Medialets has posted the results of a recent Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research report that details the breakdown of the first 1 million iPhone 3Gs sold worldwide.
Earlier this month Apple announced that it had reached the milestone in only three days, compared to 74 days for the original iPhone. Of course, the two figures are hardly comparable, as the the 3G version launched simultaneously worldwide in 21 countries – the original iPhone was exclusive to the US for months after its release.
Unsurprisingly, the report says the United States accounts for 60% of all units sold during the three day period, with a total of 600,000. Trailing by a factor of nearly ten fold is Japan, with 70,000 units sold. Japan’s finish in second place may well be a result of pent up demand, as the original iPhone was never officially sold there (even unlocked phones wouldn’t work, as the original iPhone doesn’t support UMTS).
The results for carrier distribution aren’t particularly surprising, either. AT&T leads by a wide margin because of its US sales. Despite selling the second highest number of phones, Japan’s carrier Softbank ranks behind T-Mobile and Orange, which both have customers in multiple European countries.
Above all, the figures reflect the explosive demand for the iPhone seen worldwide, and are especially impressive given the difficulties Apple had with activation in a number of countries. In the United States, the iPhone is still selling out at many stores in a manner of minutes. What remains to be seen is how long the public’s obsession with the iPhone will hold, and if Apple can reach its goal of selling 10 million iPhones in 2008.
For more details, check out the Medialets post.
Medialets seems to have a head start in this space. Great post.
A great start by making a graph that illustrates data created by Goldman Sachs?
Woah 3 days! That is just amazing. iPhone seems to be spreading really fast. Good job Apple!
One thing I don’t like about the iPhone is that it looks like the iPod Touch. You need an unique look. I guess Apple ran out of creativity.
Ummm…what? You know the iPhone came first, right?
“though there has been a market for imported unlocked phones”
Author, I doubt that there was a market for imported unlocked phones in Japan as the original 2.5G iphone will not work on Japan’s network, maybe you’re thinking of China?
You’re right, thanks for the catch. I updated the post.
I have a feeling the magic will keep on going. I remain absolutely in love with the iPhone more than a year after first using it. It has started serving so many needs – many of which I didn’t know I had. I’ve polled friends and family that have just recently started using iPhones and they’re absolutely blown away. So, given the way bleeding edge usage patterns work – the wave will likely continue for a couple of years. Everyone here, reading TC, may be on the next new wizbang device way before then, but Joe and Jane Average will be new to iPhone (and excited) for years.
Good job Apple!
great results!
rc
trading tennis blog
This just shows the continued influence of the iPhone in areas where the marketing doesn’t reach, and the continued give and take that Apple will have fighting those who want to unlock the phone. It’s arbitrary limits that seem to keep them on their toes, when in reality people just want to use THEIR phone how they want.
Here’s to carrier independence sometime in our lifetime (at least in the US).
I can’t say I’m surprised with the with the relatively low UK numbers. Brits are used to getting the best phones for free with contract, which makes the iPhone look very expensive.
good milestone
i still have my old 98 phone
I really like what Medialets has done with their App Store metrics (http://www.medi...p-store-metrics). I check it everyday to see current rankings.
Isn’t this similar to a problem that Apple’s always had, namely an inability to dent foreign markets? If you look at Mac market share, their domestic market share has been ~8%, but only ~3% worldwide. When you account for the percentage of PCs sold in the US versus the rest of the world, you’re probably left with non-US Mac sales in the sub-2% range.
No matter how few iPhones are sold abroad, the numbers can’t be worse than the Mac sales figures.
And i’m still using the Nokia N-Gage QD haha
If Australia had more stock they would have had more sales – I’m still waiting for mine!
For what it’s worth, we tend to capitalize the “States” in “United States.”
Sold out in a matter of minutes? Have you been through the process to purchase a 3G? It can’t be measured in minutes. :\
That being said, I love mine, even if we can’t shoe horn it into our company standards as a BB alternative – despite everyone’s best efforts.
Not surprised. Here in Tokyo they are giving iPhone 3Gs for free if you agree to $30(min)-$70(max) 3G montly plan with 2-year contract. They are literally dumping it.
Reach in Austria:
I wonder if they already count in the iPhones that they sold (over the carriers) but did not deliver yet. I pre-ordered mine about 1.5 weeks before the sales-start and haven’t received anything yet. I’m being told that they don’t even have a date of delivery yet and that it might take a couple more weeks. So much for reach in Austria.
Nice, ATT sold the most.. figures.. http://tinyurl.com/applenow
How about some demographic info? Male vs female, age, etc. Does anybody know of a source for such info?
Mexico is seven place and neck to neck with canada? that does shows how fast the mexican market has grown.
I’m not sure how this factors into your analysis of the Mexican vs. Canadian cellphone markets, but it’s worth mentioning that there are literally 3 times as many people in Mexico as there are in Canada.
Roughly 1 out of every 2,000 Canadians has an iPhone. In Mexico, there’s 1 iPhone for every 7000 people.
There’s about 3 times as many people in the US as Mexico (and 9 times as many as Canada). The person to iPhone ration in America is 500:1.
Yeah, the population is quite interesting. The ranking with that in mind looks like this:
US 508
Finland 591
Spain 822
Sweden 921
Austria 924
Norway 951
France 962
Germany 1192
Netherlands 1492
Belgium 1512
Japan 1820
Denmark 1825
Canada 2084
UK 2089
New Zealand 2134
Switzerland 2530
Portugal 2646
Ireland 3000
Hong Kong 3482
Australia 5343
Mexico 7112
Italy 7452
I wonder if we really have to trust this report. It doesn’t match with other sources of information I have.
What struck me is that the Italian sales data is strangely low, considering that Italy is a market at least as big as the UK and Germany for mobile phones, if not bigger (about two SIMs per every living Italian).
Here (Italian only) http://www.onem...-delle-vendite/ you can read that TIM, one of the Italian mobile operators selling the iPhone, declared to have sold 16,000 units in the first 24 hours. I don’t know how many units were sold by Vodafone, but these 16k are still more than the 8k units sold in all Italy in three days according to Medialets.
This other site (Italian only) http://www.ipho...ancio-2754.html states that Italy is the third country for sales of the iPhone 3G, after the USA and the UK.
The speed with which iPhone is taking over the smart phone market and bringing new users into it is impressive. The iPhone application platform is definitely going to be something to watch.