2007 (summer) to Q4 2006 (holiday) figures for others because they are the best numbers we have available to us at this time. We conduct this exercise in order to give some sense of where Apple stands in the market.)
With the iPhone’s stunning price cut, the ramp up around the world soon to begin, and the holiday season approaching, you can see just how quickly, viciously, and gluttonously Apple has moved into the world of smart mobile devices.
There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. – Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, April 30, 2007
[UPDATE: 1:40pm EDT: Corrected Nokia Q4 06 unit sales as per Canalys.]
Might be a good day for AAPL’s stock.
Are they going to drop the price again?
I believe this is well before the end of the quarter, am I correct?
20 days left and the price is 200 dollars cheaper, anyone want to say 1.25 million before quarter end?
what was their original prediction for iPhone sales? wasn’t it one million by the end of the year?
MDN Word: air, as in where apple stock prices will be
I thought it was 1 million by the end of the first quarter?
okay, so it was even earlier than I thought. cool
I am in Canada. and because I can’t wait for the s$#@&* Rogers to roll the iPhone. i bought the new iPod touch
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Does that mean that the Mac OSX market share has increased by 1M in the last 74 days? wait for the iPod touch.
They are not going to sell 10M next year. 1M in 74 days means they will only sell 5M in 365 days unless sales pick up allot.
I recently was in a Rogers store (actual Rogers store, not one run by The Source) asking about iPhone availability in Canada and I was told that “It isn’t gonna happen anytime soon because Rogers won’t budge on the price of data plans. The AT&T;deal with Apple for low cost data plan won’t happen because data rates in Canada are far to lucrative. What AT&T;will live with for $20 per month, Rogers would expect to get $250 per month.”
All in all, the MDN Magic Word fits well… Rogers (and Bell Mobility) continue to act in a “trying” manner gouging users at every turn.
@ me
I’m sorry, but u r an idiot.
These sales r in America alone.
Think global.
at “me”
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your calculations are wrong. you’re talking only about the US market not the world. it’s OK. i understand, it’s morning
Not 10M in U.S.A., the customer base will start to include some of the rest of the world. THAT will make a huge difference.
People who use “r” for are would be a better example of an idiot
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actually, i think it make sense if Jobs said that Apple can sell 10 mil iphone by 2008. 1 million is US sales only, not accounting worldwide sales like Japan, Taiwan, and other countries. When i was in Taipei during Computex, many people carry (especially teenager) sony ericsson phones (with walkman features) in subways. There is tremendous prospect in asia.
How long before Apple sold 1 million iPods?
@me
Apple’s goal was not to sell 10M in 365 days, but rather to sell 10M by the end of next year INCLUDING this year.
@me
You’re forgetting the global market, plus the effect of the price drop, plus the fact that we still have about 110 days left in 2007. If you _just_ add the extra days of 07 into the mix, you end up with Apple selling 6.42 million more phones by end of 08. That would be 7.42 million phones without taking into account the price drop or the larger global market.
I don’t think they’ll be having any problems hitting that 10 million goal.
I wish someone would interview Steve Balmer and Ed Colligan regarding the iPhone’s success now.
The official statement was 10 million phone by the end of 2008. That gives them 3 main surge buying opportunities. The product launch and 2 holiday shopping seasons. Also who doubts a strong possibility of iPhone 2.0 next Summer/Fall?
Ten million sounds like a conservative estimate. You know they will make less iPhones than they can sell and even if they wanted to sell ten million they would aim a little higher to make up for faulty units, distribution complications, factory issues, etc. Microsoft’s Windows may dominate the desktop and laptop markets but Apple’s OS X has started taking over the phone market.
MDN — please clarify on this post and future postings about the 10 million in 2008. Does this means Apple’s FY 2008 or CY 2008?
With Safari on the Mac and Windows, the iPod Touch and the iPhone, I’d like to see browser share numbers by the end of ’07. It’s got to eat into IE and FF at some point.
“If you _just_ add the extra days of 07 into the mix, you end up with Apple selling 6.42 million more phones by end of 08. That would be 7.42 million phones without taking into account the price drop or the larger global market.”
also without a large unknown of holiday spending.
is an iPhone a holiday ticket item? how much will a price cut help? is an iPhone a big gift item? a gift to self item?
the other question is acceleration. is it like the iPod in that the more they are seen the more they are accepted and the more the sales rise?
there are a lot of unknowns here, and Apple would prefer to under predict. i think that is why we see a 10 million figure. i wouldn’t be surprised to see them double it if all goes well and the increased production drops the price again.
the real big item for the holidays though i think is going to be the new nano. video on an incredible screen for under 200? if they make ANY profit on them, they are going to be printing money with those things…..
YEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
iPhone ROCK!!!!!!!!!
Well, this proves that Apple is a failure.
I don’t know how, but I’m sure some ‘news’ orgasmization will explain it to my closed mind…..
Let’s see how the idiot anal-ists on Wall Street try to spin this one as bad news. If you hold AAPL long, do not get panicked into selling by the crooks on Wall Street and the media whores. Apple is winning this game and winning it big.
Ballmer……. Ballmer…. Steve Ballmer.. hm ??? who is this guy ?
Any guesses what the Xmas season will bring in terms of sales to help bring that 10million mark to a reality??
@John
You are also forgetting the chance of unlocked iPhones thru people like http://www.iphoneanywhere.com/
In Mexico, we aren’t even on the horizon , we do not even have an iTunes store, as soon as they can start doing remote unlocks, I am getting 3, for me and my 2 girls in University in the States, we will get the smallest ATT family plan, and I will use a TelMex simm while in Mexico.
and its just not me, there is alot of talk here about iPhones being unlocked
Congratulations Apple on the iPhone.
And thank you for changing the world on cellular communication.
The future belongs to Apple!!!!
I’m sort of concerned about the iPod touch taking sales away from the iPhone though, from here on. Personally, I would definitely buy an iPhone instead of a touch and a phone, but I can see a lot of people out there who would buy a touch now and then not feel like they need an iPhone…especially internationally. Here in Japan for instance, people LOVE their phones how they are, but I’m sure they would love iPod touches.
MDN word: herself.
The only ORIGINAL Apple target was 10m by the end of calendar 2008.
1m in the first quarter to end Sept 07 was added after all the broo-haa about the first weekends sales when Apple announced its final quarter sales to end June 07 which included the last two days of June iPhone sales.
@lowell,
actually, I think the iPod might actually help accelerate iPhone sales, especially outside of the US. Take Germany for example: In Germany, as in the rest of Europe, SIM locking is illegal, but the iPhone will be sold exclusively, apparently, through T-Mobile. I believe that when people realize that for only €100 more than the touch they can get the iPhone, they will choose the iPhone and continue to use their current mobile provider. If the iPhone sold through t-Mobile is indeed unlocked, I will get the 8 gig model and continue to use Vodafone as my provider.
me was correct … straight-line projections from today’s numbers through the end of next year don’t make it to the 10 million figure predicted. ian is an idiot attempting to be taken seriously while spelling “words” like an ignorant child. Balmer seems to have been correct … a mere 6% of the market? The poor iPhone is in a niche already!
OK, enough of the over-simplifications. The current numbers are based primarily on U.S. sales to an anxious market at an inflated price. The market should expand to include several additional countries by the end of the year, several more (many more?) by the end of 2008. That would seem likely to increase the sales significantly. The market is no longer anxious, the early adopters (in the U.S.) have been sated, this should lower sales somewhat. The price is now less inflated … this could increase the sales or cut the sales, depending on if this is seen as a luxury item or a merely expensive utility item.
My guess is that the original high prices kept the sales down to a point where manufacturing could keep up with them, that the limit to the AT&T;portion of the U.S. market also helped keep the sales manageable as well as allowed the marketing folk to get a handle on how well the product performed. As it turns out, these two limitations could NOT keep a significant number of the stores from running out of stock in the first days of the sale, but DID keep the outages manageable. Sales goals were exceeded despite the high price – rather than because of it – and can be expected to be bested again and again at the new lower prices, especially as new models are introduced.
Don’t beat up on me for pointing out the obvious – that the numbers we have predict a shortfall. It is our expectations that so strongly suggest that sales will go nowhere but up, and our expectations are entirely reasonable – a larger market (the world) and a lower price (30% off?) typically have that effect on sales curves. Let Balmer suck eggs with Apple managing a mere 10%-30% of the smart-phone market … you’re in a niche until you become an effective monopoly, 49% is still a niche if one company owns the rest.
