iPhone 3Gs Now Outnumber First Generation iPhones

Despite a weak battery and questions about how fast it connects to 3G networks, some time in the next week more than 6 million iPhone 3Gs will be in people’s hands around the world. What that means is that the second generation device has outsold the original iPhone just seven weeks after going on sale. They actually may already have done so.

It took Apple nearly a year to sell 6 million first generation iPhones. A million 3Gs were sold in the first weekend the device was on sale—it took Apple 74 days to sell a million of the first gen iPhones.

According to our sources, Foxconn continues to build iPhones for Apple at the rate of 800,000 units per week, with production ramping up as fast as possible. (Businesweek is hearing similar numbers from its sources—150,000 a day). Apple is on pace to sell more than 40 million of the devices in the next year. At what point is it no longer considered a niche device in the cell phone world?

The best part is that iPhone App developers who are establishing a position now in the iTunes App store will be be able to ride this growth. Hold on tight.