iPhone UK Sales Reach 1 Million Mark

MacRumors · Feb 26, 2009

As part of an earnings release covering the fourth quarter of 2008, Telefónica Europe announced that their O2 subsidiary in the UK has now sold over one million iPhones since the launch of the original iPhone in November 2007.

O2 pointed to the iPhone as one of the key components driving its performance, which was significantly better than the overall UK wireless market in all main financial and operating metrics. In particular, O2 highlighted the growth of its prepay segment, driven in part by the addition of prepaid iPhone offerings late in the quarter.

Article Link: iPhone UK Sales Reach 1 Million Mark

big_malk · Feb 26, 2009

Anyone know what the figures are for the whole UK mobile market to get some perspective on that?
I had a wee Google for it but couldn't find anything.

First post

yetanotherdave · Feb 26, 2009

To put it in some perspective, there are 60m people in the UK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uk one iPhone sold for every 60 people in the UK. That's pretty incredible market penetration - especially when hampered by O2's lousy coverage compared to the like of Vodafone.

talkingfuture · Feb 26, 2009

yetanotherdave said:
To put it in some perspective, there are 60m people in the UK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uk one iPhone sold for every 60 people in the UK. That's pretty incredible market penetration - especially when hampered by O2's lousy coverage compared to the like of Vodafone.

I was just thinking that as I read the article, 1 in 60 is astonishing. I'm getting more tempted to buy one every day.

elppa · Feb 26, 2009

1.6% of the UK population.

Not too bad.

Reminded me of when other operators bad mouthed O2 and Matthew Key for signing the Apple deal:

One rival even claimed O2 had struck a ''madly money- losing" deal. When I ask Key, a former accountant and finance director of O2 UK, about that comment, he snorts, pauses, and deadpans: ''It's sour grapes. We don't sign bad deals."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk

OllyW · Feb 26, 2009

big_malk said:
Anyone know what the figures are for the whole UK mobile market to get some perspective on that?
I had a wee Google for it but couldn't find anything.

First post

Does this help?

In 2007, the UK had a 116% market saturation, 70 million mobile phones from a population of 61 million.

elppa · Feb 26, 2009

OllyW said:
Does this help?

In 2007, the UK had a 116% market saturation, 70 million mobile phones from a population of 61 million.

Amazingly, that figure is beaten by three countries: Germany, Italy and Russia.

kdarling · Feb 26, 2009

We have to factor in that the sales number counts the original model as well.

In the US, at least, quite a few of the 3G sales were to original owners. In other words, quite a lot of sales were to the same person.

So the percentage by population is less, perhaps much less, than figured above... though still respectable.

sjo · Feb 26, 2009

big_malk said:
Anyone know what the figures are for the whole UK mobile market to get some perspective on that?
I had a wee Google for it but couldn't find anything.

First post

to give you some reference point, nokia n95 was introduced in uk in march 2007, and passed 1m mark on november 2007. so that's about 8-9 months, vs iphone 16 months.

MATTHEWLONG · Feb 26, 2009

If only O2 wasnt such a bad network. What percentage were 3g?. Does 2g really count, I was always waiting for 3g.

elppa · Feb 26, 2009

kdarling said:
We have to factor in that the sales number counts the original model as well.

In the US, at least, quite a few of the 3G sales were to original owners. In other words, quite a lot of sales were to the same person.

So the percentage by population is less, perhaps much less, than figured above... though still respectable.

Particularly as I was calculating it based on a population of 60, not 70 million (which is probably more accurate).

Having said that many 3G upgraders may have passed their phones on and O2 and Apple were actively encouraging this, so the amount sold may be fairly close to the amount in use.

Neerazan · Feb 26, 2009

kdarling said:
We have to factor in that the sales number counts the original model as well.

In the US, at least, quite a few of the 3G sales were to original owners. In other words, quite a lot of sales were to the same person.

So the percentage by population is less, perhaps much less, than figured above... though still respectable.

I have a 1st gen iPhone that a friend gave me when he upgraded to the 3G model last summer. It is unlikely that many people put their old iPhones in a desk drawer when they upgraded, and O2 offer a pay as you go sim-only pack for such a circumstance.

There are as of now over 1 million iPhones that have been sold in the UK, and apart from a few broken ones, I would expect almost every single one to be in service as of now.

UK phone suppliers have been moving away from a 12 month renewal cycle to an 18 or 24 month cycle over the past two years to help offset the subsidies they are having to increase on handsets, so the iPhone in the UK has another 3 months to go before it has been available for what is now 1 whole contract cycle (18 months).

Many of those 70 million phones that are said to be 'in use' are cheap and cheerful pay as you go emergency-only phones for kids or older people, many more are business mobiles provided by companies with little or no choice for the end user.

Put in this context, the depth of penetration of the iPhone in the UK is phenomenal. I have many friends who are Mac sceptics who have now got iPhones, and without exception they all agree that it is the single best tech purchase they have ever made...

...and they are telling their friends. The word of mouth on this product is unlike anything I have ever seen in the tech world, it literally sells itself.