Dave
I’ve already seen several blog posts and an article that say this is bad news for Apple. 1 million iPhones mean a bigger chunk of money goes to rebates… only 1 million “Apple faithful…” demand will soon drop off… iPhone already outdated…
Only Apple gets this kind of bizzaro-world press. If Apple doubles their market share the company is REALLY going to be in trouble!!!
>.<
@me
Oh…and one more thing: it’s not “allot”, it’s “a lot”.
I don’t have iPhone and i am not planning to buy one anytime soon. However, i am not surprised to see this news. IPhone simply is the best all in one small device out there (If you dissagree, you are an idiot).
My prediction is, iphone and ipod touch will out sell iPod and/or simply all ipod turn into all in one device like ipod touch someday.
I am still waiting for ipod touch to have at least 20 gb then i will be ready to buy. Knowing to have Internet in my pocket is just extremely useful.
@DLMeyer,
You have some very odd views. And you need to look up the meaning of the word niche.
“49% is still a niche if one company owns the rest.”
HUH!?!
C1-
I tole you so
I still think Ballmer will still be right. Windows Mobile is so much ahead of the curve, and its embraced by so many businesses, iPhone will just be a niche player. It can’t work with corporate collaboration services, so it’s growth is already hampered and limited. This is probably its peak in sales.
Thank you for a good MDN Take.
You explain what you have compared (projected iPhone 2007Q3 to reported smart phone worldwide 2006Q4); why this kind of slightly unorthodox comparison (because these were the best numbers available); and what can and cannot be concluded.
I appreciate a lot knowing what I am reading.
@DLMeyer
I am with you,
Does anyone know this information??
I read that Apple went on sale with 300k in stock, and production of 150k per month
“the original high prices kept the sales down to a point where manufacturing could keep up with them, “
With the iPod Touch using many of the same/type of parts, what is the production per month of the 2 combined??
I heard they are gearing up to 1.5 million per month? does anyone have firm info??
Big problem with the iPhone
It doesn’t have enough memory/storage.
As soon as it has 30GB or more, able to run a office type applications and act like a storage device between computers, that you’ll see a INCREDIBLE INCREASE IN SALES.
However since Apple debuted the iPod Touch, it seems they are planning a exit stragedy OUT OF THE CELL PHONE MARKET.
I think Apple will do much better getting out of this cell phone market and instead using a seperate device connected to the iPod Touch to receive internet via phone lines.
This is the reasons:
1: Cell market is incredibly cut-throat, a few phones given away for free for contracts. Most of all customers to cell phone stores buy the cheapest phones. Most only want a cheap, low cost phone that if they lose it or break it, it’s no big deal to get another.
2: Apple sells PREMIUM devices which fall into the catagory of “Smartphones” which the iPhone is only a small portion of a small portion of the total cell phone market.
3: In order for Apple to REALLY get into the cell market they would have to produce a REALLY CHEAP ASS PHONE, with better bells and whistles than the competition. How can Apple do that and make decent margins is uncertain, as they use the same cheap labor as the competition.
4: Even if Apple came out with a cheap ass phone with more features than the competition, the others would copy and improve on it’s features virtually overnight! (aka Chinese iPhone)
5: The cell phone market is filled with smart competitors, because miniturizing electronics is a difficult task. Apple gained the upper hand in the portable Mp3 player market because the competition was rather lame and a lot of the smart competition saw Satalight radio and monthly fee’s was the future of music. Plus Apple was able to convince the Labels to try a experiment with the iPod and given Mac’s low market share they didn’t realize Steve was going to jump ship to the Windows platform to sell iPods. Nobody expected that move because of Apple’s history. However Apple isn’t going to be able to fool anyone with that trick ever again.
So I think Apple will give this cell phone thing a try, expect a 16GB iPhone come January MacWorld, or afterwards depending on the holiday sales volume with the new price point.
I didn’t think Apple was going to enter the cell phone market, because of the intense competition and monopoly on medicore sales at carrier stores, but they did. Perhaps a few million iPhone sales is good enough for them to make a profit, but I don’t think they are going to last or gain sigificant market share.
I simply love my cheap, slim phone with long battery life. I don’t even know it’s in my pocket, but it’s there if I need it.
The iPod Touch and iPhone’s screen is just too small.
Did anyone notice that Steve Jobs is NearSighted?
That’s right, he can’t see far away, when he uses the iPod Touch he takes his glasses off.
@DLMeyer
Speaking of niche in your tense, means MS is a very small niche player in this market.
One word Symbian.
