Apple Quietly Sells Its 500 Millionth iPhone

[brewcitywi]

graph

because we continually see graphs to how apple is losing market share in the phone industry, could we see a bar graph showing sales of individual handsets, just to see how apple ranks compared to the competition.

 

[Dirtfarmer]

no fanfare

There was no fanfare because of the elephant in the living room, which is the TRAJECTORY that they are on.

They do not want people talking about that.

 

[Q-Dog]

When are the going to start that.

Define best, as for me the iPhone is not it.

Apple makes what it wants, THEN persuades you that what you want.
As opposed to most other things, where companies make items and you choose what you want.

So you're saying that Apple somehow brainwashed people to buy 500 MILLION phones that they really didn't want?

Amazing!

 

[Cinch]

Apple makes what it wants, THEN persuades you that what you want.
As opposed to most other things, where companies make items and you choose what you want.

True that..But you see I like it that way.

In the same way I want to buy a painting from an artist inspiration, rather than my naive non-artistic idea of what a painting should be.

In the same way I want to buy car from a company who values design and engineering above marketing and gimmicks that caters to the naive masses.

Do good and passionate work, and people will respond in kind.

 

[gnasher729]

Which analyst will be first to use this information to predict Apple's imminent DEATH ??

When they sell the 666 millionth iPhone, an earthquake will swallow Apple's headquarters in Cupertino. Should happen within 12 months.

Hope you are satisfied

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So you're saying that Apple somehow brainwashed people to buy 500 MILLION phones that they really didn't want?

It is an attitude that is quite typical to a certain kind of nerd, who doesn't actually understand what it is that Apple devices bring to their customers, so the "brainwashing" is to them the only logical explanation.

because we continually see graphs to how apple is losing market share in the phone industry, could we see a bar graph showing sales of individual handsets, just to see how apple ranks compared to the competition.

Apple doesn't lose market share in the phone industry. They _are_ losing market share in the "smart phone" market. The reason is of course that year after year, cheaper and cheaper phones change from being "feature phones" to "smart phones". In the phone industry as a whole, where the cheapest £10 phone counts the same as a diamond encrusted phone for over £10,000, Apple's share has been growing every year.

Apple's market share in the total phone market is rarely reported. When you hear how Samsung's smartphone sales grow, you never hear that their non-smart phone sales are dropping (like almost everyone else's). You also never hear about revenue, where realistically selling a million £600 phones should count the same as selling 10 million £60 phones or 60 million £10 phones.

 

[KdParker]

It's not about winning, it's about making the best products.

Also...it is nice to be winning with the best products.

 

[dejo]

When they sell the 666 millionth iPhone, an earthquake will swallow Apple's headquarters in Cupertino. Should happen within 12 months.

Will that be the current headquarters or the new Campus 2 they are building? Perhaps that is the true reason for the new building: as a decoy for the earthquake!

 

[KdParker]

Apple should give the person who bought it a $500 iTunes gift card.

or $10,000

 

[laurim]

When are the going to start that.

Define best, as for me the iPhone is not it.

Apple makes what it wants, THEN persuades you that what you want.
As opposed to most other things, where companies make items and you choose what you want.

And to think I thought I had the WHOLE phone marketplace to choose from when I bought my iPhone. That Apple gun to my head must have been really small for me not to notice :roll eyes:

Or maybe they brainwashed me by making products I can reliably count on to do what they are designed to do so I can extrapolate that experience to inform my future tech purchases. BASTARDS!

 

[sfrancis928]

It's not about winning, it's about making the best products.

Tell that to Tim Cook while he spends 20 minutes talking about their winning numbers at WWDC this June.

 

[Amplelink]

There was no fanfare because of the elephant in the living room, which is the TRAJECTORY that they are on.

They do not want people talking about that.

And what trajectory might that be, oh all-knowing-one?

 

[bookofzero]

The difference is that Apple is the only one selling apps and iTunes music. It's easy to tell who the legitimate Xth customer is when there is only one data source. There's absolutely no way to tell who bought the legitimate 500M iPhone because you have the Apple stores, the carriers, Apple online, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and dozens of other authorized vendors - all with slightly different ways of reporting sales. How would you possibly decide which one was the 500M?