MacToddB · Feb 26, 2009

yetanotherdave said:
To put it in some perspective, there are 60m people in the UK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uk one iPhone sold for every 60 people in the UK. That's pretty incredible market penetration - especially when hampered by O2's lousy coverage compared to the like of Vodafone.

And when you consider 11 million are under 16 and 11 million are "of pensionable age" (including 3 million over 80), not to be too ageist, but that's probably about 1 in 50 (or maybe 1 in 40) cellphone buyers choosing an iPhone.

"The number of people of state pensionable age - over 65 for men and over 60 for women - rose by 1.9% last year to 11.58 million. They account for 19% of the population, overtaking the 11.5 million children under the age of 16."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/22/population.socialtrends

happydude · Feb 26, 2009

kdarling said:
We have to factor in that the sales number counts the original model as well.

In the US, at least, quite a few of the 3G sales were to original owners. In other words, quite a lot of sales were to the same person.

So the percentage by population is less, perhaps much less, than figured above... though still respectable.

planned obsolescence in its purest form. keep people buying the same product over and over . . . and none better at it than apple!

megfilmworks · Feb 26, 2009

happydude said:
planned obsolescence in its purest form. keep people buying the same product over and over . . . and none better at it than apple!

If it was the "same product" then it would not be obsolete!

macinfojunkie · Feb 26, 2009

sjo said:
to give you some reference point, nokia n95 was introduced in uk in march 1997, and passed 1m mark on november 1997. so that's about 8-9 months, vs iphone 16 months.

A hell of a lot of early adopters for that Nokia.

bigandy · Feb 26, 2009

macinfojunkie said:
That's a hell of a lot of early adopters for the Nokia.

I was just thinking that. Who were all these people that got N95s ten years before general release....

Willis · Feb 26, 2009

when you consider that there has been 10 million iPhones sold worldwide, 1 million in the UK alone is a huge number

MacToddB · Feb 26, 2009

Willis said:
when you consider that there has been 10 million iPhones sold worldwide, 1 million in the UK alone is a huge number

Not to take away from the UK sales, but keep in mind that Apple hit 10 million in late 2008, and had a run rate of 7 million in 3 months. And that was before the holiday season.

Actually, according to their statement, they sold 6.1 million 1st gens, and 6.9 million 3G's by the end of September, 2008. So that's 13 million, again before the holiday shopping season.

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/10/21results.html

johnsmclean · Feb 26, 2009

Neerazan said:
I have a 1st gen iPhone that a friend gave me when he upgraded to the 3G model last summer. It is unlikely that many people put their old iPhones in a desk drawer when they upgraded, and O2 offer a pay as you go sim-only pack for such a circumstance.

There are as of now over 1 million iPhones that have been sold in the UK, and apart from a few broken ones, I would expect almost every single one to be in service as of now.

UK phone suppliers have been moving away from a 12 month renewal cycle to an 18 or 24 month cycle over the past two years to help offset the subsidies they are having to increase on handsets, so the iPhone in the UK has another 3 months to go before it has been available for what is now 1 whole contract cycle (18 months).

Many of those 70 million phones that are said to be 'in use' are cheap and cheerful pay as you go emergency-only phones for kids or older people, many more are business mobiles provided by companies with little or no choice for the end user.

Put in this context, the depth of penetration of the iPhone in the UK is phenomenal. I have many friends who are Mac sceptics who have now got iPhones, and without exception they all agree that it is the single best tech purchase they have ever made...

...and they are telling their friends. The word of mouth on this product is unlike anything I have ever seen in the tech world, it literally sells itself.

Many of my students have them, about a third of my colleagues have them. Not that surprising since youngish and tech savvy. But interestingly in my boy's football team two of the dad's have them, a welder and a truck driver. These are guys that don't use Macs and would never buy a Blueberry or similar so it is attractive to a range of people.

The welder and truck driver love their iPhones but don't know why you can't forward text messages !

Malcster · Feb 27, 2009

sjo said:
to give you some reference point, nokia n95 was introduced in uk in march 2007, and passed 1m mark on november 2007. so that's about 8-9 months, vs iphone 16 months.

The N95 was free on most contracts though, the original iPhone was £279 (500ish dollars) That would make most people (apart from apple nutjobs like me) think twice

robbieduncan · Feb 27, 2009

elppa said:
Amazingly, that figure is beaten by three countries: Germany, Italy and Russia.

I know a few people here in the UK with 2 or even 3 active phones/SIMs...

redgaz26 · Feb 27, 2009

I remember that cold November day when I waited in line for four hours!!!
now everyone has one

godaz · Feb 27, 2009

redgaz26 said:
I remember that cold November day when I waited in line for four hours!!!
now everyone has one

haha, i feel the same although Im prepared to wait in line for the new one still

wolfie37 · Feb 27, 2009

yetanotherdave said:
To put it in some perspective, there are 60m people in the UK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uk one iPhone sold for every 60 people in the UK. That's pretty incredible market penetration - especially when hampered by O2's lousy coverage compared to the like of Vodafone.

Where do you get your information from, O2's coverage is excellent, it's the reason why I have stuck with them whilst colleagues on Orange, Vodafone and other networks struggle for consistent service across the country.

iPhone UK Sales Reach 1 Million Mark

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