I think the ipod touch will cut a little into the iphone’s market. If Apple could somehow work out a deal to go on other networks, its market would explode.
As of June 30 2007:
Symbian smartphone OS share for Q2 2007 is 72%, according to Canalys 1
As of Oct 2006
-Windows Mobile market share in smartphone market falls from 18 to 16.9 percent It was 18% last year in Q3, but this year in Q3 it has fallen from 18 % to 16.9 %. The main reason: market share of Symbian increased.
As of 30 June 2007:
18.7 million Symbian smartphones shipped by licensees in Q2 2007, up 52% from Q2 2006 (12.3 million)
The iPhone is certainly giving its competitors a run for their money right from the get-go. By comparison, the RAZR—another legendary phone—debuted at $500 to a similarly captive audience and sold 750,000 units during its first three months on the market.
There is no chance that Steve Ballmer would ever admit he was wrong. He’s not that sort of person. He would always evade the question or just laugh that the figure is still insignificant in the grand scheme of things. My advice is to just ignore him and be happy with the iPhone’s early success.
Right now I think it is too early to be jumping and screaming “slam-dunk”. There is still a LOT of work to be done with worldwide introduction. There’s no guarantee that a 2G EDGE phone will be a success in all of Europe. There is no confirmation on a 3G iPhone yet. Just speculation. I think a six months evaluation of the iPhone in all markets would be in order before we start yelling it’s a huge success. I hope it will be, but I’m not going to get carried away. Maybe a year from now when it dominates the high-end handset market we’ll be able to sit back and say, “I told ya so.” But until that time, listen strictly to Apple’s information and not some stupid blogger’s rumors or analyst’s numbers.
Symbian With a 72% marketshare for last year selling 18.7 million
Gave a worldwide market of 25.97 million smartphones.
Leaving the rest of the OSes (including Windows Mobile) to share 7.272 million, FOR THE YEAR.
Apple selling 1 million in 74 days is impressive and on track for 10 million by end of 2008 will put them in an impressive position as far as marketshare, ahead of the less than 17% MS has
Bad, bad news for the Razr 2.
It always boggles my mind how people, when questioning the validity of the 10m by 2008 estimate, never consider global sales, the 2nd Generation iPhone, an expansion of the lineup and even further price drops of the current model.
…. poor, poor Palm.
@eh and medelegant
Medelegant, I fear that what you heard is true. However, the powerful counter-argument is that the only way to actually increase market share over competitors is to poach customers from said competitors. iPhone has a proven track record of poaching 25% of its customers from others, and we are not yet counting those who are waiting for there contracts/phones to run out before switching. Personally, I won’t move from my current provider (Bell) until there is a good reason. The iPhone is a very good reason.
Further, I sort of hope that Apple stands up for what is right in this. Personally, I don’t use data, ’cause it’s too frickin’ expensive! Not much money to be made off me as long as things stay status quo.
I these points make sense to Ted.
“We can’t wait to get this revolutionary product into the hands of even more customers this holiday season.”
Steve, you wanna put the iPhone into the hands of even more customers?? Make it available in more countries round the world! How ’bout starting with your friendly neighbours to the north?! So close…yet so far….!!
Do you think Apple should or would license the iPhone operating system to other manufactures? Would the likes of Samsung buy it to compete with symbian based phones?
Whether the iPod Touch will cut into sales of the iphone in the U.S. remains to be seen. But obviously this won’t be an issue anywhere else in the world right now, since you can only get the iPhone in the U.S.
I think AAPL has done a real smart thing with the Touch: release a product worldwide that is kinda, sorta like the iPhone…just to satisfy everyone who is patiently waiting for an iPhone in their respective countries. You know, something to tide you over till the iPhone arrives. It’s a given that the Touch will sell like hotcakes.
– 5 million iPhones sold state-side in 2008
– 3 million iPhones sold in EU in 2008
– 2 million iPhones sold in the rest of the world (Japan and other Pacific Rim markets)
This is assuming Apple only has a 1 model $399 price point line-up. As Apple is sure to add another, nano-like iPhone to the market, watch these numbers nearly double.
Forecast in this thread too! But upped in order of likelihood.
1,000% chance of raining chairs in Redmond.
MDN Word: Thinking. As in what was I thinking when the I said the iPhone won’t sell- S. Ballmer
That average sales rate works out to 5 million iPhones per year, not 10 million. Trouble in paradise!
