Monday, July 14,2008 @ 9:15am
Apple: Over 1 million iPhone 3Gs sold
Over 1 million iPhone 3Gs have already been sold, Apple claims. The figure is based on data from all 21 countries in which the 3G launched on Friday, including countries like the US, Canada, Japan and England. The millionth phone is said to have been sold sometime on Sunday. "iPhone 3G had a stunning opening weekend," reads a PR statement from Apple CEO Steve Jobs. "It took 74 days to sell the first one million original iPhones, so the new iPhone 3G is clearly off to a great start around the world."
The officially tally echoes Friday predictions by RBC analyst Mike Abramsky, who successfully guessed the 1 million total. Falling short of the mark were analysts with Piper Jaffray, who -- based on Friday sales at Apple and AT&T stores in New York and Minneapolis -- predicted weekend sales of about 425,000. Of 283 people surveyed, 66 percent were buying the 16GB model, a decrease from the 91 percent who bought the original high-capacity model (8GB) during the 2007 launch. 38 percent of those getting a 3G said they were upgrading from an earlier iPhone.
Based even on its premature estimates, Piper believes that Apple will sell 4.1 million 3Gs by the end of this quarter.