Apple Has Sold 1 Billion iPhones

[jayducharme]

It's hard for me to fathom that the iPhone is nearly 10 years old. I remember when I saw a first generation version for the first time. I was standing in line in a roller coaster queue, and a guy in front of me had one. (This was before Apple Stores were in my area.) He happily demoed it for me and I was fascinated. I had a little Palm PDA, and the iPhone put it to shame. It's interesting that while the hardware has evolved considerably, the interface is still pretty much what it was a decade ago.

 

[CrystalQuest76]

I am curious how many unique purchasers that number breaks down to. I am also curious how many individuals have purchased upgrades. And how many iPhones have been put into landfills. Another words, how much waste of limited earth resources have been used.
I am using my third iPhone. Each one was an upgrade that I wanted and did not need. Each one was traded-in, in perfect condition without a single scratch. Each one was perfectly usable that retained the full charge of 8 hour use capability. However, I fell for the marketed desire to have the fastest model and have given more money to apple.

 

[Sonmi451]

He's not holding the billionth iPhone sold, he's just holding an iPhone box.

 

[arazeleternal]

Or if one uses their phone to get work done. But, hey, no need for facts her.

Exactly my point. When I am on the road for my job my iPhone becomes my computer. Email, looking up instructions for repair online, etc.

 

[Rogifan]

I am curious how many unique purchasers that number breaks down to. I am also curious how many individuals have purchased upgrades. And how many iPhones have been put into landfills. Another words, how much waste of limited earth resources have been used.
I am using my third iPhone. Each one was an upgrade that I wanted and did not need. Each one was traded-in, in perfect condition without a single scratch. Each one was perfectly usable that retained the full charge of 8 hour use capability. However, I fell for the marketed desire to have the fastest model and have given more money to apple.

So your phone was refurbished and sold to someone else. How is that a bad thing?

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

(1,000 x 1,000,000) a thousand millions.

You try this on iPhone and it breaks 1e9

#1 - That's correct. It's 1 * 10 ^ 9. Calculators have been using the letter e as a substitute for " * 10 ^ " for decades.
#2 - If you use the calculator app in landscape instead of portrait, it'll display 1,000,000,000 without exponential notation just fine.
#3 - In landscape, the largest number the calculator app will display without exponential notation is: 9,999,999,999,999,978 - not sure why. Any numbers bigger than that that I try entering leads to it displaying 1e16 instead, or it simply refuses to add anymore digits. It seems like a weird number to stop at to me... doesn't seem related to a 32 bit signed int, since those max out before 3 billion. Unsigned max out before 6 billion. 64 bit ints can get quite a bit bigger than these numbers, whether signed or unsigned. Might be a hardcoded limit. Or it might be a float or double limit, which my understanding of is a bit fuzzy.

 

[johnnygee]

Yeah, would've reached this milestone faster if the 6S didn't suck and the SE wasn't a rehash of a 4-year old design


And 16 GB base model... Is it 2009?
View attachment 642112

I got a 6s Plus. Works good, lasts a long time. Of course, I can't put an animated dandelion on the lock screen, but that's not important to me.

 

[EricTheHalfBee]

It would only be interesting to know how many Galaxy phones Samsung has sold to date. All of their other models don't really count if we're comparing to iPhone only.

We don't know because the last successful Samsung was the S4. Up to that point Samsung was more than happy to report various sales figures for their flagships. We know it took 6 months for the S2 to hit 10 million, 55 days for the S3 and only 1 month for the S4. Then silence from Samsung.

However, Samsung did officially announce in Feb 2014 that they passed the 200 millionth Galaxy S phone sold. At that time iPhone had sold 413 million units (excluding earlier models that came out before the Galaxy S).

So the iPhone was already 2X ahead of Samsung back in Feb 2014. Since then Apple has seen record sales while Samsung saw declines, so the gap has obviously gotten much wider now.

 

[johnnygee]

Meanwhile, AAPL went up 6.5% today, so, of course, Forbes tweeted a negative article regarding iPhone sales.

 

[44267547]

And ... just downright amazing.

Just how many times will we hear T. Cook say the word amazing, at the September iPhone rollout?

Could you keep track for us and let us know? I will be busy during the Keynote actually paying attention to the product launches. Thank you.

 

[johnnygee]

Can't stand Cook and his spin. At least when Steve did it, he did it with style and actually made his spin believable!

Well, maybe next time, he can don a seersucker jacket and straw hat and dance like Fred Astaire.

 

[6836838]

Wonder why he did not mention that at the confetance call...

Because financial experts care about growth. This is PR. Very different things.

 

[Cineplex]

nobody cares about this....how many watch bands have you sold?

 

[BollywooD]

nice work Apple!

 

[PizzaBoxStyle]

So Tim bought the 1 billionth iPhone?

Yes, and it also happened to be his first iPhone ever. Lucky number 1's, I guess.

 

[Osty]

congrats.. ) besides those numbers, average apple customer, who already owns / owned few devices whatsoever, like me, i feel a bit disappointed, that apple slowly falls behind almost in every way. (Lack of customer driven improvements, still mostly overpriced technology).. (IMHO)

I've done Android for years and used Blackberry and Nokia before that.

Just got my first iPhone and I've found it's miles better than any device I've used. Can't see myself ever going back to Google and their Korean buddies' crap.

 

[Apple4everr]

**Laugh** that kind of money doesn't even exist yet lol

 

[RedOrchestra]

So your phone was refurbished and sold to someone else. How is that a bad thing?

The commenter was simply asking if the refurbished iPhone sale is a double-counted sale?

 

[ericwn]

I could care less about the iPhone update this year. The 10 year anniversary model will fall right in my upgrade cycle. Strategery.

Just that Apple does not have a current history for anniversary products and nothing hints at this changing.

 

[PizzaBoxStyle]

Congrats.

Now let's get back to work on the desktops and laptops that made this company successful in the first place.

#macintoshmatters

I think this process will hurt less if you jump on the iPad Pro train sooner rather than later. If you still need more power and flexibility, there are plenty of competent Linux and Windows workstations out there.

 

[Apple4everr]

I bought at least 5 of those billion

lol I'm on about 8 I'm pretty sure

 

[PizzaBoxStyle]

I got a 6s Plus. Works good, lasts a long time. Of course, I can't put an animated dandelion on the lock screen, but that's not important to me.

Couldn't you though, if you found an animated dandelion live photo?

 

[Apple4everr]

At the rate they're going, good luck trying to ever get to 2 billion

Well if they sell 50 million per quarter, shouldn't take them too long

 

[PizzaBoxStyle]

What are you saying,Tim ? You want us to worship you? You need to be loved? A hug? A clap?

No, he just wants you to look at him. Don't say a word, don't touch. Just look.

 

[AppleScruff1]

Good grief selling one billion of anything is a huge milestone. Don't be ridiculous.

Were you as proud when Microsoft sold it's 1 billionth copy of Windows?