On the other hand, the sales rate will almost certainly pick up with (1) the huge price drop, (2) Christmas, and (3) the caving-in of all the people, like me, who knew only one thing, and knew it full well: that we were going to WAIT a little, and not get the Revision A iPhone, at the highest prices.
Despite my self-discipline, I’ll be getting one sometime after seeing what accouncements Macworld ’08 brings, and I’m probably not alone.
remember, its 10 million iphones based on US sales.
Now, Apple will launch the iphone in Europe in november which means that they are gonna sell shit loads!
10 million in the 1st year?
NO WAY! – more like 20 million!
>MacNut wrote: If you dissagree, you are an idiot
… ahhh the much talked about smarter-than-the-average-person Mac owner.
I have to admit, I jumped in with comments before reading the very full explanation of why 10 million is plausible, even without some sort of pricing-and-holiday-season deus ex machina.
European and world sales.
I do hope, once the American press reports how happy Europeans are with their 3G, unlocked iPhones, that the American carriers will start coming under pressure to treat us less abusively. It’s not only a humiliation and an embarrassment to have such a substandard data infrastructure as we near the end of the decade, but it amounts to a whopping national economic disadvantage.
I only wish the upcoming spectrum auction were going to take place under a Democratic president, and not with the current short-sighted, bought-and-paid-for, telecommunications-lobbyist-friendly FCC. It seems like our last chance to have any real hope of catching up to the rest of the world over the next decade or so.
Having said that, let’s please not take this thread political, if possible.
> 1M in 74 days means they will only sell 5M in 365 days unless sales pick up allot.
That’s right 5 million or more in the U.S. and 5 million or more in the rest of the world. Sounds like Apple is on track to meet or exceed.
And folks… it’s 10 million units IN calendar year 2008. 2007 is just the warm-up lap.
Save The Zune!:
What the f*ck was that load of nonsense? Apart from the fact it was semi-literate, poorly written, so badly spelt as to be embarrassing, it was flat out wrong.
Point 1. Assumption. And wrong at that. Who are ‘most’ that you talk about? Personal experience isn’t the same as real statistics.
Point 2. This has been refuted so many times here and on RoughlyDrafted.
Point 3. You obviously have no clue about marketing Apple-style, nor know anything about brand positioning.
Point 4. What?? The Chinese knock-off is unsellable anywhere outside of China except as contraband.
Point 5. No idea what this clown is talking about here.
The iPod touch and iPhone’s screen is too small? You’re joking, right?
And what the h*ll has Steve Job’s eyesight got to do with anything?
The most embarrassing thing about this post is this person could quite easily be driving a car somewhere, or operating dangerous machinery, or – as is more likely – making your burger in McD’s. Breathtaking lack of command of the language and knowledge of the subject. Shockingly ignorant.
@ Inquisitive
How long before Apple sold 1 million iPods?
It took Apple 2 years to sell it’s first million iPods. I believe this was before they released their iTunes for Windows. Things were Mac only unlike with the iPhone.
laughably conservative
Is that redundant?
Any educated person knows that Jobs and Gore are all about moving LIBERAL amounts of product.
Do not underestimate the Apple sales machine. The iPhone, iPod line-up and Intel machines make a formidable product line. The snowball is getting bigger and bigger.
Consumers are getting smarter about buying products that not only look elegant, but actually perform as advertised. Apple fills that “niche”.
So, in the 25 days that remain in this quarter, it is possible that the iPod Touch will outsell the iPhone 3:1, i.e., sell 1 million units?
I think it is possible, but maybe not quite likely. In any case, a lot will be sold. But will we even be told how many sell? Apple reports the number of “iPods” sold each quarter without further detail or breakdown by model. As with the iPhone, will they report the iPod Touch separately? I thing they might, as it will be a runaway best seller, and good news is nice to report.
“There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance.” – MS CEO Steve Ballmer
Ballmer proves that it’s possible for his own breath to smell like his own ass.
@Bill
He’s right you know. Can the iPhone fully support Exchange? You know, sync email, calendar, notes… all that stuff? It can’t so as much as you hate it, Ballmer is right. I don’t like him that much, but he does make some sense here.
@smoke
“So, in the 25 days that remain in this quarter, it is possible that the iPod Touch will outsell the iPhone 3:1, i.e., sell 1 million units?”
Does not seem possible, since all you can do is pre order right now
Copy with love to MS.