Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Apple Financial, iPhone
Three million iPhone 3Gs sold in first month
A month ago, Apple was crowing about selling one million iPhone 3G handsets over its opening weekend. In a month, they've tripled that figure.
According to Fortune and analyst Michael Cote of the (eponymous and nascent, from what I can Google) Cote Collaborative, Apple has already hit the three million mark, with many investors expecting only three to four million handsets sold by the end of the quarter.
Cote is a former T-Mobile executive, who Scott Moritz says has been accurate with his predictions in the past.
It took over 10 weeks for the original iPhone to sell just one million handsets. The iPhone 3G accounts for almost a third of all iPhones sold, ever.
Cote says that meeting demand will be Apple's challenge going forward, as it enters 20 new countries on August 22 -- almost doubling its market presence worldwide. "The demand is so strong it may impact or delay the new countries coming on," he said.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Neil said 12:39PM on 8-11-2008
Wow, what an inaccurate and misleading title.
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Robert Palmer said 12:51PM on 8-11-2008
So help me out here, friend: what should the title be?
Chris said 1:00PM on 8-11-2008
It should be, "Neil is a confused and angry little man..."
Adam Wolf said 1:02PM on 8-11-2008
What exactly is misleading about the title of this article?
Tony said 1:14PM on 8-11-2008
It's 11th August, it was released on 11th July, and in that time they've sold 3 million.
"Three million iPhone 3Gs sold in first month" sounds like a pretty succinct way of putting it, I should think.
Neil said 1:23PM on 8-11-2008
The title is inaccurate because the figures aren't official. It's just an estimate by someone who doesn't have access to the data. Granted, he might have access to more data than average Joe, but in reality the only people who can say how many iPhones have been sold are Apple themselves.
Bender Bending Rodriguez said 1:26PM on 8-11-2008
@ Palmer,
I think Neil is being an asshat here, but he may be wanting a question mark at the end or an "Analyst predicts..." at the beginning since it's still just an assumed value by one person. However, the title isn't nearly as hyperbolic as most Apple-related articles and clearly states the relative details in the body so I wouldn't change a thing.
Neil said 1:37PM on 8-11-2008
Well if TUAW was to use every analyst's word as gospel (as has been done here) then there should have been posts with titles like "10% of iPhones sold to unlockers" and "1TB iPod coming".
I'm just not aware of why there is an inconsistency between this title and those which have been used previously for reporting the predictions or outcomes of the work of analysts.
In the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter, but when I click through a post from my RSS reader called "Three million iPhone 3Gs sold in first month" I'm expecting to see some solid data from Apple.
Dale said 2:53PM on 8-11-2008
I would prefer "Portillo's Face Felt Like Guts, Says Girl".
Bassir said 12:53PM on 8-11-2008
Is availability still an issue?
I sold my 4GB for 400 dollars, and I'm going to buy an iPhone 3G later this week.
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Rick said 1:31PM on 8-11-2008
There are companies out there that have a vested interest in the failure of the iPhone. I am convinced that some of them are encouraging employees to come on these blogs and post their FUD. Any hard news of the success of Apple and the iPhone is met with comments like our first poster.
Sorry, the iPhone is doing well.
Also, it does not need to be jailbroken in order to be successful. Some of you need to get over that as well.
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James Donevan said 1:54PM on 8-11-2008
The title is misleading. The sales figures are an analyst's estimate as is clearly indicated in the title of the Fortune source article. Better to have copied the title in whole as opposed to dropping one (arguably most significant) word.
BTE Neil, you mentioned that 'if TUAW was to use every analyst's word as gospel (as has been done here) then there should have been posts with titles like "10% of iPhones sold to unlockers"'. There has been a post on TUAW with, if not that identical title, then one very similar.
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Luigi193 said 2:47PM on 8-11-2008
And once it hits Vermont, it will be 3 million and 4!
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palo said 3:41PM on 8-11-2008
As an Apple fan, I think it would be great if those figures are true.
I agree with the first poster, that the title is inaccurate and misleading.
It reduces the credibility of the author.
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Dan Warne said 6:34PM on 8-11-2008
Huh?
"It took over 10 weeks for the original iPhone to sell just one million handsets. The iPhone 3G accounts for almost a third of all iPhones sold, ever."
So, by those numbers you think that only three million phones have been sold, ever?
Nuts!
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sodapop said 3:41PM on 8-12-2008
beats the poop out of Dark Night ticket sales!
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Nica Gomez said 11:46AM on 8-14-2008
I had fun reading those first few posters... Oh well, for sure Jobs is very jovial right now after the success launch of his new tech toy the iPhone 3G. Actually, I remember watching this video entitled Steve Jobs & Apple's iPhone 3G as he unveil the new iPhone 3G in http://clashorama.com/index.php?id=178
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