 

[mdridwan47]

Just in time for the movie

 

[neuropsychguy]

For example I would not be surprised that Nokia and Samsung have sold more than that in total. However, if you compare smartphones in the above $400 category, how close is anyone to apple? I would bet a pretty penny that they are not close at all.

Nokia sold its billionth phone in 2005: http://www.nokia.com/global/about-nokia/about-us/the-nokia-story/

Samsung sold 120 million phones in one quarter last year: http://venturebeat.com/2013/10/29/g...sung-sells-more-than-nokia-apple-lg-combined/

Apple still has the majority of profits though (>60% over the past 6 years): http://bgr.com/2014/03/18/apple-samsung-smartphone-profits-3/

 

[iSee]

When are the going to start that.

Define best, as for me the iPhone is not it.

Apple makes what it wants, THEN persuades you that what you want.
As opposed to most other things, where companies make items and you choose what you want.

"...companies make items and you choose what you want" That's exactly how iPhones get sold too.

Why is it so hard to accept that some people (well, with 500 million sold a lot of people) think iPhones are the best phone?

 

[elthesensai]

Hi Tim!

Oh man he was incognito! You just blew the whistle!

 

[phillipduran]

How can someone sell 500 million phones "quietly"?

Answered in post #3.

 

[elthesensai]

There was no fanfare because of the elephant in the living room, which is the TRAJECTORY that they are on.

They do not want people talking about that.

Are you implying a downward TRAJECTORY? Every quarter since the introduction of the iPhone the TRAJECTORY has been up. The iPhone 5S was their top seller. The previous top seller? The iPhone 5. Want to guess what was their previous top seller. The TRAJECTORY for every device has been up and there is no reason to believe that the iPhone 6 won't continue this trend.

 

[dec.]

"...companies make items and you choose what you want" That's exactly how iPhones get sold too.

Why is it so hard to accept that some people (well, with 500 million sold a lot of people) think iPhones are the best phone?

Nooooo, didn't you know? With Apple everything is different. Customers don't know what they want, they don't pick a phone consciously (as opposed to the competition). And their laptops? Probably Jony Ives was told to use Alumin(i)um because it looks so sparkly and conceals the absolute mediocrity of the content to the dumb masses of Apple Consumers... And so on...

And it's great that people like "Piggie" visit the iSheep once a while on message boards like these to enlighten us all about the real world! Thanks!

On Topic: I'd love to see the numbers broken down for each model.

 

[Daalseth]

These next few quarters may see a slump in iPhone sales as Apple gears up for a possible fall launch of the iPhone 6. Apple's upcoming iPhone 6 is widely rumored to include a larger display, which could encourage a significant number of users to upgrade in 2014 and cause another spike in sales later this year.

And this means I will likely be able to get a used iPhone5 cheap. I've no interest in a larger screen, I have an iPad for that, but a5 or 5c would be a nice upgrade.

 

[cal321]

Nokia's top 5 phones have had sales of over a billion, which makes the number seem less impressive.

 

[macs4nw]

Who would have predicted that a mere eight years ago; certainly not Nokia, BB, or Motorola….. Steve might be smilin' somewhere…..

 

[69650]

Seriously bored with the lack of activity. Are they going to release any new products in the near future or not. End of March and still nothing. So much for Cook's pledge to release products "throughout 2014". The guy is full of BS. Still waiting for my Mac Pro. Not good enough Apple. They should kick out Cook and bring back Wozk. At least it would be fun again instead of that corporate robot with the charisma of wooden poll they have as CEO now.

 

[dec.]

Nokia's top 5 phones have had sales of over a billion, which makes the number seem less impressive.

True. And it's also a reminder how how quick a company's popularity can go pretty much down the drain.

 

[Piggie]

And to think I thought I had the WHOLE phone marketplace to choose from when I bought my iPhone. That Apple gun to my head must have been really small for me not to notice :roll eyes:

Or maybe they brainwashed me by making products I can reliably count on to do what they are designed to do so I can extrapolate that experience to inform my future tech purchases. BASTARDS!

Your list of owned hardware says more about your ability to choose items unaffected by branding than anything you could ever say